Consider the following questions before your phone consultation or intake session:

  • What brings you to therapy?
  • What symptoms, issues, or goals would you like to work on?
  • Have you been to therapy before? If so, what did you find helpful or not helpful?
  • Are you interested in any specific techniques or therapeutic approaches?
  • What questions do you have for your therapist?
  • Lastly, what what fee structure are you comfortable with?

What to expect on your first visit?

Your first therapy session has two main goals:

1. Assess your circumstances

We will take the first meetings to explore your background in order to help understand how you got to where you are today. This includes family and relationship history, work and education history, as well as anything you else that may be relevant to your desired focus in therapy. From there, we will be able to better determine what goals you have and what it might look like to work toward them in sessions. While each client/therapist relationship will be unique, certain values and themes are true for all sessions, and you can expect the following:

  • To be treated with compassion, empathy, respect, and understanding.
  • To be presented with someone who is available to listen to you and listen to your interpretation of what you are currently experiencing.
  • To receive knowledgeable and scientifically backed techniques and information to assist you in overcoming your mental health related struggles.
  • To arrive in a safe, supportive, and confidential space.
  • To receive real strategies and techniques you can use to enact positive changes on your life.
2. Plan your therapy

Once we have explored your background and history, we can talk about how you would like therapy to look like. This may include discussing previous experiences in therapy or other forms of mental health treatment as well as preferences about treatment approaches.  Through our collaboration in better understanding what style of therapy might work best for you, we will be able to structure sessions to meet your goals. While each treatment course will be unique, certain rights and values are true for all sessions, and you can expect the following:

  • To be able to provide feedback about how sessions are going.
  • To be heard when sharing feelings about the therapy relationship.
  • To receive answers to any questions about mental health.
  • To understand what goals have been established and how we can work toward them together.