Getting Started with Therapy
Starting therapy can feel scary, especially if you have never done it before. You may have questions about what to expect, how it works, or where to begin. We created this page to help you feel more familiar and comfortable with the process, answer some common questions, and make taking that first step a little easier.
What happens when I reach out?
Response Within 24 Hours
Whether you reach out via a contact form, e-mail, phone, or a booking platform, I will respond to your inquiry within 24 hours
Free 15-Minute Consultation
We will briefly talk about what brings you to therapy, what you're looking for, and whether my services, qualifications, and experiences are a good fit for you
Schedule 1st Session
If it feels like a good fit, we will find a time for your first session and I will send you a link to the client portal where you can complete your intake paperwork and share more about yourself
The purpose of this contact is to simply explore whether therapy, and Lotus Counseling & Consulting specifically, feels like a good fit for you, and there’s no pressure to schedule your first session during the free 15-minute consultation.
Administrative
We will begin by going over confidentiality, privacy, and informed consent before diving into anything else to ensure that you have a good understanding of policies and procedures guiding our interactions
Therapeutic
We will explore in-depth what brings you to therapy and what you want to get out of it, discuss the therapeutic approaches and modalities that will be best suited for your goals, and create an initial treatment plan
Tools & Next Steps
We will end the first session solidifying next steps, such as how often you want to meet and the date/time of your next session, and I will offer you initial tools/strategies that might be helpful for you to try in the meantime
Your first session is a starting point, not a script.
We will learn what you need and start building a plan that reflects your goals and priorities, but flexibility remains central to every aspect of interaction with our clients.
The fees below reflect scheduled services for self-pay and out-of-network clients. If you plan to use insurance, please contact your insurance company directly to confirm whether your plan provides out-of-network benefits and whether the services you are seeking are covered.
Have questions about insurance, fees, and out-of-network benefits?
Finding the right therapist matters significantly. You do not need to know immediately whether we are a good fit, and it is completely normal to need a little time to get a sense of what therapy feels like. However, here are a few things you can ask yourself at different stages of our interaction to evaluate whether we are a good fit.
Not every therapist will be the right fit for you. That’s okay! It does not mean there’s something wrong with you, your preferences, or that therapy has failed. If it becomes clear that another therapist, approach, or type of support would better meet your needs, we can talk about it openly.
I can help you think through what you are looking for and identify other resources or providers that might be a better fit. No matter where we are in the process (e.g., free consultation, initial session, 2 months into therapy), you should never feel obligated to stay in therapy just because you started.