Question: How do I know if I need counseling?

Answer: When it feels like your thoughts or emotions are controlling you instead of you being able to understand and maneuver with those thoughts and emotions yourself. If you feel stuck with those thoughts and emotions, have tried to deal with them yourself, but they don’t go away.

Questions: What does a session look like?

Answer: Every counselor is a bit different in how they treat a session. I will describe our first session and then follow up sessions. Our first session has 5-10 minutes of conversation where we quickly go over my background/approach, confidentiality, and logistics. This will help you get an idea of how good of a fit we are. The remainder of the session is were we dig in and get an idea of what we are going to work through together. Based on the goals we form in our first session, we will touch base on these in our following appointment. In some instances I revisit content from the previous appointment, while other appointments you might say “today I want to focus on _____.”

Question: How frequently will I meet with you?

Answer: I start clients with weekly appointments. This will help us gain traction and stay on the same page. Once we get your “feet” under you, then we have the option to taper to every other week or once a month.

Question: How long does counseling take?

Answer: On average, my clients will attend 16 appointments. However, this is an average of my clients across the board. That means that some of my clients will attend more than 16, while other clients need less than 16. The duration of treatment is largely based on the severity of your symptoms, progress towards goals, and your comfort level of weening off of counseling.

Questions: Do you work nights or weekends?

Answer: Unfortunately, I do not. I generally see clients starting at 10:00AM and end my last appointment of the day at 5:00PM.

Question: Should I really invest in counseling?

Answer: Counseling is a commitment of your emotions, time, and finances. While counseling can be expensive, I often think of the emotional invest that you gain. Compare the short term cost of counseling with the long term emotional cost of not seeing a counselor. It might be that you’re doing okay and don’t need counseling. And if there aren’t that many obstacles in your life, then counseling tends to be shorter and/or more infrequent.