Questions people ask

Anyone who wants to change something. That's the whole test. There's a large body of research on what psychotherapy does — quality of life, the weight of a difficult period, a specific symptom that won't shift.

Nothing has to be bad enough first. “It's not serious enough to see someone” is the sentence I hear more than any other, and it's almost never accurate.

I talk. I ask questions, and I react to what you tell me. Some approaches keep the psychologist deliberately in the background — that isn't how I work.

What I do runs on exchange. You won't be sitting opposite somebody silent, left to fill the gaps yourself.

Yes, completely. Psychologists in France are bound by professional secrecy, written into both the code of ethics and the penal code. It's among the profession's strongest obligations, and it's the condition that makes any of this work.

The law sets out two exceptions: immediate danger to someone, and abuse of a child or a vulnerable adult. They come up rarely, and never behind your back — we'd talk about it first.

An hour, usually. Online there's also a 45-minute option. Home visits always run the full hour.

We decide that together in the first session, from what you're looking for and what you can sustain — money included. I'm aiming for a rhythm that's neither an obstacle nor a sacrifice.

It isn't fixed. It can tighten when things are hard and stretch out when they're better. We come back to it as we go.

It depends what brings you. When the question is a precise one, a few sessions sometimes do it. More often the work runs into months. A broader piece of work on yourself can take several years.

None of it is settled in advance. We take stock regularly, and you're the one who decides whether to go on.

No. A psychologist has neither the authorisation nor the training for it. Prescribing belongs to doctors — your GP, or a psychiatrist.

The two professions fit together, and it's often a good thing when they run side by side. Therapy alongside a prescribed treatment is entirely ordinary.

Yes. I write attestations routinely for insurers, so that you can claim, and occasionally for a court that asks for one.

Either way, an attestation says that I see you, and if needed since when. It never reports what was said. That's an ethical rule, and the person it protects first is you.

Things come up. Tell me as early as you can — it lets me offer the hour to somebody else, and there's usually somebody waiting.

More than 24 hours ahead, there's nothing to pay. Inside that, the session is charged.

The hour is yours. We start when you arrive and the session is simply shorter.

French social security won't: it covers psychology only through the Mon soutien psy scheme, which I'm not registered under.

Private and international policies frequently do, and expatriate cover often handles this kind of care better than French top-up insurance. Worth reading your policy. I provide an invoice or an attestation whenever you need one.

Most people don't, and it isn't a problem. You're not expected to have worked anything out before you get in touch — working it out is the job, not the entry requirement.