Remote Counselling Sessions

If your preference is video, we will use a web-based telemedicine platform. Just before your session, you’ll click on the link https://doxy.me/evenkeelhealth and follow a few simple, step by step instructions to sign in and to enable your camera and microphone.

You’ll be brought in to a virtual waiting room and I will soon after bring you into the virtual office. It is really that easy. No need to set up a new application!

Free introduction session

This intro session is not a full first counselling / therapy session.

Essentially, it is a “Meet and Greet” and is intended to be brief – typically 20 minutes, and is meant to address issues such as personal concerns about starting therapy, logistical issues (e.g. fees, payment methods, insurance coverage, using technologies, confidentiality, preserving privacy, etc.) .

During this time together, I also take a few moments to explain my approach as a nurse practitioner compared to that of a social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist.

This short session gives you a chance to get answers to some of your questions and to alleviate some of the nervousness faced by most people, when getting started with a new healthcare provider.

During the intro session, we won’t get into assessing your situation in detail. I won’t ask for a lot of personal information. I won’t provide health advice.

This type of session is about deciding if we are a good fit and if we want to get started.

When availability permits, some people choose to go forward right from the intro session and transition to a “first session”. Other people will take some time to reflect and then call to schedule a first session.

First session

Once someone schedules a first session, I usually send an email with information about “what to expect in a first session”. Attached to the email you will find one or two questionnaires to print and fill out. Completing those before the first session is not mandatory but tends to speed up the intake process. If you are curious about the type of info I seek, you can find a downloadable pdf for the Initial Consultation Form (ICF).

I often use questionnaires and assessment tools as part of my approach. Used properly they allow us to cover important information efficiently and help point to areas which require more attention. Completing them outside the session allows extra time for reflection and to refer to information sources not always readily available.

Unless there is something extremely pressing, the first session is typically used to gather information about the state of your physical and mental health and can sometimes feel like playing 20 questions. That is not typical of sessions in general.

In the course of the following sessions, we will explore in more depth what is problematic and what can be done to alleviate your suffering.

In our first session, we also decide together what is the best duration, frequency and preferred interval pattern for the sessions to come. This can change over time, obviously, but it is fair to expect that having a few, frequent sessions to get started, is useful practice.