Contact Integrated Insight Counseling to enroll as a new client:

Please leave your first and last name, date of birth, email address, and payment preferences. You may request a sliding scale; we will email you a form to complete. Approval for sliding scale is dependent upon income verification. Please indicate preference for sessions as mornings (9am to 12pm) or afternoons (1pm to 4pm). If you require sessions outside of office hours or on weekends, please specify. Weekend sessions are limited to Sundays 9 am to 1pm; availability fluctuates and cannot be guaranteed. Currently, only telehealth sessions are available; we cannot provide in person sessions at this time. 

After initial contact:

You will receive a call or email for a short phone consultation to confirm personal details and speak briefly about the reason you are seeking therapy. A tentative appointment for the initial intake will be scheduled for the upcoming 1 or 2 weeks depending on availability. This will be your regular session day. All therapy starts off at 1x per week, and is downgraded to biweekly after major concerns have been resolved. You will receive an email to access the client portal. This is where telehealth sessions are conducted, and where you will complete the initial intake documentation prior to the first session and find copies of all your records and billing. Please upload a copy of your insurance card. After insurance coverage has been verified, you will receive an email confirming the intake appointment. You can manually pay your co-pay through the therapy portal; otherwise it will be billed immediately after sessions.

At your intake appointment:

The intake appointment is an opportunity to get to know each other and discuss your historical information that has led you up to this point. We will discuss your early life and relationships, psychiatric history, and begin to trace out the trajectory of events that has brought you to where you are right now. Then we will discuss the specific issue that you are seeking to address at this time. At the end of the session, you will be given feedback with initial insights and framing about your psychological functioning, and work together to sketch out the long term goals of therapy. You will be able to directly include your personal goals and needs, and the therapist will use clinical judgment to identify and discuss any additional goals that would be beneficial to include. 

Sometimes, not everything can be covered in the initial intake but that’s ok. Part of what makes therapy effective is simply helping to organize one’s thoughts and make sense of things in a chronological narrative that includes all aspects of experience. Some people need longer to summarize their story than others. Don’t feel the need to cover everything in this first session. If you are unsure of how to proceed, the therapist will help to guide you. 

The therapy process:

Over time, the therapist may alter and adjust what your plan entails as the picture of your functioning becomes more complex and nuanced and new things are uncovered in the process. Some sessions will be simple free association of day to day events, thoughts, and feelings, and others will be more structured with specific activities or assessments. Some people need more help to explore their minds than others, so you never have to worry about coming up with things to talk about or work on – the therapist’s job is to always be able to structure the session for you whether there’s anything in particular you want to discuss or not!

You will occasionally be asked to complete assessments outside of session which will help the therapist round out the picture of how your mind works. These will be tailored to your personal needs and will be relevant to the specific issues you are working on. It is preferred that you complete the assessment prior to the next session, where it will be explained to you and your results clarified. You will sometimes be given homework to complete on your own in private to have the space to think through it in a safe way so that you can identify what you do and don’t want to share in session. You always have the right to keep some things private from any and everybody, and that includes the therapist! You may be invited to read recommended books, although we know not everyone has time to do that. There will sometimes be “long term homework” that alters your normal patterns of thinking and behaving, which you are expected to implement into your regular routine – this is the “work!” 

You may learn things about yourself that you were unaware of, or have issues and patterns identified that you did not view as problematic. This is part of the therapy process and will always be communicated in a gentle and compassionate way. You can always expect honesty and a straightforward explanation of what is discovered about you and your functioning through the therapy process. The therapist will never hide or conceal any issues or concerns from you. Although many therapists believe it’s better not to divulge the intricacies and “secrets” that psychotherapists know, at Integrated Insight Counseling you will be a mutual partner included in all the ins and outs of how psychology works and what the particular therapeutic intervention is addressing and why. Sessions will frequently include psychoeducation of neurology, intrapsychic structure, and specific research that has been identified to explain why and how people function.

Downgrading and Discharging:

As therapy proceeds, your progress toward goals and the treatment plan will be continually reviewed and monitored. Not everybody is in a place where they can devote themselves fully to the work, and may have resistance to the therapy process. Goals will be adjusted according to whether or not they are currently achievable. If necessary, you may have a conversation with your therapist to prompt you toward more active engagement and identify blocks and barriers. Therapy, like all relationships, is a two way street – you will need to uphold your end of the bargain and implement the interventions assigned on your own time. Therapy can only go so far; the interpretations and understanding you receive into yourself needs to be reflected in the real world and in your personal relationships in order to meaningfully inspire change.

Goals will be removed as they are achieved, and added as they are identified. When you reach a place where you feel as if you have things under better control and have gained the understanding you are seeking, therapy may be downgraded to biweekly sessions to check in and maintain the continuity of structure. 

Your discharge needs will have been identified, and once you no longer require support or have resolved your concerns, together with the therapist you will work on discharging from therapy. You also are free to terminate services at any time on your own – the therapist’s job is to make herself obsolete and teach you to do the work she’s doing for you on your own!