I provide 55-60 minute individual counseling sessions, for as often as needed, in order for you to meet your health and wellness goals. This may mean just a handful of sessions to work on a specific issue (where a more brief & solution focused approach will suffice) or a longer stretch of weekly or bi-weekly sessions (where a more long term care plan is needed).
Regardless of your presenting issue, I typically recommend committing to regular weekly appointments at the very start of your treatment. This allows us to get a feel, collaboratively, for what you’re needing/expecting with regards to your healing process – and how to then structure subsequent sessions accordingly. For long term, complex trauma issues; weekly sessions are strongly recommended – especially once the trauma reprocessing stage of treatment has begun. Please see my EMDR page on this website for more information regarding this type of treatment for complex trauma and other issues.
During the therapeutic process of healing and change, skills and tools are learned in order to more effectively manage life in the here and now. Whether we are working on healing more long term, complex trauma issues – or a specific targeted issue with a more brief approach, I most often start treatment with helping you to learn, and utilize, good coping skills and tools. Depending on how much therapy you have received before starting treatment with me, and/or how complex your issues are, will determine how long we need to spend in the preparation/coping skills & tools stage of treatment. For some folks this stage goes quickly, just a session or two at most, for others it can take a longer time to stabilize in order to move forward.
Treatment planning will be a collaborative process, and you will be an integral part of the planning from start to finish. Part of our initial consultation will involve examining what you’re hoping to get from treatment, and how we can best work together in order to reach those goals.
“Know where you are going…but remain flexible about how to get there.”
-Anne Firth Murray
Along the road to healing and recovery there are often twists and turns! This is a normal part of the process. Sometimes people get their therapeutic needs met sooner than planned. This is something to be celebrated. Alternatively, once the process of healing and change is underway, it may be a good idea to increase sessions and/or utilize different treatment modalities. My approach is to hold the space for what may come, and to be open and trusting of the therapeutic process. My role is to join you on your own unique journey of healing.