Make an Appointment: [email protected] | 217-637-0229

  • banner image

    What To Expect In Your 1st In-Office Appt.

    Once you set your first appointment, I will send you an invitation to your client portal and some documents to review and sign.

    I use a platform for my documents called Simple Practice. It is highly encrypted and therefore secure.

    Each of you fills out an intake prior to the session. I will have reviewed it before we meet. 

    My wife and I did years of remodeling in order for me to move the practice to our home. We are ready for you.

    Our desire was to take relationship counseling out of a clinical setting and put it in a home since most of marriage takes place in a home.

    I have included a picture of our house so when your GPS gets you to 2101 Winchester Drive, you will be confident that you are in the right place.

    Just ring the front door bell a couple minutes before our session and I’ll let you in. No need to remove your shoes. We’ll go to my private office area, and I will offer you a drink. We will sit in comfortable chairs, roll up our sleeves and get to work building a better, stronger marriage.

    At the beginning of the session, I will give a brief introduction and then help you share your story and articulate why you are seeking help. 

    My goal for the first session is to discover the target that must be addressed in order to help you have a better, stronger marriage. 

    To do that, I need to understand what you are feeling and what you need in order to feel happier in your relationship. Therefore, I will find out what is working in order to build on your strengths. I will also find out what isn’t working. 

    This information will lead to the three of us forming a plan and attacking it in subsequent sessions.

    Before we end our first session, I will likely give you homework. Frequently, it is a couple communication questionnaires for you to fill out.

    One of the documents you fill out prior to meeting is a credit card form. Simple Practice uses Stripe which is similar to Square and PayPal. At the end of each session, I will charge the session to your card.

    I take copious notes on my iPad so when you see me looking down, it is because I am writing. Taking notes helps me to remember and better plan for our sessions.

    It is very important that I am confident I get where you are coming from and that you are confident I get where you are coming from. Therefore, at the beginning of the second session, I will summarize my notes from the first session and give you the opportunity to clarify anything I have misunderstood or unintentionally misrepresented.