FAQs

Yes! I see clients in Huddersfield town centre and in Slaithwaite village, as well as outdoors in Huddersfield and surrounding areas. 

Yes, my office in Huddersfield town centre is wheelchair accessible. For outdoor work, we will meet at Beaumont Park or other preferred locations with accessible paths and seating areas.

I work from the social model of disability framework. If there are tools that best support your sensory and movement needs during sessions, we can use our first meeting to explore what adaptations may help us together – whether on screen or in-person. You may fidget, stim, take breaks, and move freely – accommodations are routine, not exceptions!

You will receive a Zoom link and reminder prior to each session to join our private meeting room at your scheduled appointment time.

Therapy can be vulnerable and new, so it’s natural to be nervous. It can be scary to think of opening up or crying in front of someone new. It may also have been difficult to trust people in the past, and hard to imagine that this will feel any different. You will get to know me on your own terms, building trust along the way. It is completely normal to have doubts.

This is very common and completely okay. Working somatically is one of the options we have together, but I can also work with you from other approaches that don’t require you to “tune into the body”. If you are interested in somatic work, but it feels mysterious, you can also rest in knowing that somatic therapy doesn’t require you to instantly feel “in tune” with your body or sensations. We move at your pace, with full respect for your boundaries and your way of understanding yourself. If you’re neurodivergent, have sensory sensitivities, or have had negative experiences with body-based practices in the past, our work can be tailored to what does feel supportive and accessible for you.

50-minute sessions are  £150, and 80-minute sessions, including initial assessments, are £210. 

Counsellors and psychotherapists usually set fees according to clinical experience. You can be assured that the breadth and depth of my work with you are reflected in my years practising as a therapist and ongoing advanced trainings. I have also learned over many years that it is essential for my best practice to keep a low client caseload, in order to to do all the required thinking and feeling about the work with you outside of session.

Overall, you can think of the first session as a free-flowing conversation through which we start getting to know each other. Some questions that I like to ask during a first session include:

• What’s present for you in your life right now?

• Have you worked with a therapist before? 

• What goals would you like to reach by going to therapy?

• What kind of experiences are important for you to feel cared for?

You can ask me any questions as well. You might be curious about my professional or life experience or how future sessions work. The most important part of a first session is for you to feel if I’m a good fit for you.

After our work together has been established, you may find that you’d like to transition to biweekly or monthly check-ins. At the beginning of the work, however, I always work on a weekly basis so we can assess the fit of therapy together.

You might be wondering about how long therapy will take because you think that therapy will be an overwhelming process, or because you want relief quickly. If this is true for you, I want you to know that on average, my new clients start feeling benefits after just a couple of sessions. By this point, they feel a little calmer and hopeful that healing is possible, and ready to tackle some parts of life that have been difficult on their own. 

The total duration of therapy varies from client to client according to needs. Some of my clients find what they need in weekly sessions over 6-12 weeks, usually when there is a pressing crisis or immediate challenge to be worked through. The majority of my clients stay on for deeper work, to unpack and shift enduring childhood-based coping strategies and as well as the intersection with continued impacts of being marginalised.

You can book through my online scheduler here. If you don’t see a time that works for you, send me an email at michelle@michellegoldsmiththerapy.com.

I ask for 72 hours notice of cancellations to avoid a cancellation charge of the standard full session fee. If you are travelling and we rearrange or skip your regular appointment time, I will hold your usual time slot for up to 3 weeks.

You may be concerned that friends, family, or work colleagues could learn what you have said during therapy. So, I want you to know that unless you are in danger or someone else is, your story is confidential and your time in the session is protected. Your privacy and trust are of utmost importance. You can rest assured that you can talk about anything without fear of that information getting out. If you have specific questions about how confidentiality works, you can ask during your free consultation or anytime during our work together.