What to Expect

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Initial Contact

Whether you call, email, or complete the "Contact Us" form on the website, the process to get started is typically the same. Our Front Office Staff will be your initial point of contact; though we try to maintain our policy to return communication within 2 business days, but life events do sometimes occur, and we apologize if this ever happens.

Front Office Staff has been specially trained to inquire about details pertaining to your specific stressors. This mini evaluation has been designed to discover whom the best suited provider may be to work with you.

We do not ask patients to commit to Triple Willow without you having an initial consultation: an opportunity to ask your questions, and get to know the provider matched with you.

Front Office Staff will ask for your name, cell phone, date of birth, address, social security, insurance information for the subscriber (if other than patient, all the same info will be asked of the subscriber). Any of the Personal Health Information (PHI) requests may be declined, but doing so will significantly slow the process required to get counseling underway. If you wish to provide the information in a more comfortable way, PatientPortal allows you to complete all demographic, insurance, and treatment information with HIPAA compliant confidence.

In order to initiate your intake appointment, select the New Appointment link on the navigation bar and complete the following steps:

Click the emailed link

Match your PHI

"Complete Intake Forms"

First Session: Consultation

Consultations can last an average around 30 mins, but they do not have to follow any specific mold. Because we do not charge you for this gift we offer our new patients, there is no agenda or expectation to fill.

All time slot reservations to speak with a provider, in any capacity, automatically block 60 minutes of your provider's schedule. If you only need 20 minutes of that time, that does not waste anyones time; you don't have to "make it worth" anything. If that time was fulfilling for you that session, it's worth what it needs to be valued.

Your provider may ask you questions you already answered through OnPatient; this is common for your provider to gain additional understanding about particular information. Even if you share the same information, this can be beneficial for us as we don't always look for what is reported as much as how it is reported.

This is also a time for you to ask questions about therapy, counseling versus other treatment options, time frames, etc. You are welcome, actually encouraged, to interview your provider to make sure they are a good fit for you and your counseling treatment. This means you're attempting to discover qualities, traits, and even quarks that meld well with your own so you can be the most receptive and motivated throughout your mental health treatment. No matter what, we want you to find the best match for you; if that is with the assigned provider, a different provider not assigned, or even a provider at an office that doesn't belong to us, we want to help you find them.

We officially recommend every new patient take the information from their consultation home for them to process and evaluate with themselves and loved ones to assure the best choice for yourself is being made. Counseling is not something to enter lightly, and a lot is demanded of you during this time; you have to be ready in order to see any benefit. The worst thing Triple Willow can do for the profession of mental health is to rush people into treatment before they are ready. If someone were rushed, they might develop a sour taste for counseling; even if in the future they become ready, that sour taste could still prevent them from reaching out. History has shown, however, several patients have been diligent in their research, and are ready to commit to treatment. For these, your provider will schedule a follow-up appointment with you and ask you to think about SMART Goals.

Second Session: SMART Goals

Possibly spilling into the 3rd session, your provider and you will focus the first part of treatment creating SMART Goals. An Individualized Service Plan (ISP) or Treatment Plan (TxP) consist of Goals, Objectives, and Interventions with 5 components. This is your organized roadmap and trip planner for treatment; this is where we start to sort the puzzle pieces by "edge-pieces" and color.

Often, this process is difficult for patients to complete. Experiences hint this could be because they have a 'back-log' of stress they've been waiting to share, and now they are ready to just share. No matter the reason, treatment planning remains a crucial part of the treatment process. If you have received services in the past in any capacity, Case Management, Counseling, Psychiatry, etc., you have had an ISP. We just feel you should have a say in the planning process while wanting to remain as transparent as possible with our patients.

Follow-up Sessions

We meet you where you are in your journey and focus on goals you find important on your time-line.

Your treatment is not a cookie cutter experience; Counseling is a process which involves you as an Individual. We practice Person Centered and Goal Orientated Therapy; often utilized in a Brief Therapy model, the higher powers that be have slowly been making requirement changes to involve the patient more as an active member of treatment rather than just being told what to do.

Your experience will be your own, and you will be a part of documenting that. As a part of our approach, you will take an active role in the documentation of your sessions' progress notes, intake-assessments, and treatment plans.

We project Counseling can take anywhere around 6 months to a year, but this fully depends on environmental factors as well as motivation to improve. We encourage a tapering of sessions to gradually allow you to utilize the tools and skills learned in sessions independently.

Weekly sessions typically take place for the first month; then, progress is evaluated to determine whether or not changes to the frequent of sessions need to be discussed. These mini-evaluations typically occur every 90-days with updates made to your ISP/TxP. Keep in mind you will always be a part of these decisions, and we will never force anti-therapeutic burden upon you (financial or otherwise).