Hi Parents! Welcome to Empower and Elevate Counseling. So you scheduled your intake session with your child’s therapist, now what? As a child, teen, and adult therapist working at E&E, I wanted to give you a look at what happens during the parent intake and the first session with your child. Before the parent intake session, you will receive a link that takes you to our paperwork where you will disclose some information and read our policies and procedures. The intake paperwork is an essential part of the therapeutic process.

Now, let’s start with the parent intake. In the parent intake session, we get to know each other a bit better and discuss what the therapeutic journey will look like. Parent Intake sessions can be done either in person or virtually at our Woodlands or Cypress location. The intake session is designed for you to provide as much detail as you can, offering valuable context and background information for your child’s therapist. Together, we will explore goals such as improving coping skills, decreasing anxiety, enhancing communication, managing anger, and much more. During this session, we will discuss your concerns, your child’s history, confidentiality measures, and what you hope to achieve through therapy for your child.

I will ask a lot of questions! Some of these questions are about your child’s development, family dynamics, any past experience with therapy, and what brings you to seek support. We also encourage you to ask a lot of questions, as well! You can ask me about what kind of therapy I do, how therapy works, how to track progress, and any question you may think of. Even if you forget, you can also email or reach out after the intake session to have your question answered. The goal for the parent intake is to collaborate in order to best support your child!

Once you feel comfortable moving forward to having the first therapy session, my main goal is to build rapport and establish a sense of trust with your child. Depending on your child or teen, we might play games, do some fun activities, or simply chat about their interests and what’s been going on in their world lately. I’ll also start to gather more information about their strengths, challenges, and goals for therapy. We will also discuss confidentiality!

It’s okay if your child does not open up right away. Therapy is a gradual process, and it’s totally normal for it to take some time for them to feel comfortable opening up. My job is to create a safe and supportive space where they can explore their thoughts and feelings at their own pace. We honor that everyone adapts differently to being vulnerable and we’ll meet your child where they are at.