Scheduling

Way to go for taking the first step! Finding the right counselor can be intimidating, so we celebrate your courage. Whether you’ve been to therapy before, or you’re brand new to this, we’re here to help! The first step is to educate yourself, and you’re doing that now, so you’re off to a great start! Here are the next steps we suggest:

1 – Identify your resources and your priorities. Are you hoping to use insurance? What can you reasonably expect to invest without putting your finances at risk? What are your schedule limitations? Are you willing to make schedule adjustments for a counselor who is the perfect fit, or do you need a therapist whose schedule complements yours? Are you willing to drive a long distance or do virtual therapy, or do you prefer someone nearby? Are you willing to wait if the therapist you prefer is not accepting new clients and has a waitlist, or do you need someone right away? The answers to these questions will help you to accomplish the next step.

2- Choose the therapist who is the best fit for your needs and your situation at this time. We understand that this process can be overwhelming, so feel free to contact our office if you need assistance. On our website, all of our counselors are on our COUNSELOR page, but each location is staffed by different therapists. If seeing a counselor in-person at a location nearby is important to you, you would need to look at the page of the location nearest you. An overview of populations and issues each therapist works with is under their photo. If one of them seems like a possible match, click their photo for a more detailed description. You can also read blogs they have written on their page so that you can get an idea of their style and “voice.” If you have questions, please call us! Our office administrators know our therapists and their styles and strengths quite well, so don’t be afraid to ask our staff for recommendations.

3- If there is a particular therapist you are interested in, you may inquire about their availability by contacting our office. If your preferred therapist is accepting new clients, you can proceed to step 4! If they are not, our office staff can put you on a waitlist so that when the therapist you inquired about is ready for you, we can reach out to help get you on their schedule. To learn more about how the waitlist works and what you can expect, click here. If the therapist you would like to see is full at this time and you decide to be put on a waitlist, our office administrators can help you select a suitable alternative in the meantime if you like. Often, clients are quite happy with the therapist they begin seeing “in the meantime” and prefer to stay with them when the therapist they originally inquired about is available.

4- If the therapist(s) you are interested in is accepting new clients, check their availability online to see if a time they offer would work for your schedule. There is a question further down on this page that tells you how to do that.

5 – If you’ve decided on a therapist you’d like to see, and found a time that will work for you, email our office to request that time and include the information we will need to create your file in your email. See the last question on this page for the information we will need.

6 – Our office staff will set up your file, schedule your appointment, and send you an invitation to our portal and a welcome packet with a checklist of items to complete before your appointment. If you are eager to get started on that checklist right away, you can also find that welcome packet at this link. We ask that all paperwork be complete at least 24 hours in advance of your appointment.

7- And that’s it! That wasn’t so bad, was it? We are here to help at each step along the way, so don’t be afraid to ask! We hope to meet you soon!

Some of our therapists are accepting new clients for both in-person and teletherapy appointments. If you would like to know whether or not a particular therapist is accepting new clients, please contact our office. If your preferred therapist is not accepting new clients, our office staff can either make a recommendation for a suitable alternative or put you on your preferred therapist's waitlist to be contacted when there is more space in their schedule for new clients. If you would like to see another therapist on staff until your preferred therapist is ready for you, we can do that as well.

Most of our therapists work from the North Austin location, but some do have hours at both North Austin and Georgetown. You can check out the Kyle and Georgetown pages for specifics about each of those locations and the times therapists would be at that location. If your preferred therapist is not at the location near you, but you would still like to schedule with them, teletherapy is always an option.

North Austin - Kerry, Carolyn, Rachelle, Nicole, Julie
Georgetown - Julie, Catherine
Kyle - Linlee, Hannah

Great question! It's very important to consider scheduling when deciding on a therapist, so if you have your heart set on a particular therapist, please inquire about their hours before getting on their waitlist. We wouldn't want you to wait on the list only to discover after you have waited and they are ready for you that you are unable to see them during the times that they are available. Some of our therapists do offer evening hours, and our office staff would be happy to help you find therapists whose availability matches yours.

Great question! You are welcome to ask your therapist for input once you are a client, but for the most part, that decision is up to you. Some therapists may be unable to offer weekly sessions, so every other week, every four weeks, or "as needed" would be your only options. For other therapists, it often depends upon the severity of symptoms you are experiencing. If you would like to come weekly at first until things level out a bit you may do so, or if you prefer to come every other week, that is fine, too. Generally at first, it is good to plan on at least every other week, since it can be hard to get "traction" when sessions are more spaced out than that. Session time may be spent "catching up" since the last session instead of digging down into the deeper work that needs to be done. As you progress, your therapist will space your sessions out more and more until you no longer need to come in or just want to come in every now and then for a "check in."

There are different options for scheduling. If your life schedule is irregular, you can schedule conveniently through our online portal, where you can see therapists' availability and request times that work for you as needed.
If you have a regular life schedule and have limited hours that would be conducive to counseling sessions, it would probably be best to set up a recurring schedule. With a recurring schedule, we reserve a particular time-slot every week or every other week that belongs to you. If you have a recurring schedule and need to cancel an appointment, that is not a problem as long as you cancel with sufficient notice. Appointments cancelled with less than 24 hours will incur a late cancellation fee. As a courtesy to others, however, we appreciate as much notice as possible in order to open up those slots as soon as possible for clients who are searching for appointment times on the portal and may be unable to rearrange their schedule at the last minute.

Yes. Our identity as a center is that we want to be both clinically excellent and foundationally Christian. However, we want to meet people where they are and will never impose our faith or beliefs upon our clients. For those clients who do not want to incorporate faith into therapy, we are perfectly comfortable addressing their concerns with other methods. For those who want to incorporate faith into their therapy, we will be happy to do that as well. It is extremely important to us that all of our clients feel safe and welcome and free to be who they are and where they are. It is our hope that if experiences with faith or religion have been a painful part of a client's story in the past, they would experience something different with us.

Unfortunately, there is often not enough of us to go around, so please be patient with our phone system and leave messages. If no one answers right away when you call, it means we are either helping a client, on another line, away from our desk, or not open at the time of your call. (We are not scheduled to be in the office in the evenings or on weekends). When potential clients call, we want to be available to answer questions and help them make the decisions best for their needs. This can take a good bit of time, so it is likely that you will need to leave a message and we will return your call when we are able. Most of your questions can be answered on our website. It will be extremely helpful if you can educate yourself as much as possible on our website before your call. If your need is a yes / no or quick answer, an email is often the most efficient way to correspond, since phone calls often take longer and office staff plans accordingly. We want your experience with us to be as welcoming and helpful as possible and will do our best to return your inquiry in a timely manner!

Great! To schedule an appointment as a new client, please email us the time you would like to reserve, along with the following information for each client (so for both if a couple, all if a family):

• client(s)' name
• date of birth
• phone number
• email address
• preferred type of automated reminder (text, email, or both)

We will create your file, schedule your appointment, send you an invitation to our portal, and send a Welcome Packet with a checklist of items to complete before your appointment through the portal. We ask that all paperwork be completed 24 hours in advance of your appointment. We look forward to meeting you!

You can check a therapist's schedule online at this link by clicking the Request Appointment button. You will be prompted to select whether you are a new or existing client, and then select a clinician and a location. Although nothing will happen when you attempt to click on an appointment block if you are not an existing client, if your chosen therapist is accepting new clients, our administrative staff will be happy to assist you in scheduling that time. Please bear in mind that many of our therapists have waitlists, so available times on their schedule are only for existing clients.