What To Expect

It’s Time

Are you ready to take your first step in connecting with someone at TheraThrive? Our goal is to help you feel comfortable, understood, and heard. Let’s take the journey together and work towards your goals.

How to Begin

1. You initiate the process by requesting an appointment, giving us a call or by emailing us using the contact form.
2. We offer a free 15 minute phone consultation, and so we will likely start off talking on the phone. During our initial call, we learn about your needs and determine ways we can help. We will describe the services we provide, our strengths, our specializations and our expertise. Sometimes people prefer to initially connect with us via email, and that’s okay too.
3. We will also do our best to answer any questions you may have.
4. You choose a time and date for our first meeting together. Our first meeting may be online therapy via secure video conferencing or at one of our offices in Lafayette, CA (San Francisco East Bay Area) or in San Rafael, CA (Marin County, San Francisco North Bay Area). We also offer limited assessment services via video conference, as well as single session appointments if you need to meet just one time.
5. You will receive a Welcome Email that invites you to login to our secure client portal.
6. We meet for our first session!

A Good Fit

It generally takes between one and three sessions for initial assessment and for us to determine if we are a good fit.

What To Expect During The First Session

• We complete the paperwork, and necessary documents are signed.
• Confidentiality is discussed.
• You share your story and background information.
• We begin to discuss goals.
• If we are working with a child, our first session might be a parent meeting (parents only), or half parent meeting and half child therapy, or sometimes we will start out with a family meeting.
• Each person is unique, and we will tailor our services to fit your needs.

The Second Session

• We continue to hear your story.
• We learn more about your history.
• We discuss goals.
• We get to know you better and discover more about you, and your particular strengths and challenges.
• You will likely share more about any problems or what you want changed or improved.
• If we are working with a child, we might begin the process of play therapy, sand tray work and/or art therapy.

Future Sessions: A Solid Plan

• By the third or fourth session, a treatment plan is usually developed. A treatment plan delineates therapy goals, and specifies how we will recognize when those goals are reached.
• After the initial paperwork is taken care of, assessment and history are complete, and therapy goals and plan are established, therapy will commence. We will review our goals, game plan and progress at regular intervals. You can always add, remove or change your goals.
• Our goal is for you to meet your goals and complete your counseling. We want you to thrive.