What to Expect When Starting Therapy

YOUR THERAPY JOURNEY FROM START TO FINISH

Beginning Therapy

01

During Our Sessions

02

Moving On

03

Before You Begin

During the process of finding a therapist, you might find yourself feeling a little stressed or anxious about what’s to come. All the available information seems contradictory, or maybe no one’s talking about what this part of the process should look like.

I always like to be as transparent as possible, and have detailed important parts of this process below.

  • Choosing a Therapist

    Choosing a therapist isn’t as straightforward as picking a name off Google and going for it. Your comfort, values, and needs are vital parts of the selection process. It’s a great idea to make yourself a list during your search. Write down three things you need in a therapist and three things you absolutely cannot tolerate. Use that list as your first line of selection, and from there, ask questions about your specific needs to help align your goals with your therapist’s skill set as well as possible. Remember: it’s always okay to ask for a consultation. You can use those first free 15 minutes with me to get a sense of how we might work together. Therapy is a vulnerable and intensive process! You should be comfortable and confident with whoever is on the other side of the screen.

  • Client Intake Process

    Your intake process begins when you decide you’d like to take on this journey into self discovery. Whether you choose to book a consultation directly or you’d like to talk a little bit along the way, we will work together to find a time that suits to meet and begin this journey. 

    Paperwork and registration will be collected shortly after we schedule your first appointment. These will be completed online in a secure portal, making the process simple and streamlined. Having this information before your first appointment will help both of us prepare for our journey together.

  • Your first appointment

    After reviewing your paperwork together at the first session, and getting to know a bit of your story, we can talk about the challenges at the forefront of your mind. From there, the pacing of therapeutic work will be determined by both of us to allow time for the learning of coping skills and processing your unique issues.

    You can expect to spend 45-50 minutes on our video session, and we will review what you’re going through, how you’re feeling, and your priorities for therapy. Our work together will be responsive to each identified concern and the problems that originally brought you in.

    While my treatment philosophy doesn’t involve enabling avoidance, I do understand that deep therapeutic work requires a foundation of trust.

Your mental health and life experiences are unique. What you need and how you heal are too, so your therapy sessions will be curated with respect to all of these facets. Still, some themes are integral to my practice as a therapist. You can expect to see all of these show up during your sessions, and I invite you to help me fine-tune the balance to meet your needs.

During our sessions

How Healing Happens in Therapy with Me

These tools can help you to navigate your inner world with more compassion. Relationships around you may also change and grow as the way you regard yourself does.

  • Setting or shifting goals 

    It is a big part of effective therapy to determine what you’d like to accomplish and how to best navigate steady progress toward it. I’m not here to waste your time, so you should feel like you’re moving in the direction of healing while we work together. Therapy is often uncomfortable and sometimes may stagnate, but we will stay aware of your goals and have regular conversations about setting or adjusting them as needed.

  • Identifying patterns

    Patterns of behavior, thought, or experience can give our life meaning. Much like music, the patterns you live in can impact the way you prepare for what comes next. In a song, you can predict that after the verse, the chorus will arrive. Your emotional health will likely respond similarly when it begins to recognize a pattern of experience: the verse of life will tell you what the chorus of emotional expectation should be.

    While patterns can be a neutral or positive experience, recognizing them is important so that you can be the architect of your life’s choices instead of remaining stuck in a pattern of response that doesn’t serve you

  • Mentalization and parts work

    During your sessions, we will use mentalization to help you react and respond to the things that are out of your control so that the facts of a situation are not informed by the way you feel about it. Mentalization and parts work are key tools in doing this kind of unlearning. The most accessible analogy I have for mentalization is to think of yourself in the third person and others in the first person. Parts work therapy will invite you to view yourself as a puzzle- no piece is inherently good or bad, and negatively regarded attributes will be separated into their own puzzle piece to explore and understand their role in your bigger picture.

Learn More about Individual Therapy

Therapy isn’t forever, but endings can feel scary. In planning your goals and tracking the changes you’re experiencing, we will decide together how long your sessions will be an active part of your life.

When you feel ready to move forward to mend your experiences on your own, we will make a plan to ensure you feel supported and celebrate this ending as it draws near. In the future, if you find yourself craving new growth with familiar support, know you can always get in touch.

When you’re ready to move on 

Ending The Therapeutic Relationship