What to expect | Intake Form
It can take a lot of courage to ask for help and face your problems. Sometimes problems cannot be easily seen or understood. If you have trouble with relationships, your mood, how you are interpreting things, or are having difficulty managing a situation, having a safe and comfortable place to explore these concerns is a purpose of psychotherapy. Being understood and having clear goals to works towards as well as honest interchanges between therapist and patients creates effective psychotherapy treatment.
Psychotherapy works by talking with a trained professional who is educated and familiar with your issues. There are many reasons to see a psychotherapist:
- The most important one is so you can start to feel better.
- To learn why you are having problems with your spouse, your brother or sister, your children, your co-workers, and how you can improve them.
- You are having problems with day-to-day living and experience little joy,
- You are not happy with the direction your life seems to be going.
You can expect psychotherapy to help you sort through your problems, develop goals and make positive changes.
Once you have contacted me, we will:
- Schedule your first appointment or assessment.
- During the initial session or assessment I generally take notes obtaining a developmental history, getting your family history, exploring any significant medical issues or traumas and discussing the presenting problem — or what brought you here.
- With this done, a diagnosis is made and a treatment plan is created.
Together we will form a plan to help you. I will make recommendations to you but the final decision is yours. People want or need different things out of therapy:
- Sometimes people just want “symptom relief” or to get through a crisis.
- Sometimes people want to explore how they got to where they are and why they are not happy in their life or in their relationships.
You need to be willing and able to make a commitment to this exploration and the psychotherapeutic process. You need to be ready to do the work of changing. To bring about the changes you want and gain insight requires weekly attention. Mutual accountability and honest interchanges between therapist and patient is needed to allow for the most effective treatment. Ongoing evaluation and review of goals will be a part of the course of therapy as well. Often in addition to our talk sessions, I suggest books, behavioral exercises, and other interventions to facilitate the changes.
It is important that you find the right therapist for you. You need to feel comfortable and understood by your therapist to be able to get the most out of therapy. If you estimate the cost in time and money over the benefit of long term mental health and happiness over a life time, the benefits far outweigh the investment. You can learn how to be happier, self-awareness, and have a mindful way of living.