22/10/2025
What should therapy feel like❓
Therapy should feel safe.
You should trust your therapist and feel safe and comfortable working with them, so you can open up and explore everything you need to talk about in therapy and be assured of confidentiality. You should feel able to give your therapist honest feedback on how you’re experiencing the therapy.
Your therapist should be:
🟪 Impartial and able to express warmth, empathy and acceptance to help you talk openly about your experience, feelings and emotions.
🟪 Non-judgemental. They shouldn’t judge you, your attitudes or behaviours. They shouldn’t impose their own values on you even if they differ from yours.
🟪 Authentic, fair, open and grounded. A good listener, who lets you reach your own conclusions at your own pace.
🟪 Able to provide a good standard of care for you – which includes being aware of their own training, experience and limitations, and referring you on if they feel unable to help you explaining the reasoning for their decision.
🟪 A member Professional Standards Authority-accredited professional body, such as BACP. This means you know they are fully qualified and work according to high ethical and professional standards. Their professional body will also have a complaints and conduct process on the rare occasion there’s a problem with your therapy, so you will know how to make a complaint.
