| About Our Appointments The very first time I meet with you, we will need to give each other much basic information. For this reason, I usually schedule 1–2 hours for this first meeting. Following this, we will usually meet for a 50-minute session once or twice a week, then less often. We can schedule meetings for both your and my convenience. I will tell you at least a month in advance of my vacations or any other times we cannot meet. Please ask about my schedule in making your own plans. An appointment is a commitment to our work. We agree to meet here and to be on time. If I am ever unable to start on time, I ask your understanding. I also assure you that you will receive the full time agreed to. If you are late, we will probably be unable to meet for the full time, because it is likely that I will have another appointment after yours. I will reserve a regular appointment time for you into the foreseeable future. I also do this for my other patients. Therefore, I am rarely able to fill a cancelled session unless I have several weeks’ notice. You will be charged the full fee for sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice excluding weekends/holidays, for other than the most serious reasons. I request that you do not bring children with you if they are young and need babysitting or supervision, which I cannot provide. By the end of our first or second session, I will tell you how I see your case at this point and how I think we should proceed. I view counseling as a partnership between us. You define the problem areas to be worked on; I use some special knowledge to help you make the changes you want to make. Counseling is not like visiting a medical doctor. It requires your very active involvement. It requires your best efforts to change thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. For example, I want you to tell me about important experiences, what they mean to you, and what strong feelings are involved. This is one of the ways you are an active partner in therapy. I expect us to plan our work together. In our plan we will list the areas to work on, our goals, the methods we will use, the time and money commitments we will make, and some other things. I expect us to agree on a plan that we will both work hard to follow. From time to time, we will look together at our progress and goals. If we think we need to, we can then change our treatment plan, its goals, and its methods. An important part of your therapy will be practicing new skills that you will learn in our sessions. I will ask you to practice outside our meetings, and we will work together to set up homework assignments for you. I might ask you to do exercises, to keep records, and perhaps to do other tasks to deepen your learning. You will probably have to work on relationships in your life and make long-term efforts to get the best results. These are important parts of personal change. Change will sometimes be easy and quick, but more often it will be slow and frustrating, and you will need to keep trying. There are no instant, painless cures and no “magic pills.” However, you can learn new ways of looking at your problems that will be very helpful for changing your feelings and reactions. Most of my clients see me once a week for 3 to 4 months. After that, we meet less often for several more months. Therapy then usually comes to an end. The process of ending therapy, called “termination,” can be a very valuable part of our work. Stopping therapy should not be done casually, although either of us may decide to end it if we believe it is in your best interest. If you wish to stop therapy at any time, I ask that you agree now to meet then for at least one session to review our work together. We will review our goals, the work we have done, any future work that needs to be done, and our choices. If you would like to take a “time out” from therapy to try it on your own, we should discuss this. We can often make such a “time out” be more helpful. I will send you a brief set of questions about 6 months after our last session. These questions will ask you to look back at our work together, and sending them to you is part of my duty as a therapist. I ask that you agree, as part of entering therapy with me, to return this follow-up form and to be very honest about what you tell me then. |
| Sometimes all we need is a listening ear, a helping hand and a caring heart to find balance in our lives. |
| Terry McVannel Erwin, Ph.D. Dr. Erwin is a General Practitioner With a Special Interest in Working with Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Certified Hypnotherapist Qualified Supervisor, Florida National Certified Counselor #78891 Licensed Mental Health Counselor #MH8591 |
| HOME DR. ERWIN'S SPECIALTIES IS COUNSELING RIGHT FOR YOU? PERSONAL STATEMENT ABOUT COUNSELING ABOUT HYPNOTHERAPY COST OF SERVICES CONTACT DR. ERWIN PLEDGE TO LGBT CLIENTS AFFIRMATIONS AND MORE PAPERWORK FOR NEW CLIENTS DIRECTIONS TO OUR OFFICE 2506 Del Prado Boulevard South Cape Coral, FL 33904-4750 Ph. (239) 242-0545 TErwin1@yahoo.com MOST INSURANCES ACCEPTED Don't have insurance? We offer limited-session sliding scale fees that are comparable to insurance co-pays! Call today for more information! |
