(910) 491-0017
FAQ
General Questions
What are your hours?
Appointments available between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Appointments available afternoons on Saturdays and Sundays.
How long are counseling sessions?
How do I set up an initial appointment?
Call (910) 491-0017 or email info@rebeccacrainphd.com to set up an initial consultation.
Do you take insurance?
What is your cancellation policy?
Research has shown that consistent attendance is essential for therapy to be effective. If you need to reschedule or cancel an appointment, please call the office as soon as possible to let us know. This advance notice allows us to use that time to help other clients on the waitlist.
The office phone number is (910) 491-0017.
Therapy Questions
With what ages do you work?
Are you LGBTQ friendly?
How long will I be in therapy?
How do you gather information and track progress in therapy?
Before starting our first therapy session, you will receive a link to create a login and password for your therapy portal. Once logged into the system, you will complete some intake forms.
The intake questionnaire asks for information pertinent to your counseling goals and corresponding background information.
Goal monitoring occurs throughout our time in therapy by talking with you and completing follow-up instruments as needed.
How do I set goals and establish a plan in therapy?
Goals for therapy are what you want to address or accomplish. As your therapist, I will help you clarify and establish these goals. We will talk through what feels realistic to tackle in therapy.
Goal setting is an essential step because it allows you to be intentional and stay focused on therapy. Topics can include significant events, interpersonal challenges, changes in feelings, problematic behaviors, etc.
Will I work in between sessions on my therapy goals?
Do you address client cultural and identity in the session?
How do we terminate therapy?
Progress in therapy is an ongoing and evolving process. Taking a break from therapy and determining an endpoint is a natural part of this process.
This does not necessarily mean that you have met all your goals, and growth and challenges continue when counseling ends. If you feel ready to stop or take a break from counseling, please let us know.
Talking directly about ending counseling can be a valuable opportunity to discuss strategies for maintaining progress.
What are the risks and benefits of therapy?
At your first session and during the informed consent process, we will discuss the potential risks and benefits of therapy.
Risks:
Undergoing the process of therapy can be uncomfortable. Research shows that 10% of folks who start therapy will feel worse than before they started (https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-21/edition-1/when-therapy-causes-harm).
Therapy can bring up feelings such as sadness, anger, and anxiety. The risks vary depending on the presenting problem. For instance, discussing trauma may bring up painful memories. Seeking guidance on setting boundaries in a relationship may bring up tension among those who’d rather overstep your boundaries.
Therapy requires vulnerability. Past hurts or betrayals may make it hard for you to trust and be vulnerable. Therapy may even feel like your symptoms worsen before improving. This feeling is temporary, though, as you will learn methods to cope with the symptoms.
We will also check-in to make sure it is tolerable and feels like something you will move through.
Finally, there is a monetary cost to therapy and an investment of your time. Therapy is a non-linear healing process and can take time to work.
Benefits:
Of course, there are ways to mitigate all these risks. There are several core factors researchers believe are responsible for transformative change in the therapy process.
Meta-analyses of research on therapeutic outcomes have found that the core factors or ‘common factors’ include the therapeutic alliance, empathy, goal consensus and collaboration, positive regard and affirmation, mastery, congruence/genuineness, mentalization, and emotional experience. By maximizing these core factors, therapists can increase therapy efficacy.
Nahum D., Alfonso C.A., Sönmez E. (2019) Common Factors in Psychotherapy. In: Javed A., Fountoulakis K. (eds) Advances in Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70554-5_29 –
The American Psychological Association found that people receiving therapy are 80% more likely to improve than those not receiving treatment. I maximize this for my clients by measuring where you are at each session to act quickly to minimize time spent on therapeutic efforts that aren’t helping and to focus on those that are helping.
Deciding to make an appointment to seek help can offer relief and hope. Often, we benefit from an objective point of view and from someone who is “on your side.” Therapy is all about you and your goals. Even though therapy can be uncomfortable, you can trust that I want your success and be your cheerleader.
Traditionally, therapy has often focused on deficits and pathology, but I like to focus on my clients’ strengths. When you doubt yourself, I will remind you of those strengths and identify those that you might not see in yourself.
One possible benefit of therapy is discovering new strengths and positive aspects of yourself that you had but were unaware of and perhaps developing those even further.
Previous clients of mine have reported the following benefits and more:
- improved relationships
- improved communication skills
- improved coping methods
- increased insight and clearer personal goals
- ability to set boundaries and communicate assertively
- increased self-respect and respect from others
- more self-esteem, self-efficacy and self-confidence
- processing unresolved emotions and difficult memories
- decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety
- a caring, interested listener focused on helping you
- increased self-acceptance
- less guilt, anger, resentment and fear
- better ability to manage anger and frustration
- improved quality of life
Questions About Me
What’s your professional experience?
I have 10 years of experience as a counselor. Before forming my private practice, I worked in a variety of mental health settings, including university mental health, community mental health, immigrant and minority mental health, integrated primary and behavioral health, correctional setting, and public schools.
I have recently been a staff psychologist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Florida Counseling and Wellness Center.
What’s your education and training?
I received a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from the North Carolina State University. My Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology is from Oklahoma State University, a doctoral program accredited by the American Psychological Association.
I completed an internship at the University of Akron Counseling and Testing Center in Akron, OH, and attended a postdoctoral fellowship at Florida State University College of Medicine in Immokalee, FL, where I received specialty training in Traumatic Stress.
What are your favorite 'go-to' expressions in therapy and what do you mean by that?
1. Guilt and shame are useless emotions, more often than not. Unless you’ve done something wrong, need to make amends, change your attitude/behavior/etc., guilt and shame are not very helpful. They keep us stuck. If you’ve done wrong to someone or yourself: identify what went awry; take responsibility and apologize, as needed; correct what you can; forgive yourself; and move on. Guilt and shame are often invoked because of improper conditioning to take on the responsibilities of others or to invoke punishment. Others or many institutions can use them to manipulate and control.
2. Life is too terribly beautiful and short to suffer alone and in silence.
3. You are the expert on your own life. Trust your inner voice. You likely already know what you need. I will seldom tell you something that you do not already know.
What are your professional affiliations?
What are your hobbies and interests?
I enjoy salsa dancing, reading, running, and playing with my dogs in my off time.