You have spent long enough feeling sad, stressed, or overwhelmed. We are ready to help you bring hope, joy, and purpose back into your life.
Our Approach to Psychotherapy
From the very first interaction we have together over the phone until our last session, we will work to convey that you are in a safe place and are free to talk about your concerns. We work to maintain a nonjudgmental stance where we find opportunities to express our positive regard for you. One of our assumptions in working with others is that there are very good reasons why people feel, think, and do what they do. Initially, we might not be fully aware of those reasons, but we can work together to gain understanding and compassion.
Psychotherapy is an investment in time, emotional and physical energy, and money. As such, once we agree to a treatment plan, we will often ask you to think about and work on the things we talk about between our appointments. To make a change in long-standing ways of thinking, feeling, and relating to others, a person usually needs to work on what has been discussed in therapy between sessions.
If you believe this approach may be practical and helpful in you or your loved one’s journey, please feel free to contact us to schedule a free, 15-minute phone consultation.
What to Expect in the First Session
It is common and normal to not know what to expect when making the important decision to begin psychotherapy. TV shows, movies, songs, and memes depict psychotherapy in different ways, usually in ways that actually discourage people from participating in it. We hope to “demystify” what happens in the first session so that you can have a realistic expectation of what you will experience if you decide to begin treatment with us.
In the first session, our main tasks are to make you feel comfortable, safe, and understood, and to get to know more about you and what brings you into therapy. We will want to know about what bothers you (i.e., only if you are comfortable in sharing at that time), how it disrupts your daily life, and what makes things better. We will explore how your upbringing, important relationships, ethnicity, culture, gender and sexual identity, and values shaped your experiences and challenges. We will also want to know what you hope to get from therapy and how you imagine you will be different when therapy is complete.
Once we have a better understanding of your presenting concerns, history and context, and goals for treatment, we will then explain our understanding of your difficulties and propose a plan to help you reach your goals. This is where treatment can vary greatly from person to person (please see our blog posts for descriptions of some of the treatments we are trained in). Whatever treatment we agree upon, we will explain how the therapy works and directly answer any questions you have about the treatment. There is no need for mystery in psychotherapy.
Schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation
Want more information? Fill out the form and we will contact you within two business days. If you prefer an email response, please check your “junk mail” folder as we have been told that our email replies are sometimes sent there. If you prefer to schedule a session directly, please click on Client Portal and select a time that works for you.
If this is an emergency, please call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or you can view their crisis resources on their website listed below.
www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org