Beginning Therapy
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In the first few sessions I want to get to know you and let you get to know my style of therapy.
In order to deeply understand the problem that brings you to therapy I will ask questions and offer space for you to tell me about yourself. I encourage you to be open and honest about your thoughts and feelings. Below is more information about topics we might discuss as we begin. It is very important that you feel safe and hopeful that we can work together toward your goals. |
Addressing Religion and Spirituality
I specialize in helping individuals and couples address psychological problems and build psychological wellness. My therapy also focuses on helping people make meaning of their life circumstances, including social, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual facets of experience. It is my belief that people benefit from therapy most when beliefs, actions, thoughts, and feelings can be included, reflected upon, and understood. Spiritual and transcendent beliefs can provide tremendous support and meaning for the issues clients face and they can also be related to the very problems that bring people to therapy, such as abuse, addiction, grief, and unpleasant emotions. I typically invite my clients to discuss their religious beliefs and faith practices as a way to think through the challenges they face and to acquaint me with their worldview. Such discussions are for the purposes of enriching our understanding of the issues at hand and are not for the purpose of proselytizing or debating the correctness of ideas. I am comfortable including religious practices in therapy, such as prayer or meditation, or discussion about guiding religious documents, if these things are valuable to you. It is your prerogative to include or exclude these or any aspects of your personal thoughts or feelings.
Cancellation Policy
Cancellations hurt the therapy, worsen treatment outcomes, and disrupt schedules. Therefore, cancellation policies are important for you to understand at the beginning of treatment. Cancellation policies are not only logistic, or financial, but therapeutic in nature - they help make therapy work. I charge for missed sessions to benefit the therapy and out of a desire for healing and transformation. Cancellation policies are about boundaries and trust. And therapy is more beneficial as we hold to the policy.
My policy: I have a 24-hour cancellation policy. I will charge you for an appointment if you don’t give me at least 24 hours notice. I am rarely able to fill a cancelled session without a few days notice. Making a therapy appointment is like buying a ticket to an event, if you are unable to make it, you do not get to turn in your tickets for a refund. There is a bit of wiggle room - for example, if we can find another time on the same day. And if you find yourself needing to cancel often, then let's collaborate on thinking about what might be happening and how we can create a therapy schedule that is more likely to work for you.
My policy: I have a 24-hour cancellation policy. I will charge you for an appointment if you don’t give me at least 24 hours notice. I am rarely able to fill a cancelled session without a few days notice. Making a therapy appointment is like buying a ticket to an event, if you are unable to make it, you do not get to turn in your tickets for a refund. There is a bit of wiggle room - for example, if we can find another time on the same day. And if you find yourself needing to cancel often, then let's collaborate on thinking about what might be happening and how we can create a therapy schedule that is more likely to work for you.
If you have questions about any of this information, please don't hesitate to call Dr. Slater at 267-225-1522
