What is mental health therapy like?

As you prepare to meet me, it is absolutely normal to experience feelings of discomfort or apprehension. You may even consider cancelling last minute. 

Please give yourself credit for making a choice to serve you and to preserve your mental health by seeking out the support of a therapist! 

 We will spend 1 hour together in our first session, as we cover "basic housekeeping" (ie: fees for service, cancellation and payment policies) and answer any questions you may have. 

I will invite you to share with me what brings you seek out mental health therapy as I guide our conversation to better understand your history, your present, and how you want your future to look. 

Before I ask you anything that might make you uncomfortable, you will be informed of the risks and benefits of engaging in mental health therapy, your rights to confidentiality, and my legal role as a mandated reporter and ethical role as a therapist. We will address any and all safety concerns first.  

Then we will explore how you feel about therapy, and your thoughts on if it could be beneficial in managing our mental health. 

I will ask you to describe your current state and how you are affected in your everyday activities. Here, some sensitive questions may be asked in my effort to get to know you better. You have the right not to answer them if it raises feelings of discomfort or anxiety.

Coming to a mental health therapy session may sometimes feel like a huge weight lifted off your shoulders, or it may feel like getting a fresh papercut. It'll sting for a little bit.

In the beginning, you may leave feeling tired from digging around and opening up an old wound. These feelings may linger  and then wear off.  As we continue to meet, you may leave my office one day feeling relieved and with new insights. 

Therapy is a process of uncovering and discovering to learn and to heal. What you bring to your therapist may take time to be resolved.

Please know that I will provide you with techniques and tools to preserve your mental health while you go through the process with me.

 Learning to trust your Therapist and feeling comfortable in the shared space is an essential part of the process of therapy. I consider your right to privacy one of my highest priorities, and I will maintain your confidentiality, as required by law and my ethical board. 

Your participation in therapy, and what you choose to share with me in therapy, is maintained in confidence under a federal law called HIPAA that protects one's privacy when enrolled into mental health services.

If you choose to seek therapy through your medical insurance plan, your confidentiality may be breached for the purpose of billing and verifying services.

We will go over how HIPAA protects your privacy in more detail during our Initial Visit. 

To create a safe space in therapy to support your mental health, I really will keep all your secrets that you share with me, except in the event of safety concerns:  

• you report abuse or neglect of a minor, dependent adult, or elder, in which case I am required by law to report the information to Child Protective Service or Adult Protective Services
• when you disclose suicidal ideation and present as an imminent threat to yourself, endorsing the thought, plan and/or intent to seriously harm yourself 
• when you disclose homicidal ideation and present as an imminent threat to others, endorsing the thought, plan and/or intent to harm another person (group of people)

 If you are asking yourself these questions,

• "Who is this Therapist?" 
• "Why should I trust her and my secrets with her?" 
• "Is she qualified to provide therapy to me or my loved one?"

Good for you! You should be careful with whom you choose to participate with in mental health therapy. Your Therapist will engage with you in this very intimate and vulnerable process to preserve your mental health. 

There's no other way I can share with you my passion, my desire to get to know you and serve you, my depth or my credentials without sharing with you my own experiences.

So I invite you to listen to a conversation where I placed myself in YOUR seat and became vulnerable myself. Let this help you guide your decision when choosing a Therapist.