Joe Taylor: Hello, my name is Joe Taylor, and I’m a licensed marriage family therapist here at Chico Creek Counseling.
Jessica W.: I’m Jessica Wilkerson, I’m a marriage and family therapist registered intern here at Chico Creek Counseling. I work under the clinical supervision of Joe Taylor. My registration number is IMF69783.
Joe Taylor: This is Chico Creek Counseling and we wanted to make this video just to give you an idea of what it looks like when you come in to therapy. Some people have never been to a counselor before, never walked into an office like this. It maybe seems a little odd, or foreign, or unusual, or uncomfortable even.
Jessica W.: Intimidating for some.
Joe Taylor: Yes, I think that would be a good way to look at it. Really when you walk in our office it’s kind of like coming to a doctor’s office because there is a waiting room out front. You come in, sit down and hopefully you’re a minute or 2 early. I’ll usually have a clipboard with some intake information that I’m going to need for you to fill out. If you come in a few minutes early then you can get that filled out. That will only take about 3 to 5 minutes. It’s not a really long process for me.
Jessica W.: For mine it’s a little bit longer. My forms are more extensive because I really like to get your feedback of what’s going on in your life. I feel like it helps me get an idea of how best to help you. When we do our intake we can get more into the nitty gritty of things. If you end up having an appointment with me I am completely okay with sending it to you in a PDF in your email. You can take the time at your home, at work, wherever you are and fill that out and bring it in, or we can leave it in the foyer and you can come about 20 or 30 minutes early to fill that out.
Joe Taylor: Okay. She’s a little more techy than I am, but I actually know how to do emails. If we talk about it ahead of time and you’d like for me to email the intake information to you I think I can figure out how to do that.
Jessica W.: He can.
Joe Taylor: I can. Then, the next step would be at the appointed time, hopefully we’re on time and you’re on time. Then, we come out to the foyer and get you and bring you back to our respective offices. This office is my office and so if you happen to come see me this is what it looks like, at least a part of it. We just come in and sit down. The process from there is first to get to know each other. I’ll cover the paperwork and I might ask you a question or two about that. Also, I’ll give you a chance to ask questions about me. If there is something you’d like to know about me; my background, o my training, or experience, or whatever, then that’s totally cool. I would be happy for you to do that.
Jessica W.: We also take that time to go about discussing confidentially. We take confidentially very seriously. Not only us as individuals, but our whole industry. You might be talking to your friends or your family members about the things that’s going on in your life, but you don’t know what’s going to happen with that. When you come and talk to us everything is confidential. You can come, get it all off your chest and know that we aren’t going to go out and about in the world and talk to people about that.
Joe Taylor: Absolutely not.
Jessica W.: Not only are we not going to do that.
Joe Taylor: Not post it on Facebook.
Jessica W.: Yeah, it’s not our ethics, but also it’s against the law.
Joe Taylor: Yes, that too. We’re going to avoid that. Then, we talk about the fee, we talk about how we handle insurance, which by the way we don’t bill insurance directly. You pay us at the time of service. We give you a receipt and you can turn that into insurance later and get reimbursed. We talk about 24 hour cancellation notice. We always ask for that. Those are the kinds of details we talk about in just the first couple of minutes when we meet. Then we get into knowing each other. Getting to find out more of why you’ve come and what issues have brought you here.
Jessica W.: The first session is kind of all that boiler plate information gathering, then by session 2 and beyond we’re getting into more in depth of what’s going on in your life and how is it that we can help you. What skills is it that we have that we can provide to you to help you live a healthier, happier, more fulfilled life.
Joe Taylor: Right, usually, it doesn’t always work this way and I really try to save some time before a sessions over, but when you’ve told me some things about what’s going on in your life, I try to give you a little bit of something you can take home with you. Maybe it’s some homework, or at least something to think about, or talk to someone about, or some kind of homework.
Jessica W.: A nugget.
Joe Taylor: A nugget, yes, where you are feeling like well, okay, I got a little something out of this session instead of just telling this guy all of my life. That there is some information that is useful and helpful for me. Try to fit that in before we end the session.
Jessica W.: Thank you so much for clicking on our video and for giving us the time in your day to talk to you a little about who we are.
Joe Taylor: Yes.
Jessica W.: Please, click on any of our other articles that are here. There will me more to come in the future on various topics such as our philosophy about therapy, communication in relationships, expectations, depression. You name it, we plan to talk about it.
Joe Taylor: That’s right.
Jessica W.: Have a wonderful day.
Joe Taylor: Thank you for coming.
