Frequently Asked Questions

I would first ask, what does it mean to you?  

I think there are a variety of ways you can interpret the meaning, and they are all meaningful to me.   

Whether we’re talking about unwanted behaviors rooted in our past, or growing deeper personal roots through the storms of past and present life experiences, or we’re talking about the water that nourishes our souls… In the end, a life rooted well is a life well lived.

No, not at this time.

No, not at this time. Due to the Oregon state licensing board rules, psychologists can only work with clients who are in the state of Oregon. There is a national coalition to allow for work across state lines, but Oregon has yet to join.  

Adults 18 years and older.

-Working with Trauma-

While I have a great deal of experience working with a wide range of people and clinical issues, I have much experience and passion working with clients who have a history of trauma of all varieties that is impacting their present life.  This may show up with issues in relationships, anxiety, mood, anger, substance use, or other behaviors that are no longer serving us.

Often we are unaware of our how past is impacting the present, but it does, sometimes in profound ways. These are the roots we need dug up while cultivating new and sustaining roots that will help us weather all the storms life will bring.  

-Interest in Spirituality-

Being a person of faith who found their way into church years ago, attended Christian universities and taken many undergraduate and graduate courses related to theology, I also love to integrate in one’s personal faith practice into this recovery work if desired.  If this does not describe you, I will always honor and work within your worldview.

-Action Oriented-

While making meaningful and personal changes shouldn’t be rushed, I am a doer by nature and am geared toward action in life and in therapy.  

If you are ready to lean into the hard work of change, we would be a great match.

We have a virtual HIPPA compliant web based service through Simple Practice that we connect through. It is a secure and confidential program that allows us to video conference for your appointments. In addition to the video conference, we might share things via a virtual whiteboard or screen share something we are working on together. Otherwise, the process is the same as in-person therapy. Please ensure you have a private space with good internet connection.  A private link for the meeting will be sent to you prior to your appointment.

Research shows that services delivered via telephone or videoconferencing has similar outcomes to traditional in-person therapy [2,6,8,9,11,14], and that it has been an effective modality for a variety of mental health concerns including anxiety [6,14], depression [2,9,11,14], PTSD [2,9,14] and adjustment disorder [14], among others. Clients generally report high degrees of satisfaction with telehealth visits for their medical care [1,7,12], and with their virtual mental health care [4,13,16]. Following our recent pandemic when virtual services became the norm, clients reported interest in continued access to virtual care postpandemic [3,4,13].

We hear clients expressing the appreciation for the flexibility virtual therapy creates for scheduling, privacy, and finding a therapist. If you live any where in Oregon, we can do therapy together. For some who live in areas where mental health care is sparse, this creates opportunity to receive top notch services. There is convenience in reducing the time and money spent traveling, and great flexibility for where and how we meet (at home, work, in your car, or any other area where you have some privacy). You may find that virtual therapy brings the experience more intimately and practically into your daily life. Some people also report feeling more freedom to be open and honest in a virtual setting.  

1. Check our Contact Page  to see if we are currently accepting new clients.  
2. Use the Contact Page to let us know you are interested.  Including some basic information about why you are seeking services is helpful.
3. Our clinic will reach out to coordinate a time for a 5-15minute chat about what you're looking for, you can ask questions, and we can decide if this we feel like a good fit. 
4. If our caseload is full, then you will get an email asking if you want to be on our waitlist. In this case, we will email you periodically to see if you still want to remain on our waitlist.  We will share the approximate timeline.
5. If it mutually feels like working together would be a good fit following our brief consultation, our clinic will email you a link to a patient portal where you can schedule an appointment and complete the necessary paperwork prior to our meeting. If it doesn’t feel like the right fit, we will do our best of offer some other referral options.
6. After you have completed intake forms, consent forms, payment information, and scheduled an appointment, we will email you with a secure video conference link prior to the appointment.
7. Our first session will be longer (90 minutes) and we will talk about your history, life, concerns, and symptoms. We will also talk about your goals and where we will be heading in therapy.
8. Subsequent therapy sessions are scheduled for 50 minutes.  We will work together to find times that work with both of our schedules.
9. Therapy will last as long we both feel it is helping and/or until you have reached your goals.

We generally have availability on weekdays during business hours.

That really depends on what you are looking for and needing. Some might be able to meet for a few sessions to get some direction or unstuck at a junction in life. Others may extend out months or years. Our preference at Rooted Well Counseling is to plan on a shorter timeframe with the goal of efficiently sorting through the peripheral issues and symptoms to identify and address the root issues. We will then reevaluate if we need to continue the more intensive therapy, enter a maintenance phase, or conclude therapy. We will utilize some tools to measure the effects of therapy along the way to help inform these decisions. It is always our goal to work ourself out of a job with you.

Typically once a week or every other week, but we can discuss and adjust this as we go along. Some clients like to have less frequent maintenance sessions after initial goals are met.

We value Feedback Informed Treatment where we will be measuring progress and your experience in therapy. It is not uncommon to feel a little worse before feeling better. In general, if our work is going to be helpful, we will see signs sooner than later. In the rare case that it is not helpful, we’ll reevaluate and consult after 3-4 sessions, and consider an alternative referral no later than 10 sessions if there is not evidence of progress.  

• Be willing to be open, honest and amenable for changes.
• Be willing to to be uncomfortable and to try new things… doing the same things over and over will only get you more of the same.
• Create and protect the time and space for therapy in your life.
• Engage in therapeutic work or exercises in-between therapy sessions.
• Ensure ahead of time that you have your technology equipment setup for our meetings.
• Have completed all forms and tasks in you patient portal.
• Be on time for our appointments. We will do our best to hold strictly to our time slot, whether you are present or not; we need to do this out of respect for you, and the clients we are meeting before and after you.

Please call the most appropriate service:

• Medical emergency services by dialing 911
• For a crisis line specific to your county, please visit: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/preventionwellness/safeliving/suicideprevention/pages/crisislines.aspx
• Oregon’s suicide and crisis line (Lines for Life) by dialing 988  
• Lines for Life also has more specific phone lines for 
  • Alcohol and drug help at 800-923-4357
  • Military help at 888-457-4838
  • Racial equity support at 503-575-3764
  • Senior loneliness help at 503-200-1633
  • Youth helpline at 877-968-8491

Rooted Well is committed to giving back a portion of its proceeds to local organizations supporting the lives and mental health of local individuals. These currently include: Oregon’s Lines for Life (www.linesforlife.org), the National Alliance of Mental Illness (www.namioregon.org), and Love INC Tigard-Tualatin-Sherwood (www.loveinc-tts.org).

You may have noticed some little footnote indicators [#].  These correspond to the research from the following books and journal articles:

[1] Andrews, E., Berghofer, K., Long, J., Prescott, A., & Caboral-Stevens, M. (2020). Satisfaction with the use of telehealth during COVID-19: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances, 2, 100008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnsa.2020.100008

[2] Bellanti, D. M., Kelber, M. S., Workman, D. E., Beech, E. H., & Belsher, B. E. (2022). Rapid review on the effectiveness of telehealth interventions for the treatment of behavioral health disorders. Military Medicine, 187(5–6), e577–e588. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usab318

[3] Benudis, A., Re’em, Y., Kanellopoulos, D., Moreno, A., & Zonana, J. (2022). Patient and provider experiences of telemental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in a New York City academic medical center. Psychiatry Research, 311, 114496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114496

[4] Goetter, E. M., Iaccarino, M. A., Tanev, K. S., Furbish, K. E., Xu, B., & Faust, K. A. (2022). Telemental health uptake in an outpatient clinic for veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic and assessment of patient and provider attitudes. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 53(2), 151–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000437

[5] Hubble, M. A., Duncan, B. L, & Miller S. D. (Eds.). (1999). The heart and soul of change: What works in therapy. American Psychological Association. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/11132-000

[6] Krzyzaniak, N., Greenwood, H., Scott, A. M., Peiris, R., Cardona, M., Clark, J., & Glasziou, P. (2021). The effectiveness of telehealth versus face-to face interventions for anxiety disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Society for Telemedicine and Telecare, 30(2), 250–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X211053738

[7] Kyle, M. A., Blendon, R. J., Findling, M. G., & Benson, J. M. (2021). Telehealth use and satisfaction about U.S. households: Results of a national survey. Journal of Patient Experience, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23743735211052737

[8] Lin, T., Heckman, T. G., & Anderson, T. (2022). The efficacy of synchronous teletherapy versus in-person therapy: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 29(2), 167–178. https://doi.org/10.1037/cps0000056

[9] McClellan, M. J., Osbaldiston, R., Wu, R., Yeager, R., Monroe, A. D., McQueen, T., & Dunlap, M. H. (2022). The effectiveness of telepsychology with veterans: A meta-analysis of services delivered by videoconference and phone. Psychological Services, 19(2), 294–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0000522

[10] Norcross, J. (2009). The Therapeutic Relationship. In B. Duncan, S. Miller, B. Wampold, & M. Hubble (eds.). The Heart and Soul of Change. Washington, D.C.: APA Press. https://doi.org/10.1037/11132-000

[11] Schiller, C. E., Prim, J., Bauer, A. E., Lux, L., Lundegard, L. C., Kang, M., Hellberg, S., Thompson, K., Webber, T., Teklezghi, A., Pettee, N., Gaffney, K., Hodgins, G., Rahman, F., Steinsiek, J. N., Modi, A., & Gaynes, B. N. (2023). Efficacy of virtual care for depressive disorders: Systemic review and meta-analysis. JMIR Mental Health, 10, e38955. https://doi.org/10.2196/38955

[12] Shaver, J. (2022). The state of telehealth before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, 49(4), 517–530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pop.2022.04.002

[13] Steidtmann, D., McBride, S., & Mishkind, M. (2022). Patient experiences with telemental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Patient Experience, 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23743735221145077

[14] Varker, T., Brand, R. M., Ward, J., Terhaag, S., & Phelps, A. (2019). Efficacy of synchronous telepsychology interventions for people with anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and adjustment disorder: A rapid evidence assessment. Psychological Services, 16(4), 621–635. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0000239

[15] Wampold, B. (2001). The Great Psychotherapy Debate. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203893340

[16] Zimmerman, M., D’Avanzato, C., & King, B. T. (2023). Telehealth treatment of patients with major depressive disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comparative safety, patient satisfaction, and effectiveness to prepandemic in-person treatment. Journal of Affective Disorders, 323, 624–630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.12.015