Our first meeting is a consultation, in which we will talk about your needs. I will ask some questions as we go along, but you do not need to prepare for the appointment in advance. You will have an opportunity to see what it is like for you to talk with me, and I will get a sense of what you need and how your needs can best be met. At the end, I will make a recommendation about what I think would be most helpful to you. If I don't think that it is best for you to work with me in therapy, I will suggest alternative ways that you can get help. In some cases, it may be necessary to have more than one consultation session. Like therapy session appointments, a consultation is 50 minutes long, and the fee is the same as for therapy.

The answer to this question varies from person to person, and it is not possible to know in advance how much time someone might need to spend in therapy in order to achieve lasting change. In general, the longer you have been struggling with a problem, the longer you will need to be in therapy. My work with each person is tailored to his or her specific needs.

Once we have agreed to begin working together in therapy, it will be important to meet at least once a week. This may be at the same time each week, or if that is not possible, the appointment times may vary. Meeting less frequently would make it difficult to have as much effect on troubling symptoms or to begin to change negative patterns as is needed. Meeting more than once a week is especially effective in achieving lasting change, but this is not possible for everyone. In some cases after significant progress has been made, it may be possible to reduce the frequency of appointments to less than once a week.

It is important to consider what you can afford before you begin therapy, so that you don't get started in a process that you will have to end prematurely for financial reasons. It is just as important to ask yourself what will happen if you don't get the help you need. Investment in therapy is like an investment in education. It opens the door to a much higher quality of life than would be possible without it. Before beginning therapy, take a look at what you can pay without getting yourself into financial difficulty. This will be important information in determining how your needs can best be met. If you are not able to afford to work with me in therapy, I can refer you to lower cost alternatives.