I booked a free, 20 minute consultation… Now what?
Once your consultation request is received and confirmed, you will be sent two brief questionnaires to fill-out via your client portal. The answers provided will help me, as the therapist, to guide the conversation for when we meet.
What is my “client portal”?
Your client portal is a HIPAA compliant platform that allows you to view and catalog confidential information related to your mental health. Through the client portal, you can also request, cancel, and reschedule any therapy appointments on your calendar.
What can I expect will happen during the 20 minute consultation?
The consultation is intended to allow you, the prospective client, to meet me, the therapist, and get a sense of my personality, my energy, and to ask questions. Starting therapy is an investment and it’s important to me that individuals feel confident in their decision making, whether they choose to move forward as an established client or not.
Simply put, it’s centered around an informal conversation. No artmaking takes place at this stage of the process.
Do I need to decide if I would like to move forward as a client at the end of the 20 minutes?
No, absolutely not. There’s no expectation that you come to any definitive conclusion within the 20 minutes scheduled for your consultation. However, what I do hope is that you feel free to make a choice that feels in alignment with you and your needs. To facilitate this decision-making process, I try to make it as voluntary as possible by not charging for the consultation.
Do you ever turn people away?
I prefer to think of it as “redirecting” them. Occasionally, I will refer individuals to another therapist, group, or agency that I believe is better suited to assist them and their needs, such as if the nature of the client’s issues presented are outside of my scope of practice.
The important thing to remember is that there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach to therapy. What actually matters is that an individual finds a means of therapy that caters to their concerns as well as a therapist that they feel they can connect with.