Dr. Rachel Eby, PhD

• We schedule a 20-30 minute completely free introductory video call with me to see if we might be a good fit for working together. 

• I only schedule future, paid appointments with people I have a good sense that I can help with the training and tools I have. 

• Most people have a good sense during that first meeting as well if I'm going to be a good fit for them. 

• When we both feel I have a good grasp of the circumstances bringing you to therapy, we briefly discuss what goals we might work on together. 

• I share about my approach and the model of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) I use

• The first appointment is spent getting to know you. 

• I ask you questions and use the forms you completed to learn about who you are, where you've been, and what life is like for you. 

• We often talk a bit about family of origin, current living situation, experiences in schooling and work, and any other contextual information either of us may find useful.

• We then talk more specifically about what is bringing you to therapy at this time. 

• I want to know the nature of your concerns, what's been bothering you, for how long, what it feels like for you, and what bothers you the most about it. 

• Once you feel I have a very good understanding of what you've shared with me so far, I want to learn about what your hope is for our work together: What specifically might you be hoping to get from therapy? What change would you be hoping to see in yourself - in how you feel, think, or act? 

• It's also quite common to feel uncertain about what you even want from therapy, or what's even possible for you. That's okay! When this is the case, people often find clarity over time and we can reevaluate your hopes and goals as we move along. 

• Once we have some important background established on you, we can start moving toward developing a treatment plan, using measurable objectives so we can track your progress. 

• We start sessions checking in on how you're feeling right now, how you've felt since our previous session, and then work with you to create an agenda for our session. 

  • • This part is really important to me because I want to make sure we're covering what's most important to you in every session. 

    • Sometimes it will be continuing the work on progressing toward your specified goals and trying out powerful techniques to get you moving forward. 

    • Other times, it may be that you're needing space to process something painful or upsetting, or you're needing to feel heard and understood. 

• Once we have an agenda, we jump right in to getting to work, or slow it down and spend time processing and building empathy, understanding, and emotional support for your experience.  

• Throughout our work, I'm checking for: understanding (do you feel seen, heard, and understood by me?), progress (are you moving in the direction you want to be?), and change (are you actually getting results - either in how you feel, how you think, or what you do?). In fact, I'm so interested in these things that everyone who works with me completes a brief survey after every session to measure these areas. That means you get a chance *every session* to share with me what you like most, what you liked least, and how on track we are with your goals. We also measure your progress in every session to make sure we're on the right path. If we're not, we make adjustments to our approach.  

• Every session where appropriate, we assign action items (aka: psychotherapy homework) - either practicing skills or specific exercises we did in session, "experiments" or new behaviors for you to try out on your own, or simply something to reflect on throughout the week. Much of the work in our sessions gets solidified in this step. 

This is ultimately the goal, right? That you would be able to leave therapy with the tools, healing, recovery, and growth that you were looking for. This is my ultimate hope for you. I believe in helping you get a good return on your investment, so I'm committed to teaching you the tools we use in session, so when one tool is helpful for you, you get to take it with you for the rest of your life. 

At times, people come back to therapy for a tune-up or some help when something new comes up in life, or if there's some difficulty applying the tools. This is often accomplished in just a couple of sessions - like finding your way back onto the highway after you found yourself having taken an off-ramp.