Walking Through What to Expect

Making an Appointment

When you call to schedule an appointment we will ask you some basic questions about yourself and your situation to help us serve you. You can expect to be asked:

Tell us a little bit about what you are seeking help with.
The client’s full name and date of birth.
Your Mailing Address
Your Phone Number
Who referred you? –or- How did you hear about us?
Your Insurance Information

Please Note: If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency and need immediate assistance, please call 911 or the Family Crisis Hotline at 620-275-5911.

Before Your First Visit

After your provider speaks with you on the phone they will give you directions on how to complete your new client paperwork. Depending on your provider this may be done electronically or in paper form. This will include collecting demographics, insurance, financial information, and other questions that will help your therapist get an overview of your life circumstances to better serve you.

Initial Visit

The initial appointment will include taking time to review your new client paperwork, cover some basics about confidentiality, and answer some preliminary questions.

During this first appointment you will be asked to discuss your concerns from your point-of-view. We will ask you what you hope to gain from counseling. Your counselor will discuss thier approach to counseling and will also discuss their fees and policies. At this time you will be able to decide if your provider seems like a good fit for you and you would like to continue services with them or would like help seeking a different provider.

Continuing Visits

You and your therapist will work together to determine when and how often you will meet. Sessions will focus on creating measurable goals and working toward completing those goals. These goals will focus on what brought you to therapy but may also include other issues that develop in your life or surface during the therapy process.

Ending Services

Sessions will continue until the concerns that brought you to therapy are alleviated to the point that you no longer need your therapist’s support. You will work together with your therapist to determine when you have reached that point. You can always resume services if circumstances in your life change.

Notes on the Counseling Process

Potential Risks

Counseling may have different effects on various people and personality types. While there is no guarantee that counseling will work in every situation, it is important to remember that in order for counseling to work, you must be an active participant in the “change process.”

The counseling process involves some risk-taking. Often these risks can help a person to achieve growth. The risks will vary for every individual but may include:

The experience of intense feelings of sadness, anger, fear, guilt, shame, or anxiety.
- It is important to remember that God created us with emotions and that emotions area very normal part of the counseling process and life.
Recalling unpleasant life events.
Facing unpleasant thoughts and beliefs.
Increased awareness of feelings/values/experiences.
Alteration of an individual’s ability or desire to deal effectively and harmoniously with others in relationships.
Making major life decisions involving relationships, employment, or lifestyle changes.
- These decisions are a legitimate outcome of a counseling experience as a result of an individual’s evaluation of their own life issues.

Spirituality

The providers in the Faith-Based Counseling in Southwest Kansas are all trained in providing Christian Counseling that incorporated biblical principles and prayer for clients who desire those elements. In your first appointment, we will determine what spiritual emphasis you feel comfortable with during your sessions. We can incorporate any spiritual framework or beliefs that are helpful to you, or none at all.

Confidentiality

Clients are assured of confidentiality which is protected by ethical practice.

However, there are important exceptions to confidentiality as required by the law. The exceptions include:

The law requires that we notify relevant others if we judge that a client has an intention to harm themselves or others.
We are obligated by law to report any incident of suspected abuse, neglect, or molestation of a child (under 18) or an elder (65 and older).
The law instructs that we cannot knowingly discuss an abusive or illegal act that you may be contemplating in the future.
In legal cases, we or our records may be subpoenaed by the court.

When meeting for counseling (individual, couple, family) confidentiality will be respected in all cases except where disclosure is required by law, as stated above, or in cases where our professional judgment indicates that maintenance of confidentiality is, in fact, destructive to the individual receiving services.

Other than these exceptions above, we will not disclose any information about you unless you sign a Consent for Release of Information allowing us to do so.

Your therapist will go over confidentiality with you in detail during your first session.

Clients Who are Dependents

If you are requesting our services as the guardian or parent of a child, or the guardian of a dependent adult, the same general practice as outlined above will apply. As your child’s (or other dependent’s) counselor it is important that your child is able to trust us completely. Therefore, we keep confidential what your child says in the same way that we keep confidential what an adult says.