Frequently Asked Questions
Counseling is a big decision. We want to make sure you find the right fit.
You may have some questions before you decide to work with us.
We do our best to update this regularly if any information changes, or if we hear from a few people asking the same questions. If you’d like an answer to a question and you can’t find it here, please feel free to send us an email or schedule a phone consult, and you’ll be directly in contact with our administrative assistant!
How do I choose the right counselor in St Louis?
There are many decisions that go into choosing the right therapist, and we know from the research that clinical fit is the most important component of actually making progress in therapy - which is why we’re so eager to connect you with the best counselor, even if we end up referring you out.
All of our St. Louis counselors specialize in anxiety and anxiety-driven anger for kids, teens, and college students. Additionally, our team has their own clinical backgrounds and approaches, meaning that, during our free consultation call, we can explore the pros and cons of working with an art therapist, or TF-CBT therapist, or therapist who uses a lot of mindfulness and relaxation.
Our intake coordinators know each therapist super in depth, so we can be sure that we’re pairing you and/or your child with the best possible fit - and if we’re not the best option for what’s going on, we’ll connect you with other great resources here in St. Louis.
How long does therapy take at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis?
Clients commit to at least 12 sessions, if we decide we’re a good fit following that initial meeting.
We’ll check in on progress every single week, and after the end of 12 weeks we’ll evaluate if we’re reaching goals. The kids and teens we work with really make a marked improvement when we commit to at least three months.
At the end of those 12 weeks, we either graduate from counseling, finish out services with a referral to someone else, or we continue to work together on our identified goals. About 70% of our clients decide to meet for longer than 12 sessions.
What if the counseling is not working?
Typically, the kids, teens, and college students we work with start to feel better, even by session 2 or 3. If we’re not seeing an improvement after a month of working together, we can change up our approach and make sure that we’re really targeting the things we need to target. And if we’re still not seeing an improvement, we want to look at potentially referring you out to another therapist, parenting coach, our outside resource.
We talk with you every week about our plan and our progress, and every session we ask how it went. We use evidence-based measures to make sure therapy is as effective as possible.
How do we let you know that we’re ready to finish therapy?
While we usually notice clinical improvement by session 2 or session 3, it takes time to sustain that positive growth. That’s the goal - that your child or teen (or you!) can handle challenges and stressors long term - not just feeling better once the crisis has passed.
Termination/Graduation Policy:
Because we work with so many minors, we know how important it is for kids and teens to have proper closure. Rather than a parent telling us last minute that it’s our final session, we ask that parents give us 30 days’ notice to make sure that we can properly terminate and close up our work together - rather than a kid or teen feeling like, all of a sudden, we’re no longer available.
Counseling digs into some deep, important stuff. To best honor that relationship, we want to make sure that you, as well as your child, are ready to move forward.
Want to learn more about how we know that we’re ready to finish therapy, and how we celebrate all the progress you’ve made?
Do you provide virtual anxiety therapy or in person therapy?
We’re providing virtual and in office options. You may end up meeting for some virtual sessions regardless, if you, your child, or your therapist is sick, and you’ll still need to meet our session minimum requirements.
Learn how to have an awesome, effective virtual session.
What’s your cancellation policy, especially during cold and flu season?
Kids and teens get sick! Grown-ups get sick, too. Many of our therapists have worked in schools, so we know how germs get passed around. That being said, our most important goal is maintaining clinical progress.
We require 48 hours’ notice for cancellation, even if you or your child is home sick. If you’re unable to come into the office, we can do a phone session or a video session (phone sessions usually aren’t reimbursable by insurance, but video sessions may be), or can use the time for a parent consultation session.
If you start to feel sick more than 48 hours before our appointment, let us know and we’re happy to take you off the schedule! It’s a lot easier for us to fit in another client who needs to meet when you give us enough advanced notice.
If your therapist is sick or cancels, you won’t be expected to pay for that missed session.
What about if the weather is bad?
Sometimes, the weather in St. Louis is bad - snow storms, icy streets, floods. Compassionate Counseling St. Louis rarely closes during inclement weather. If you ever feel unsafe making it to the office, you can cancel with 48+ hours notice. If it’s less than 48 hours, you will be expected to make it to session - but we can always offer a phone or virtual session instead.
If Compassionate Counseling St. Louis determines that the weather is dangerous and we cannot make it to the office as clinicians, we will offer phone or virtual sessions from our home as an option.
Again, this comes down to making sure that we’re maintaining clinical progress and honoring your and your child’s time. We can predict that St. Louis weather is unpredictable - meaning, we need to have a plan in place. We’ve found that maintaining session expectations during inclement weather means that we’re able to make clinical progress at the rate we expect.
How can we tell that counseling is helping my child, teenager, or myself?
Compassionate Counseling St. Louis is really big into tracking the data of what’s going on. We have every client fill out a weekly outcomes scale, and a weekly session rating scale. Because we’re pretty nerdy about the numbers, we graph the score each week. This way we can be really proactive about addressing concerns. The best predictor of a good clinical outcome is that therapeutic relationship, which we track through the session rating scale - so, the most important part of counseling is finding a therapist who is a good fit for you.
Want to learn more about how we track the data? Check out:
Why do you require weekly counseling sessions?
From tracking outcomes and doing the research, we know that weekly session work best for our clients. We actually progress a lot faster instead of taking two steps forward and one step back. Sessions are typically 45 minutes long on a weekly basis.
Ok, that’s great, but actually I think I might need more of your time?
A great option is to tack on some additional time so that we can actually meet for 70 minutes! And, some people do really well meeting twice a week.
Sometimes there’s a big event coming up, or you or your therapist have been out of town for a week or two. If you feel there’s more going on than we can comfortably cover during a 10 minute parent check in, or your session feels too rushed to cover everything that happened, we might benefit from doing an additional 30 minutes every now and then.
What’s your availability for therapy?
Rather than worrying about scheduling a different time every single week, we set aside a weekly appointment time that’s protected for you - we won’t schedule anyone else during your time.
We offer appointments Monday through Saturday at a variety of different times to best accommodate busy schedules. Because that session slot is saved for each client, you may have to start sessions with our therapists at a less than ideal time.
We know how important it is to get you into counseling when you’re ready. So, if you’re unable to commit to a weekly time from what session slots we have available, we want to be sure to refer you out to someone who may be able to better accommodate that scheduling need. Once you’re an established client, we’ll be sure to offer you new appointment times before opening it up to the public - you get first dibs!
Can we meet after school?
With multiple trained therapists working at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, we offer morning, evening, and Saturday appointments. If we have an afternoon session time become available, we give first dibs to current clients. If you’re able to at least start with a non-preferred session time, your therapist may be able to give you dibs when your ideal time opens up. Let’s set up a phone consultation to see if we’re a good fit, and then we can talk about scheduling options.
If you can really only make after school work and we have no afternoon slots available, we’re happy to provide referrals to other therapists or counselors in the St. Louis area who may have a more flexible schedule.
And, some times of the year our schedule really opens up, and we’re easily able to accommodate afternoons - so, the best way to find out is to set up that initial phone consultation.
Do you provide play therapy in St. Louis?
All of our therapists incorporate components of play therapy, especially when we’re working with young children. Our trained counselors incorporate tons of different interventions, and we tailor it to what’s going on. We may use CBT, ACT, PCIT interventions, in addition to mindfulness, yoga, or art therapy.
Compassionate Counseling St. Louis: No “one size fits all” approach.
With anxiety, overwhelm, and anger management, the most important component of work is helping you and/or your child feel like those emotions are less out of control. So, we tailor our approach to each client - and we make sure that we’re really hitting the nail on the head with regular check ins.
I’m moving to a new state/I don’t live in Missouri. Can you still be my anxiety therapist?
Therapists, including clinical social workers and licensed professional counselors, are typically not allowed to work with clients across state lines unless they are licensed in that state. Our therapists are licensed in Missouri, meaning we can only work with families who live in Missouri.
Sometimes, we can be granted a temporary license to work across state lines, but this is typically time limited, and certain states will never allow it. We usually try to find someone awesome located in your state.
Therapy for College Students:
We love love love working with college students. When you move to a new college in a new state, it can be tough to let go of your therapist! We work with you to find a great counselor in your new college town. When you’re home for summer break, and are residing in Missouri, we’re happy to see you! Learn more here:
How do you keep my/my child’s counseling and treatment information secure?
All client records are stored in a cloud based system with bank level encryption that is HIPAA certified, encrypted, and kept secure. Here is an up to date list of all the ways your information remains secure: https://www.simplepractice.com/security
I’m ready to get started with Compassionate Counseling in St. Louis. What do I need to do next?
Instead of playing phone tag, let’s have you pick out the best time to talk! You can do so by clicking on this button right here: