Patient Information: This is a general overview of some of the questions new patients ask:
Length And Scheduling Of Sessions:
Sessions are 45-50 minutes in length. The last 10-15 minutes of
the hour allow your therapist to take some notes, pick up phone messages, and
prepare for the next person's visit. Before the end of your session, you and
your therapist will discuss when to schedule your next visit. The therapist will
try to end sessions on time in order to avoid unnecessary delays for you and
other patients. It is best to be on time since if you are late for your session,
it may not be possible to run beyond the scheduled time.
Canceling Or Changing
Appointments:
If you would like to reschedule an appointment, try to
provide 24 hours notice whenever possible so that another patient can be
scheduled in your place. In the absence of 24 hours advance notice, a full
charge will be made for the missed session.
We will be happy to make an exception to the 24 hour notice
policy if we are able to schedule another patient or if you have a medical
emergency. If it is impossible to commute due to weather conditions, you can cancel without penalty or a phone
session can be conducted.
Billing:
You will be asked pay for
each session at the beginning of that session by cash or check (except for Medicare patients). We can maximize
our use of therapy time if you will write the check beforehand. Notify us if you
have insurance coverage and a billing statement listing the dates and fees of
all sessions will be prepared for you. Reimbursement
payments will be made directly to you and to us for Medicare patients. Since there is
considerable variation in the amount of reimbursement that various policies
provide, you might want to call your insurance office to find out the amount you
will receive.
Emergency Phone Calls:
From time to time it may be necessary for you to call us due
to an emergency which cannot wait until the next scheduled session. For example,
a serious difficulty may arise in your life which leaves you feeling helpless or
suicidal. In such cases, call us. For brief calls, of course, no charge will be made. If you require
a longer call, a charge will be made, depending on the length of the telephone
therapy session. At present, we have a secretary and an answering machine at (301) 951-3668. If
you call, please leave your name, phone number, and message so we
can return your call as soon as possible. If unable to get in touch go to the
nearest emergency room.
Length Of Treatment:
The duration of treatment is variable and depends on such
factors as type, severity, and longevity of the problems being treated. The
degree of teamwork between you and your therapist is of considerable importance,
and those clients who work hardest to improve and do their "homework" between
therapy sessions usually make the most rapid gains.
Self-Help Outside Of Sessions:
A particularly important predictor of how rapidly you will
respond to therapy concerns the amount of self-help work you are willing to do
between sessions. This involves reading books and articles relevant to the
treatment, keeping written records for analyzing your thoughts and feelings, and
adopting more productive and satisfying behavior patterns. Those individuals who
have been willing to set aside time each day to do this self-help work have, in
general, responded most rapidly to the treatment and have experienced the most
long-lasting results. In contrast, individuals who have not been willing to
follow through on a systematic self-help program have been slower to respond. At
the end of most sessions, your therapist will help you design a self-help
program to be completed between sessions.
