Professional Fees and Other FAQs’

To make it easily affordable for even those without substantial means, I have deliberately kept the fees at a very nominal level with the intention of making counseling affordable to all. I provide counseling free for the first session. This is to provide an opportunity for the client to know me better and to make up his or her mind about continuing with the process.

I also provide a sliding scale which means the fees progressively come down after the first three visits. Fees would vary depending upon the complexity of the case, the duration of services that may be necessary, and other relevant factors. All these aspects would be discussed with the client at the time of the Intake Interview, and satisfactorily explained.

1. How is counseling different from consulting? What does Therapeutic Counseling mean?
Counseling encompasses within itself a whole range of concepts including consulting. Consulting may be one aspect of the counseling process depending upon the situation and the unique requirements of the client. One could get a better understanding of the finer nuances of counseling by the outcome of the process. An important objective during the process of counseling is to empower a person to see issues in the right perspective in a given situation thus enabling the person to handle himself or herself better in a given contingent situation.
Psychotherapeutic process is normally of a much longer duration and more often than not, administered for clients with more serious mental health issues. The process is more in the nature of mental rehabilitation of the client and the possibly of supplementing the medical treatment that the client is already under going.

2. How many sessions does one needs to go through in order to have the most optimal outcome and what would be the duration of each session?
The number of sessions that may be required would depend upon the unique requirements of the client and the nature of the issue on hand. The unique strengths and weaknesses of the client would also have to be considered carefully to decide on the number of sessions that may be required. However, it should be possible to have an idea on this after the first couple of sessions, so that the client could be mentally prepared for the same. Each counseling session typically lasts about 45 to 50 minutes.

3.What is the Counseling environment like?
It is absolutely important to ensure that the counseling environment is endearing, pleasant, congenial and reassuring to the client. Every effort is made to ensure that the physical aspects of the environment are in tune with the ethos of the profession and that would be instinctively comfortable to the client.

4.How does the interactive process between the Counselor and the client work?
The process of counseling is essentially through a dialectical mechanism or talk therapy as it is often described. A competent counselor determines the most suitable approach in carrying forward such a process. The ability of the counselor in being able to comprehend and assess the special requirements of the client during the initial sessions plays a significant role in determining the approach.

5.My personal privacy and confidentiality of information is of great concern to me. How would that be ensured?
While this is an important concern of most of the clients and understandably so, it is the first and foremost responsibility of the counselor to ensure that the personal privileges and sensibilities of the client are protected. So whatever personal information is confided in the counselor remains within the confines of the four walls of the counseling chamber. Most of the practitioners are trained professionals who clearly understand the importance of protecting the privacy of the client.
However, this is not without legal limitations where withholding of information may affect public interest or not in the interest of the client himself or would be in violation of the statutory legal requirements.

6.Can I opt out of the process after a few sessions?
Certainly. There is no binding contract upon the client to continue with the process if he or she does not feel like going ahead, for whatever reason though this is not all too common. Giving up the effort halfway would also deprive the client of reaping full benefits.

7.Why should I seek Counseling support?
There are times when one feels a compelling need to seek external support and guidance. The fact is that every individual sometime or other finds it beyond himself or herself to tackle particular challenges all alone. It is perfectly natural for one to lose objectivity and emotional equilibrium when one is confronted by a personal issue which may be of short and long term duration. What better course that one could think of in such a situation than to be seeking the support of a trained professional to guide him or her through the muddy waters, so to say.

8.What is the method of payment of fees?
Cheque, cash or through PayPal. A receipt will be provided for claiming insurance reimbursement where available. Contact your Insurance Agent for further details on this.

9.Do you have a refund policy?
Yes, I do have a refund policy. For details, see Terms, conditions and Policies Page and contact me if you need further clarification.

I provide services free for my first session. Subsequently, I provide a sliding scale which means that the fees would progressively come down after the first three sessions. Unfortunately, I am not able to provide free sessions or sliding scale for Email Counseling at this time though I provide responses to the two supplementary questions free of cost.

10. How does family counseling differ from individual counseling and would there be any need to invite third parties?
Depending upon the issue where the interests of an entirely family may be affected, family counseling could be rendered. But, here, it is important that the entirely family is interested in seeking counseling support. This is different from individual counseling as the process has been initiated by the entire family through its representative.
Third parties could be invited if it is felt that involving third parties such as family members or friends would be helpful for speedy recovery of the individual client. But involvement of third parties would have to be with the explicit consent of the client, when counseling has initially been sought only by the individual client.