Questions about Counseling in Central, MN

Counseling is a dynamic process where a trained therapist joins with a person who is hurting and desires healing.

As one of the first licensed clinics in the St. Cloud area, we are able to submit insurance claims for most clients to their insurance companies. Most insurance plans do not cover 100 percent of all charges. Please verify your coverage, deductibles, and co-pay/co-insurances with your health insurance provider.

If you decide to start counseling you can call us at (320) 253-3540 and set up your first appointment called the “intake session.” We ask that you complete your intake forms electronically (no printing required), in which we send to you an email link or reserve and come in at least 48 hours before your appointment and complete your forms electronically with our guest tablet in our office.

It is important to understand that your first session is not really therapy. Like all licensed clinics, counseling starts with the intake session. It is an intake session because your therapist has to “take in” information about you and your situation in order to provide a billable diagnosis for insurance carriers and to create your individualized treatment plan. Sometimes the intake will be continued into your second session; it all depends on how much information is gathered in the first session. Your therapist will let you know if the intake needs to be continued for your second session.

Once the intake is complete, your therapist will come up with an appropriate billable diagnosis and create an individualized treatment plan to address your situation and work on healing. You and your therapist will go over your treatment plan and address any questions. Then you and your therapist will sign and date the treatment plan. After the intake session is done and the treatment plan is signed, therapy begins.

Although none of us can predict the future, the treatment plan that your therapist creates for you will have a completed section regarding the “anticipated date of resolution” which is the estimated end date for therapy. This date may be 3–6 months of counseling for issues that are more minor (for example, “adjustment disorders”) or maybe 6–12 months for issues that usually take longer to treat (for example, abuse, depression, anxiety, marriage counseling, etc.). 

Depending on your therapist’s diagnosis and treatment plan, your therapist may recommend appointments be scheduled on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly basis. We believe that a good therapist is about empowering clients to work toward healing and thus no longer needing therapy. All the clients at the Center For Family Counseling, Inc. have seen healing happen in individuals, marriages, and families.

If you or your therapist decides to wait longer than a month between sessions, at your next appointment, your therapist will probably do a quick “clinical update” which consists of a few questions regarding current symptoms and other information. This update usually only takes about five or 10 minutes to complete.

Because we are a state-licensed clinic, we always need to identify one “primary client.” This may be the husband or wife in a marriage, depending on who has more symptoms that can be listed as a billable diagnosis. Just because this person is identified as the client certainly does not make this person the problem; it just means that the file we create will be under this name, the client’s insurance company will be billed, and the client will sign all of the intake forms including the treatment plan. Because you want marriage counseling, some of the measurable objectives in the treatment plan will include working on the marriage via family counseling.

The therapists at our clinic who see children do a great job of making sure that the child who is the identified “primary client” doesn’t feel like the problem. We like to say “the client isn’t the problem, the problem is the problem.” The problem can be an attitude or action that the client does. Children love to hear this positive idea. When working with children, we also like to say “just because someone makes a mistake, doesn’t make them a mistake.” Family therapy focuses on building our identity as a good person and can address many family issues. All the therapists at our clinic have seen tremendous healing in families through counseling.

We have licensed therapists trained to see school-age children, primarily beginning with 6 years old and up. The therapist will work with Mom, Dad, and/or the guardian very closely to make sure the appropriate interventions are being implemented at home consistently.

Typically EAP services require a direct referral from the company to specific clinics already contracted with their payment agreements. If you have EAP services you’d like to use, please contact your EAP service company before scheduling any appointments with our clinic. If a contract is not appropriately established with Center for Family Counseling, Inc. before scheduling EAP services they might not be covered.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide this type of service. If there are financial difficulties interfering with your ability to pay, we are willing to set up a payment plan. Please contact the office manager for more information before scheduling the intake session. If you need a therapist who offers a sliding-fee scale, we refer people to call Catholic Charities or Lutheran Social Services in St. Cloud. Both of these places have sliding-fee services.

This means that each therapist works under the clinic for billing purposes; however, they are still in charge of deciding which insurance companies they become listed providers with and what hours they choose to work at the clinic on a weekly basis.