You should expect me to respond to your inquiry within 48 hours. If you contacted me over a holiday weekend, I will aim to respond to you within 48 hours of returning to the office. I will thank you for reaching out and offer to schedule a consultation over the phone within a week before scheduling sessions.

I schedule phone consultations with potential clients to have a better understanding of what is bringing them to therapy and to determine if outpatient therapy is the appropriate level of care.

My phone consultations are 15 minutes long and include some questions, discussing rates, and scheduling. When I schedule phone consultations, I expect my potential client to call me, like I would expect a client to arrive to our sessions.

I will invite potential clients to tell me more about what is bringing them to therapy as well as any previous therapy experiences. I will also share information like my rates and office location, and collaborate with potential clients on how frequently they want to meet and schedule.

After a phone consultation, I schedule potential clients in advance for six sessions. I find this amount of time allows both myself and my client to asses how good of a “fit” we are and establish foundational relationship before diving into any work.

I typically use a questionnaire outline I call my “psychosocial” to better know my client, but I will follow my client’s focus instead if something important is coming up for them. I also spend the last two of these six sessions orienting to therapy and collaborating on therapy goals.

Orienting to therapy is a series of reflective questions I ask clients to learn about potential expectations and obstacles in counseling. For example, what do you consider the role of a client in therapy? Should therapists tell clients what they ought to do or should therapists guide clients to make their own judgments? The goal of orienting to therapy is for the client and therapist to be more on the same page as they engage in their work together.