Olivia Jackson

About

What I would want every new client to understand is that you do not have to arrive with the right words. A great many people spend months delaying because they cannot yet describe what they are experiencing in language that sounds convincing to them. You can be vague here. Questions about gender identity often begin as a feeling rather than a formulation, and insisting on precision too early tends to shut the whole enquiry down. We work in ordinary language, we take our time, and nothing said in one session becomes a commitment in the next. You are permitted to change your mind as often as you need to. I started out within community mental health, where I met people from every background imaginable working out difficult things without a vocabulary for them. That gave me patience with imprecision. If you have been waiting until you can explain it properly, you can stop waiting.