The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

I understand that starting therapy can be an intimidating and confusing experience for some. To help alleviate any concerns, I've outlined the steps in the process below, to provide clarity and make your journey as comfortable and straightforward as possible. 

This call will be our first contact and typically takes about 15 minutes. 

1) I will ask you to briefly share your reason for reaching out and what you hope to get out of our therapy sessions.

2) I will tell you a bit about myself, experience, and style of therapy.

3) You will have a chance to ask questions.

4) Together, we will decide if we are a good fit and then discuss out next steps.

If we decide to work together, the next step will be for you to complete the intake documentation. This is done through a secure HIPPA-compliant portal and includes documents such as consent for services, notice of privacy, history, finances, and possibly a few others.

Our first session will be an intake. It is essential that I get to know you and the life you've lived, the things you experienced, your strengths and resources, and areas that trouble you. Please keep in mind that if I ask a question that you do not feel comfortable answering you can (and should!) say so. While I strive to get to know my clients well, I also honor a person's comfort level and readiness to share. 

During your intake, we will also collaboratively determine therapy goals and how I can help you reach them. 

We will cover a few other details such as scheduling, policies, payment, and how to use the portal.

All appointments after the intake are therapy sessions. Therapy is a partnership and we will collaborate to determine what works best for you regarding how the session is organized. For example, some people find it helpful to set an agenda at the beginning of each session and others prefer to be spontaneous. For some, it is helpful if I ask questions about how they're doing or how their week has been, and others start session already knowing what they need to talk about. We will focus on processing events, thoughts, and feelings as well as evidence based coping skills.

During our time together, I hope to teach you helpful coping skills, which many clients find useful to practice between sessions. This is not mandatory and is something we collaboratively determine to aid you in reaching your therapy goals.