Frequently Asked Questions.

Your feel too overwhelmed to manage alone and you worry your relationships, not to mention your mental and physical health are at risk. Think of starting therapy as putting on your oxygen mask first before helping your loved ones: if you aren’t here, you can’t help anyone. But thinking about going to therapy for the first time or maybe for the first time in a long time, is scary. Here are answers to some common questions about therapy that might ease your mind a bit.

What will the 15-minute consultation be like? 

The consultation is an opportunity for you to get a feel for my counseling style and to ask any questions you might have about scheduling, frequency of sessions and billing.

How do I know if you’re the right counselor for me? 

To make lasting progress in therapy, you should feel that you can trust your counselor. Trust doesn’t come overnight, so at the start of the counseling relationship, your counselor’s job is to build trust. From the start, you should have a clear understanding of what therapy will be like. You should feel like the counselor is someone who has the experience, knowledge and personality that can help you. You should feel comfortable asking questions if you don’t understand something your counselor says or if you are dissatisfied with the direction a session is going.

As a counselor, how do you know when a client is a good fit for you?

I should come away from the consultation with an understanding of what your goals and expectations are for therapy and be able to share with you how I feel I can be helpful to you in meeting those expectations. If you are a griever, those expectations might simply be: I need a place to talk about my loss; a place to fall a part and a place to explore this strange new world in which I find myself. If you are struggling with anxiety, your goals might be to learn ways to cope with or reduce anxiety’s impact on your work, schooling or relationships.

What are the risks of therapy? 

In therapy you may find that talking about your painful experiences from the past and/or present brings up unresolved and unpleasant feelings. Sometimes you feel worse before you feel better. You might find that you start to make big changes in your life, but others around you aren’t changing. This can result in conflict or even in disconnection from some people in your life. Because we’re talking about the human brain, results cannot be guaranteed.

What are the benefits of therapy?

Therapy can help you hone in on the strengths you already possess and teach you how to access those more readily in your daily life. Therapy can also offer you new ways of coping, education about what grief, depression and anxiety are doing in your brain and body, and a place in which you can tell the story about the losses you have experienced as many times and in as many different ways as you might need. Therapy can lead to improved self-confidence in your caregiving duties, your ability to move forward in your life, and enriched relationships with others.

What kind of results can I expect from therapy? 

The first few sessions are often spent gathering history and background information and establishing your goals for therapy.

The next few sessions are typically spent exploring what you are already doing to cope and identifying new, healthy short-term coping skills. If you are a griever, we may also spend many sessions just talking about your loss or losses.

During the last part of therapy, we’ll spend time building up long-term coping skills and working to build your self-acceptance, perhaps self-forgiveness, and finding ways to move forward. This might include talking about new traditions or rituals to implement as you build a new relationship with a loved one who has died. For caregivers this might include establishing a self-care plan that is sustainable. We might explore your feelings about going through your loved one’s possessions or starting to date again after a death or divorce. It also might include taking time to grieve the expectations or hopes we had for a loved one that aren’t possible now due to illness or disability.

How long will I be in therapy? 

Many clients achieve what they wanted from therapy in 4-6 months with weekly sessions and some clients achieve their goals in 2 to 3 months with weekly sessions, while still others prefer to taper off from weekly to bi-weekly and then monthly sessions. While there is a lot of science to therapy, we are also talking about humans and not all humans are the same. I believe my role is to be with you through the healing process and to be there with you as you discover and build upon your strengths. You have already survived 100% of your worst days and that wasn’t by accident.

What if I need to cancel or reschedule my appointment?

I require 24-hours notice by text, phone or email for cancellations. A fee of $45 will be charged for late cancellations.

What is your availability?

I see clients between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Do you take insurance?

I am in-network with United Healthcare, Aetna, Oxford, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Oscar Health. I also accept private pay clients paying with cash, check or any major credit card.

I’m ready to take the next step, what now?

Click here to book a free, 15-min initial consultation. If I’m the right counselor in Denver for you, we can then schedule a full session.