Counseling

Call our office at 717-597-0095 and our support staff will be happy to guide you through the process. They will gather insurance information (if applicable), verify your benefits, and discuss fees. They will assign you to a counselor, schedule an appointment for you, and will provide you with the necessary intake paperwork. Paperwork can be filled out online utilizing the portal, can be downloaded, printed and dropped off or mailed in prior to the appointment, or can be filled out in office 30 mins prior to scheduled intake. Please return intake paperwork in a timely manner to allow your therapist time to review the paperwork and prepare for your intake.

Therapy can help with a variety of concerns;

• Coping with difficult life events
• Processing traumatic experiences
• Managing emotions
• Treating mental health problems
• Building inner strengths
• Improving relationships
• Developing healthy behaviors
• Managing stress

Confidentiality is a key part of the therapeutic relationship and is both a legal and ethical issue. It’s important for therapy to be effective because it helps clients feel safe enough to share private information, which allows therapists to address issues. However, there are some exceptions to confidentiality, including when it’s necessary to protect the client or others from harm: Client danger (If the client is a danger to themselves or others, such as if they have suicidal thoughts or plan to act on them); Reports of abuse (If the therapist suspects abuse of a child, the elderly, or a dependent adult); Court Order (If the therapist is legally required to disclose information by a court order); Insurance (If the therapist takes insurance, they may ask for permission to share limited information with the insurer, such as the diagnosis and medications).

You may schedule an appointment by calling our office at 717-597-0095- Monday-Thursday 8am-6 pm or Fridays 8am-4pm. Please leave a message if after hours or the receptionist is unavailable and someone will get back to you.

Do you feel comfortable with your therapist?
Can you be honest and open with your therapist?
Is your therapist responsive to your concerns and questions?
Do you feel confident in their understanding of your concern?
Are you confident in their ability to help you with your concern?

Having a good fit makes a significant difference in making progress in counseling. It is recommended that you give your therapist 2-3 visits to find a connection, unless you are able to tell immediately that the personality fit is not going to click, in which case it makes the most sense to make a switch at that time.

The frequency of counseling sessions can vary depending on your needs and circumstances and will be discussed at your initial session. While weekly sessions are common, some people may need more or fewer sessions. Session frequency may also change over the course of treatment.

Hippa compliant telehalth sevices are available.

In the first few sessions (1-4): You will tell your story, determine goodness of fit between yourself and your therapist, discuss goals and treatment plan, and build rapport. Effective long-term progress occurs after these items are established, and cannot occur without these items.

The Treatment Phase: After the first few sessions, active engagement of the treatment goals and plan begins. This varies dependent on the client’s presenting problem and the therapist’s training and clinical orientation. In these sessions you will work toward gaining insights, learning skills, expressing emotions, and more, which will help you make progress and see progress for long term change. The therapist can guide you, and you are responsible for engaging in the practice. The progress is directly related to your level of commitment to doing the work outside of the counseling office.

Once goals are completed, it is recommended that clients continue for “maintenance” phase, where a reduction in frequency of sessions occurs to assess and determine how the improvements are maintained as frequency lessens. If progress is maintained a client may move toward completion. If progress hits bumps, sessions will focus on how to manage these bumps.
Once you have successfully completed maintenance phase, showing success in maintaining progress with reduced frequency, clients complete therapy. Clients are welcome back to counseling to revisit concerns that flair up, strategies learned but forgotten, or if new presenting problems are experienced.

Therapy is a big investment of your time, energy, and money – so you want to be sure it’s a good investment. You can continue to make good progress in therapy by:

• Keeping up with any homework your therapist assigns
• Maintaining the momentum with consistent therapy sessions
• Being open and truthful about the issues and challenges you’re facing
• Come prepared to therapy, take notes from therapy sessions
• Major of progress occurs utilizing information form therapy in between sessions