Common Questions About Therapy

How do I find a therapist?

One starting point for many is a phone consultation, which is usually 15 minutes in duration and free of charge.  This consultation should give you an idea of the therapist’s background and areas of specialty and help you decide if your needs match the therapist’s abilities.

A next step is to then “try out” a therapist for a few sessions to determine if there is a comfortable, trusting dynamic and if your therapist can understand and effectively address your issues and concerns.  During those initial sessions, many clients gauge their comfort level and rapport with their therapist and discuss ongoing treatment planning and goals (including what goal progress might look like).

How long is each therapy session?

Therapy sessions are 45-55 minutes in duration.  The first session is sometimes longer, due to the intake and background information that typically gets collected.

What will we talk about during therapy sessions?

As we build up comfort and trust during the first few sessions, we will spend time talking about your background and the factors that prompted you to seek support from a therapist.  We will explore these factors together, both in the context of your present and your past, and then develop goals for treatment.  These goals will largely determine the content of what we talk about each session, along with any current or on-going issues or concerns that you present.

Progress towards your goals will involve effort from both of us, asking questions, challenging previous assumptions and patterns, seeking to understand family/social environments, and trying out new thoughts, beliefs, and actions.

Willingness to make these efforts often helps clients increase their capacity to successfully manage difficult situations and to be the best versions of themselves as often as possible.

How often should I come to therapy?  How long should I be in therapy?

Many clients have therapy sessions once a week, unless circumstances dictate that coming more frequently or less frequently would be beneficial.

How long you continue coming to therapy ultimately depends on progress towards identified goals and the nature of presenting problems (either the problems that prompted you to seek therapy, or on-going problems, or both).

Can you prescribe medication for me?

As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, I am not able to prescribe medication.  Only a medical doctor (usually a psychiatrist) can prescribe medicine to treat symptoms related social and emotional issues.  However, we can certainly explore in your sessions whether an evaluation for medication would benefit you.  I can make a referral to a psychiatrist or family doctor for this purpose, and communicate with these prescribing physicians with your written consent.

Should you begin taking medication, your treatment will become a collaborative effort between me (as your therapist), the psychiatrist prescribing the medication, and you.

Are the things we talk about kept private or confidential?

Your confidentiality and privacy is extremely important to me.  Everything you tell me will be kept confidential, to the extent allowable by law**, unless you give me specific, written permission to share confidential information with someone else (like a psychiatrist, doctor, or other healthcare provider, or school staff for clients who are students).

**Legally, if I learn that you are at risk for harming yourself or harming others, I am responsible for breaking confidentiality to ensure your safety and the safety of others.  To this end, if you share any information about suspected abuse or neglect of children or elderly people, I am required to inform the proper authorities.

If you are under the age of 18, the law considers you a “minor” and therefore the legal responsibility of your parents.  I feel that in order for you to feel a sense of trust and safety during our sessions, it is important for me to honor your confidentiality by not sharing the specifics of what we talk about with your parents (or others).  However, when your parents seek therapy for you I will consult with them initially to get background information.  I will also consult with your parents periodically (and possibly with your school) to learn general information about how you are doing when you’re not in my office.