"First, there's the housekeeping. I'll provide information about your rights as a client (including confidentiality), risks and benefits of therapy, office policies (including between-sessions communication), and I'll request your written consent to treatment as well as your insurance and copay information. We'll discuss your diagnosis of record (if any) and what it means to you, and I'll ask you some questions about your history. (Just remember that if at any time you feel uncomfortable answering a question, you have a right to say so and we can skip to the next one. You're in charge.) The first few times we meet, we will focus on clarifying your situation and the challenges you're experiencing. I'll be listening closely as we discuss ideas, options, and resources, and we'll work together to develop a plan that will outline your goals and preferences. From there, sessions will be individually tailored to match your unique strengths, inclinations, and clinical needs. (If you're not sure what your goals are at this point, don't worry! That's actually quite common. Sometimes the first goal is simply to figure out what direction you want to take.)Typically, therapy appointments occur weekly or every two weeks. When working with children and adolescents, the parent or primary caregiver will be involved. Relationship therapy will have all parties present in the office, or through TeleHealth, unless a prior arrangement has been agreed.You might be surprised to find that most of the actual progress in therapy happens throughout the week as you reflect upon and practice what we discussed or you learned in session.From time to time, we'll take a look back and assess the extent to which therapy is helping to get you where you want to go. Maybe we'll have cause to celebrate -- or it might provide an opportunity to determine how we can approach things differently to get on a better track. If at any time during therapy you find something to be unhelpful -- or there's something else you'd like to talk about or a different method to try -- let me know so we can discuss how I can better support you. You are in the driver's seat!"
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