Preston Counseling, PLLC requires at least 24 hours’ notice for appointment cancellations. Whether you’re a new client or a regular, cancellations without at least 24 hours’ notice will be charged a fee of $80. Thank you for respecting this cancellation policy, as our appointments are limited. Your cooperation allows us to offer open appointment slots to someone else in need.

Telehealth has made counseling more convenient and accessible for more people, which is why I offer virtual counseling. Plus, most insurances cover tele-counseling — for now. However, in person counseling is a much better quality experience!

It’s better to confront our problems than to avoid or hide from them. Many people turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms like alcohol, drugs, avoidance, or overcommitting to distract themselves from their challenges. However, addressing these issues can sometimes feel harder before it gets easier, especially when starting counseling. This is because we often protect ourselves from negative emotions by denying, compartmentalizing, or distracting ourselves, but these defenses can only hold for so long before dysfunction surfaces. Unresolved psychological issues tend to manifest in harmful ways, taking control over our lives. By openly exploring and addressing these challenges, counseling can lead to lasting relief and improved daily functioning over time.

Appointments are approximately 50 minutes long. Most clients benefit from sessions once a week initially. Then, based on progress we can go to every other week and so on. Since each client is unique and has different goals, this varies. If the problems are relatively simple and clear, it may only take five sessions. If the issues are more complex and deep, it may take ten to fifteen sessions or more. Most of my client’s feel a sense of relief and insight within 12 sessions.

Probably. Most of the time insurance will cover counseling. Please provide Preston Counseling with your insurance info so they can check and let you know what your counseling benefits are.

Honesty, Sincerity, Genuiness and Frankness: A good therapist is someone who will be honest with you, but not so honest that it is harmful to you. The key is honesty and frankness with tact. Therapy isn’t about bringing you down, it is about helping you examine yourself in an open and honest way that is supportive so that you can learn and grow. If your therapist is overprotective of you, your therapist isn’t trusting your personal ability to heal. In reality, healing is up to you, not your therapist. Your therapist needs to trust your ability to heal yourself and not protect you from the truth, but on the other hand, it isn’t helpful if you walk away from therapy feeling attacked or abused. Truth is only good if it is used to strengthen you. It is not helpful if it is used against you. Often the truth can be very painful, but a good therapist will be honest with you without being harmful towards you. Truth used as a weapon isn’t healing truth, it is abuse.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It. If something is working in your life, it isn’t in need of repair. A good therapist is going to focus on your strengths and help you learn to use your strengths when facing areas of weakness. Your strengths don’t need fixing, they are already working. A good rule of thumb is, if it is working do more of it. If it isn’t working, try something else, but if it is already working, there is no reason to change what is working for you.

Trustworthy: This is something that is critical. Therapy is a very personal and private relationship. It is important that you can trust your therapist, and more importantly, that your therapist is someone who is worthy of the trust you give. A trustworthy therapist is someone who listens to you, is dependable, has good professional boundaries, and doesn’t throw surprises your way, but is predictable. If you know that when you go to therapy at 3:00pm, your therapist is going to be there at 3:00pm, see you for the full session time, is going to treat you with respect, set limits if necessary, and can be counted on, then you are working with a trustworthy therapist.

Yes. Most major health insurance plans are accepted. Preston Counseling can check your benefits and let you know what they are.

If you are not covered by health insurance or you elect not to use your health insurance, Preston Counseling charges $140 for the initial evaluation session. Once you have completed the initial assessment, the fee is $120 for individual counseling and $130 for sessions with more than one person in the room with the counselor.

To schedule your first appointment, we require a credit card or debit card to be on file.