The Therapy Process

Intake

The intake is where I gather information about you. The intake may last about 90 minutes. I don't need in-depth information at this session but enough to get a clear picture of you to make an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan.

You will develop loose goals for a treatment plan which will help drive our sessions. I discuss assessments and scoring with you. Lastly, I establish a  diagnosis and the conclusion that brought me to it. We end the intake with rescheduling options.

Also discussed are practice policies along with ways to communicate with me.

Following Sessions

In the immediate following sessions, about 3-5, we work heavily on building rapport and establishing or enhancing your skills. If there is a goal to do trauma processing we'll lay the groundwork and identify readiness. 

I will always do a check-in for every session to process any current life events. Sometimes we end up processing what is happening in life while other times we work on specific goals from the treatment plan such as trauma processing, coping skills enhancement, relationship building, etc. 

Each session after the intake is scheduled for 55-60 minutes. 

Termination

My goal isn't to keep you in my office for life. I go with what feels natural for an eventual decrease number in sessions along with identifying what we've done to accomplish the goals in the treatment plan. I work with you to see if you have noticed an overall improvement or what your thoughts are before we terminate or take a break from therapy. 

Sometimes hard deadlines will require a more standard termination; deadlines can include a move that would be unavailable for me to provide Telehealth. No matter the reason for termination, I'll prepare you for it so it's not a surprise.

It's also natural to take breaks from therapy and come back as needed; you're always welcome back.