FAQs

Talk therapy has been proven to be helpful for a individuals, couples, and families experiencing a wide variety of problems. The kinds of individuals and problems that can be helped by therapy are too vast to be listed here, but one’s motivation to understand themselves and openness to the process are important for each client who strives to be helped by therapy. Also of crucial importance is the therapist’s ability to be skilled, empathic, and trustworthy. With good therapy, positive results can usually be expected.

Therapists become qualfied through usually 2-5 years of graduate schooling that include focused academic and clinical clinical training in human development behavior, relational dynamics, and evidence-supported therapeutic approaches . Most friends do not.

Clinicians also are trained to listen in order to understand why their clients experience the problems they do; encourage critical thinking and honest self-reflection; and illuminate their psychological "blind spots", so to speak.

Therapy is a safe, supportive, empathic space to explore the aspects of your self that you are likely unwilling or able to productivly explore within the context of friendships or other personal relationships.

Therapy is a process, not an event, and important features of successful therapy, such as developing trust and comfortability with a therapist, do not follow strict timetables. 

Part of what makes success in therapy so difficult to measure—or even explain—is the fact that success means different things to different providers, in different kinds of therapy, and for different conditions or purposes.

Orchard Wellness offers 45 and 50-55 minute sessions for individuals. 

Couples and family sessions can either be conducted in 50-55 minute sessions or 75 minute increments if necessary.

Clinicians at Orchard Wellness will make a clinical recommendation based on your particular situation, however meeting with a therapist once or twice a week is commonly recommended.

Diagnosing psychological disorders can at times be tricky even for mental health professionals.

The reason for this is twofold:

1. Disorders of the mind cannot be measured the way biological disorders can.  There is no “emotional thermometer”, no blood test that can definitively identify dysfunction. Rather we measure what are known as “constructs”. A construct is a method of classifying something concepts, like depression, anxiety, psychosis.  Mental health professionals are trained to look for symptoms that can be tell-tale signs of a specific “construct” or diagnosis. This brings up the second way that diagnosing can be tricky.

2.  Many psychiatric disorders that are actually very different, share some similar symptoms.  So being able to differentiate one diagnosis from another becomes extremely important. Sometimes the diagnosis can be easily identified. Other times in more complex cases psychological testing can be utilized in order to definitively pinpoint a specific diagnosis.

Accuracy in diagnosis is logically extremely important, but there are some situations where precision is even more crucial.

Within the legal system there are situations where being diagnosed with a particular disorder can make the difference between a legal victory or loss, or even guilt or innocence. In these cases, both lawyers and their clients should be aware of this fact, and only visit a mental health professional skilled in testing and assessment as well as report writing in the realm of forensics.

Another situation where psychological testing is absolutely crucial is in diagnosing learning disorders. Often there are small differences between performance in certain cognitive and academic areas that may indicate the presence of a learning disability. These details CANNOT be detected during an interview or even a classroom observation. Only certain tests can detect, for instance, a discrepancy between visual and auditory processing.

When a situation such as the examples above call for diagnostic accuracy and precision psychological assessments can be extremely valuable.  Be sure to contact a mental health professional with expertise in this area however, because an incorrect diagnosis or poorly written report will only further exacerbate the presenting problem.

Orchard Wellness is in-network with most BCBS-PPO, Aetna-PPO, and Cigna/Evernorth-PPO healthcare plans. 

Therapy and medication are often used together for maximum benefit. There are some disorders where medications are almost always used, such as with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder).  Those suffering from other symptoms, such as those related to depression and anxiety, can benefit from medication, even if it only serves as a temporary fix until the effects of therapy take hold. Medications typically work faster than therapy but once discontinued, the symptoms will return unless the underlying issues are resolved. Therapy is a slower process and results may not be felt as quickly, but it is a longer term solution for many mental health issues.

Each clinician at Orchard Wellness reserves a portion of their caseload to accept patients at a reduced fee arrangement. Please contact us to learn more!