What to Expect
On Your First Visit
We look forward to greeting your visit! When you arrive, just have a seat in the waiting area, and we will be out to meet you promptly at our scheduled appointment time. There will be complimentary refreshments in the waiting area so, please, make yourself at home.
Usually, the first visit is just an initial consultation. We want to be able to meet comfortably and to have a chance to get to know each other before we really begin. This is a perfect chance for you to get to know our counseling approach and to ask any questions you might have about us as therapists, how counseling and psychotherapy work, or any other questions that you might have. Of course, we’ll ask for a little bit of your story so we know what you need help with. With a few questions and a little history, we’ll be off to a great start and we’ll be able to give you some initial ideas about how we will be able to work together. Hopefully, you’ll take this as an opportunity to decide if we are going to be a good fit for you. It’s vital that you find a therapist that you are comfortable with, so please don’t feel any pressure one way or another. Your care is what’s most important to the both of us.
At this point, if you decide that moving forward with therapy is a good choice for you, we will get the first actual appointment scheduled. At our first counseling appointment, we will get the paperwork filled out and get a more detailed history from you concerning the struggles we’ll be tackling together.
The Therapeutic Process
We think that therapy is a team effort and it will take both of us working together to accomplish your goals. After all, we are the experts on human behavior and psychotherapy but you are the world’s only expert on you. We will depend on each other’s knowledge and expertise. We’ll ask you to bring your history and knowledge of yourself to our counseling discussions and know that, at times, it will be a hard task for you. Sometimes you will have to be very brave to talk about your experiences honestly but we know that if we work together we can help you grow in the right direction for your life. We promise to work just as hard and be just as honest with you as you are with us.
We will be asking you questions about what’s going on in your present situation and what has happened in the past as we move forward. The purpose of the questions is to prompt honest, introspective answers which will allow us to look into your current motivations and needs. Sometimes, there will be homework so you can continue to grow when we are not in a therapy session. If you find that you like the homework as a complementary addition to your therapy, just let us know! We take your preferences into account when prioritizing our approach.
Our goal will always be to encourage growth and change which will let you feel more comfortable and productive in your own life. You should be able to lay down any burdens that are holding you back from this and making life harder on you. Hopefully, this sounds like a goal you’re willing to work for and are excited about reaching. It will be hard to reach, you should know. Change doesn’t come easily to most people and it can be very uncomfortable. Real, healthy change takes a lot of work, but it’s worth every ounce of work you put into it!
When You Are Ready to Wrap Up
Once you feel like you have reached your goal and you’ve achieved the changes you were striving for, we like to make sure that you have a chance to wrap up the work we’ve done and that you have everything you need from therapy, including a sense of closure and a plan to move forward. We will refer to the last session as the “termination session.” While parting is always bittersweet, this is a beautiful time of reflection where we can look at how all of your hard work will help you accomplish goals in the future.
The termination session is of no charge to you and will only be scheduled when you are ready and feel like you’ve accomplished your current goals. We will be able to celebrate your success, review your journey and turn our attention towards your future endeavors. When you leave your termination session, you’ll walk away with a summary of your goals, achievements, approaches and tools which worked for you, and your future goal statements. It’s our sincere hope that you will use this information to help you on your continued work to change and grow for the better. The termination session is one of the best parts of our job as it is a chance to congratulate you on your hard-earned success!
