How Does Therapy Work

Therapy involves a trusting and caring relationship between you and us your therapists. We have to get to know you to offer you the best possible therapy. Therapy starts with an intake assessment (a form with many questions about you) that helps us know you better, helps us understand your life progression, problems you are having and how we can best work together. This is a time to set guidelines for an estimated length for therapy, set goals for what you want from therapy, establish guidelines for us by having you understand what we offer and what strategies we offer that you agree with. We discuss confidentiality in therapy and exceptions to confidentiality. The three exceptions to confidentiality are; if a judge issues a subpeona, you tell me you are going to harm yourself or someone else and if you tell me a child is being hurt. You will be asked to sign a form for consent to therapy. Costs for therapy will be determined during the first session and third party billing plans will be explored for possible payment.

We usually work on some coping strategies during the first session and might do some informal assessments if necessary. The purpose of the coping strategies are to help you cope between sessions. Informal assessments are often used before therapy starts and at the end to determine how much change has occurred. The following sessions will depend on the goals set and the types of therapy you are willing to work with. Often a mixture of strategies from various types of therapies are used together which is referred to as eclectic therapy.