A consultation call is about 15-30 minutes long via phone call. If you’re inquiring about couples counseling, I highly suggest both partners being on the call so you can both make an informed decision. On this call we will briefly explore what you’d like to work on in therapy. I will also tell you a bit about how I work and what my process is. This is also a great time to ask any and all questions you may have! At the end of the call you may decide to book a session or you can take some time to think about it and discuss together if I’m the right fit for you! Either is totally okay.

After a client decides to book, all I need is their full name and email. We will decide on an intake date and schedule. I will send the intake forms directly to email through my EHR, Sessions Health. You will set up a client portal, sign forms, and complete an intake questionnaire. If doing couples therapy, each person will receive separate intakes and will complete them separately. Each person’s answers remain confidential. I don’t bring up what someone said in their intake forms in session. It is only for me to learn information prior to session.

First sessions or an “intake” session is all about learning about you, what you’re struggling with, and what goals you’d like to accomplish in therapy. I call intake sessions the “20 questions session” because it’s a lot of information that we cover in a short amount of time. We don’t go super in depth in any one area as it’s more to get an overview of who you are and what you’d like to work on. For couples, the intake sessions will be with BOTH partners. At the end of the intake session we will identify goals that we will work on in therapy together.

I sometimes get asked if I do individual sessions for partners within couples counseling. The answer is yes, but it’s complicated. In couples therapy, the relationship is my client rather than the individual people. But if a partner wants to go more in depth into an area to understand themselves better or explore their feelings, we can do what I call “breakout sessions” where one person does an individual session. We always want to offer an individual session to the other partner as we want the therapeutic relationship to feel balanced in couples work. Something else to note, is that I have a no secrets policy meaning I will not keep individual secrets. If there is something you feel you want to discuss individually, it always comes back to “how can I help support you in communicating this to your partner?”

Generally, a therapy process will look like getting to know you, your patterns, and the issues that you’d like help with. The next part is actually doing the work, learning skills, processing emotions, and learning to connect (for individuals or couples). The last part of the process is transitioning out of therapy. This process looks different for everyone. I tell clients “we’re not chickens in the oven waiting to be done cooking”. Healing is not linear and often times it evolves and changes depending on what you’re going through in life.

My #1 goal for being a therapist is for my clients to fire me (in a good way). Remember that saying of “give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish”. My goal is to not only lead you through healing and processing emotions but to also give you the skills to be able to do this yourself without my help. I don’t believe in life long clients and will tell my clients if I feel they’ve met their goals. Now life changes and things might come up, which is okay! Clients are more than welcome to always come back and start up therapy again if they need to. I see it as helping you to be the authority in your life, to know yourself inside and out, what you need, and advocate for yourself and your feelings in a healthy way. And when that happens successfully, you don’t need me anymore!