My Approach - Online Email Counseling
I'll be completely honest with you. The barriers that interfere with face to face counseling bother me. Transportation, privacy, time, cost, and many more. Mental health stigma is real. Acts of self care tend to draw limited support. In this digital age we live in, it seems like a no-brainer to me that someone should be able to access professional help remotely if they so choose.
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With email there is: no need to come to an office, you can reply at a time that works best for you, from a place that feels private/secure to you, and limited worry about public judgement.
Your time and effort are extremely valuable resources. It's almost like you get credit for those with online counseling's affordable investment.
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You, the client, are not the only one who reaps some of these benefits. Counselors appreciate schedule flexibility and time for self care and reduced overhead costs too! This means your counselor has a healthy balance between work and home, flexibility to efficiently and effectively compartmentalize to put you, the client, first, and the allowance to offer an affordable service with reduced worries for clinic costs.
Getting Started:
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First, you'll let me know that you are interested and send me some limited contact info to learn more.
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Then, once all of your questions are answered and you would like to move forward, there will be some paperwork to fill out (digitally or we can mail physical copies back and forth) and a possible phone consultation to make sure that email based counseling is a good fit for you.
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We will also agree on a payment plan.
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Once all the logistics are taken care of then we will start exchanging secure emails. I am trained to observe your communication style and respond in one of a variety of ways that I think will be most helpful. It usually looks like a conversation with reflections and challenge questions often in addition to some educational components. We will outline a goal (or goals) that you want to work towards. There will be check in points to assess progress and effectiveness and I encourage you to share aspects of our sessions that work well for you AND parts that do not seem to working well from your perspective. We will adapt as needed!
