First Visit

All sessions, including your first session, will last approximately 50 minutes, with time at the end for scheduling the next appointment and settling any payments. At your first visit to the office you will be asked to fill out some initial client paperwork and together we will complete an intake form which covers the history of the problem bringing you to therapy, your symptoms, and some family and background information. I will also need to know the medications you are taking and the name and contact information of the prescribing doctor and any medical issues you may be facing. If you are using your insurance company to pay for your sessions, you will be given a mental health diagnosis. Keep in mind, this will be a working diagnosis as it is very difficult for the entirety of a person’s clinical history to be accumulated in one 50 minute session.

Throughout this initial session, we will not only be discussing the background but looking for some practical symptom relief right away. For most people, just getting therapy underway will provide initial relief. Many people spend a lot of time working up to that initial appointment and once they finally get there, they feel more hopeful and ready to get on with working toward a solution.

At the end of the session we will create a general treatment plan together, outlining the focus of our work and setting the preliminary goals. This is an important part of the process in that it helps keep therapy progressing in a predictable and accountable way. You may ask questions of your therapist at any time and I encourage you to leave this first session with a clear understanding of what we will be working on together in the future.

Questions? Please contact us.