Common Questions

What is purpose of Therapy?

Many people have reservations about therapy and stigma around what it means to engage in therapy still exists. This is a natural curiosity that should not be a barrier to accessing support. 
Simple put, The goal of individual therapy is to inspire change and improve the quality of life through self-awareness and self-exploration. Being in therapy can also: help improve communication skills. help you feel empowered.

How do I know if I need therapy?

Do parts of your life feel unmanageable? When thoughts, feelings or behaviors feel like they are controlling you and creating more pain, problems, or struggles than they solve, it might be time for the support of therapy.

What Happens in Therapy? 

Therapy is the process of talking to a trained counselor about your emotional, mental and relationship states to understand and improve the way you feel and behave.

Intake: At therapist will spend time getting to know you though the use of assessment questions. The goal is to understand what is happening in your life right now, how it impacts you, what you want to change, and what is contributing to your situation.

Goals/treatment plan: They will make a plan with you to target what is important to you. They will also help you understand what your rights are and any policies their office has.

Sessions: In future sessions you will discuss events, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from the past week to increase insight, self awareness, and intentionality in your life outside therapy. Therapists can help you understand situations and self differently as well as give you coping skills to make life more manageable.

How long does each therapy session take?

An intake and standard session is 55 min.

Group sessions range 60 to 90 min depending on the group. Though a session can be modified to longer or shorter on an  as needed and case by case basis a 55 min session allows the most work to be done without being overwhelming.  

The structure of a session includes check in, significant events from the week and how they tie into treatment goals. We can discuss coping skills, changes in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We typically end with homework and scheduling of next session. Homework is in the form of self reflection or challenging maladaptive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors may be given. 

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How often will we meet?

A therapist may make a recommendation on how often to meet, this can be weekly, every other week, or even monthly depending on the situation. We use the information gathered in the assessment meeting to determine how much support might be most helpful. 
On average, my clients will attend 16 appointments. However, this is an average and some clients will attend more than 16, while other need less than 16. The duration of treatment is largely based on the severity of symptoms, progress towards goals, and your comfort level of weening off of counseling.

Do you offer sliding scale rates?

Because I believe no one should go into debt to access health care, I do offer a limited number of reduced fee for service slots. This is done on a case by case basis and a verbal and written agreement between therapist and client will be reached before any service is provided.

Is what we talk about private? 

There are personal, legal, and ethical reasons for your information, and treatment is confidential. We understand the best support comes from judgement free, accepting, and emotionally safe spaces. This is why we work so diligently to keep what is discussed protected and confidential. However, there are some legal exceptions that may prevent therapists from keeping confidentiality. They may disclose private information without consent in order to protect the patient or the public from serious harm  They include:
1. If a minor, elderly person, or person with a known disability are being abused or taken advantage of. 
2. If there is strong belief you will harm yourself or someone else.   
3. A judge signed court order for information or records is requested. Or if you bring legal action against your therapist and info is needed to defend in court. 
4. You have waived your rights to privilege or give consent in writing to limited disclosure to a person or agency of your choosing.

What are the risks of Therapy? 

Through we work hard to ensure therapy goes smooth and provides relief and growth there are some risks to be aware of. The process of therapy may cause you to experience uncomfortable or painful feelings, such as sadness, guilt, anxiety, anger, or frustration. Counseling may bring up painful memories and symptoms. It might also disrupt relationships as you go through the change process. Please always share this with your therapist in sessions so we can make adjustments, or recommend treatments and supports.

What can I do to get the most out of therapy?

Therapy is primarily an avenue for self exploration, increased insight and understanding of self. This will naturally impact most aspects of our emotional and relational life. Based on the personalized nature of this endeavor there are some things you can do to get the most out of therapy. 

1. Communicate with your therapist about your needs, worries, and experiences with services. We can't make adjustments or offer other resources if we don't know there is a problem. And though we can't be a perfect fit for everyone, we want to help you find the place or person that is. 

2. Be open to trying the things suggested by your therapist. We believe in freedom of choice very highly, and also know trying new things is part of the self discovery process.  

3. Stay focused on you. Though it is easy and normal to vent about circumstances or others in your life, this alone will not create change. Progress on yourself will be hard to make if you don’t use your therapy sessions to talk about you. If you want to get the most out of your sessions, you’ll need to keep the conversation and spotlight on yourself. This is the only place you have any power or control. 

4.  Look for themes and patterns. Therapy is most effective when we can connect the dots between events and understand how our personalities and responses affect our well-being. These patterns will help uncover a deeper understanding of how you operate in different circumstances and it will continue to serve you once you stop attending sessions and navigate the world on your own. You won’t be responsible for doing this on your own. Your therapist will help you recognize themes and patterns that underlie the events you discuss in the session. At the same time, you don’t need to wait for your therapist to do this. Try to look for themes on your own. 

5. Be willing to say what you don't want to say. We often judge ourselves before we every try to understand ourselves. This means we filter what we say and think limiting our ability of understand ourselves. that includes all the bad, weird thoughts you’d normally never share. Therapy is one place where strange thoughts are acceptable. In fact, the odder the better. Have a sudden impulse? Say it. Flash to a certain memory? Bring it up. If you find your sessions turning into recaps of your week, or you aren’t sure what to talk about in therapy, consider the deeper issue at play, or return to the original reason you sought out therapy in the first place. Ask what it is you're not talking about and talk about it. Discuss what you're discovering about yourself. Take the time to explore who you are, what you are feeling, and why you do what you do. 

6. Continue to work outside of therapy. Therapeutic work doesn’t just happen for an hour a week at your therapist’s office. As the client, you’ll need to continue doing the work outside of the session and in your normal life. Once you’ve made progress, it’s time to apply what you’ve learned in counseling to your world. This can take the form of specific assignments you want to take on, such as taking the steps to pursue a new career or reaching out to repair a broken relationship. Or it can take the form of more general intentions about how you want to behave going forward, such as an intention to not avoid a difficult situation that makes you anxious. Also, meditation, exercise, support groups, community, and creative work can help you to actualize the change you’ve discussed in your sessions. 

Why is therapy so expensive?

The cost of therapy is often a difficult topic with both therapists and clients frustrated at the cost. Though we work hard to make access to care affordable here are some of the factors that contribute to the cost of a session.

1. Therapists in private practice do not get the same benefits as a typical employee. This means we are providing our own health insurance, taking non paid time off, and our own retirement benefits with no outside matching. 

2. We spend 6-10 years in college as legally required to obtain the skill and knowledge required for this work. We are required to maintain a state license and to get 40 hours of continued education every 2 years. Our fee supports our expertise.

3. Like all businesses we have a certain amount of overhead for office space, lights, record keeping systems, billing staff, and liability insurance . We put a percentage of our earnings back into the business to continue helping others. 

All of this means a therapists is only taking home around 40-50% of their fee home as income. This percentage may vary widely depending on many factors. Like you we wish to make services as accessible as possible and hopefully this helps explain the difficulties we face in that endeavor.    

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