Counseling & Therapy FAQ

People seek counseling for a variety of reasons including feeling unhappy, anxious, depressed, unmotivated, unfulfilled, worried, sad, or angry. People also seek out counseling to help change behaviors that are troubling them including addictive or disordered behaviors or behaviors that affect their relationships at home, school, or at work. Some people seek counseling because they have a life goal that has been eluding them and they are ready to explore their barriers.

Other people seek out counseling because they know they are going through a difficult time with grief or facing a difficult decision and they desire a place to sort through their feelings and move forward in their life with intention and clear thinking.

When a counseling relationship is working well, clients experience new insights into their situations, clearer thinking, increased energy, better understanding of their feelings and needs, release of troubling emotions that have held them back or been confusing, and a greater sense of wholeness and peace within themselves. Therapy is a process, and a working partnership develops between client and therapist.

Therapy is not always comfortable or straightforward as difficult emotions and ways of being often have to be sorted through in order for new energy and change to appear. Clients should feel comfortable with their therapist and be able to ask about whatever is on their mind regarding the process. In spite of the uncomfortable emotions experienced, clients I have worked with feel that the temporary pain of the working through process is well worth leaving behind the continual pain of living the way they had previously.

Yes, our practice includes work with individuals, couples, and families. Individual counseling is for one person who is experiencing mental health conditions, or behavioral health conditions such as depression, anxiety, grief, PTSD treatment, and many more conditions. Family counseling is for families that are having behavioral difficulties or communication challenges.

Couples counseling is for couples that are having problems communicating, problems in the bedroom, or any other relationship challenges. Marriage counseling is for married couples with marital problems that they have tried to resolve on their own, but need outside help.

Yes, for the most part. All client-therapist conversations are private and confidential. It is also confidential information that a person is meeting with a counselor. Only in rare exceptions when the safety of a client or other is at risk or by court order, can disclosure of confidential client-therapist information take place.

If you elect to use insurance, your insurance carrier will have to be given your diagnosis and they do report this to medical databases which can have an effect on future purchase of insurance. Confidentiality is important to us and it is further outlined in our informed consent document.

You can expect to talk about the concern(s) that brought you into counseling, your goals for therapy, and also about your background and personal history. You can share on a level that feels comfortable for you.