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| Ann McIntosh, MS, LCSW |
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A Message from Ann McIntosh
My
psychotherapy practice is dedicated to helping clients achieve their
goals. In addition to earning my Master's of Science degree in Social
Work from the University of Texas in Austin, I received a Master's of
Arts degree in health and physical education from Southern Methodist University in
Dallas. Professionally, I have also worked as a physical education instructor and coach, which
influences my counseling style and gives me a competitive spirit toward helping clients improve their lives.
In Texas, I practice as a licensed clinical social worker,
providing a full range of psychological counseling services to adults
and families. In Texas, clinical social workers hold a master's degree in social work from an accredited university. They have completed an internship and three thousand hours of supervised practice before sitting for the clinical exam to qualify for licensed, independent practice.
I sometimes consult with Austin media to help the public understand how to approach a healthy lifestyle, both mentally and physically. Pamela LeBlanc who writes the "Fit City" column for the Austin American-Statesman included my comments in an article on keeping fit that might interest you (link used with permission from the Austin American-Statesman). You may also wish to see a brief video in which I discuss the benefits of talk therapy. This might help you get to know me a bit better.
For an initial telephone consultation, please call (512) 306-9992, or scroll down and complete the quick form at the bottom of this page. All inquiries are kept strictly
confidential.
For your convenience:
- Daytime and selected early-evening sessions are available, Monday through Thursday.
- You may choose
from individual sessions, couples sessions, or family sessions Please
feel free to ask about other possibilities to fit your lifestyle and
needs.
The article below may help you understand how you to work more beneficially with a counselor or psychotherapist.
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| Map to Our Austin, Texas Counseling and Therapy Offices |
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Get the Most Out of Counseling and Therapy
Many psychotherapists share "how-to-do therapy" guidance with their patients over time letting the awareness of these basic principles develop gradually ensuring a deeper understanding of the process because one lives it rather than being told it.
However some patients appreciate written information initially. We are pleased to offer the following, which outlines requirements for utilizing psychotherapy to achieve the your goals. These concepts were derived by George Pazdral, M.D., J.D.
Basic Requirements for Successful Participation
1. Keep your appointments.
- Commit to a series of regularly scheduled appointments and make your sessions a priority.
- Honor and value the opportunity to come in, relax, and talk about your life and any concerns you may have.
- For missed appointments, be willing to discuss the "whys and wherefores" that led to the miss.
- Be willing to pay for your appointment slots that you reserved and your therapist held exclusively for you on their calendar.
- Discuss any anticipated needs for schedule change, or any aspect of your therapy with your therapist in person.
- Understand that anything and everything having to do with you, your thoughts, feelings, and behavior is "grist for the mill" for your therapy.
2. Talk openly and deeply about yourself.
- Say as much as you can about spontaneous subjects that come to mind during discussion with your therapist. Try not to hold back any ideas or feelings that cross your mind.
- To paraphrase Freud: "…tell me out loud everything that goes through your mind while you're here; don't censor anything‑share all your thoughts, feelings, dreams and fantasies."
3. Pay for your appointments.
- The pursuit of self-growth through therapy is a valuable professional service by a highly trained professional.
- In paying a professional fee, you value and honor the hard work of focused concentration on what you present in the session and the derived input of the therapist, along with the personal commitment of yourself, your time, your effort, and your resources.
4. Keep yourself "together" between appointments.
- Pursuing psychotherapy for any reason is an endeavor best pursued with a degree of calmness and reflectivity.
- Repeated or frequent wild emotional activities, dramatic events, and extreme negative uses of personal energy to quiet intense emotional experiences take up large amounts of talking time in therapy, and most often detract from a focus on growth and understanding of your patterns of behavior, trends in thoughts and feelings, and causes of reactions rather than thoughtful responses.
5. Resolve to be curious about your feelings and thoughts.
- Allow yourself time to think before you choose to respond.
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A Good Therapist Will...
- Encourage your legitimate feelings of trust and confidence, both in yourself and in therapy process.
- Always be respectful of you. In well-timed therapeutic moments, your
therapist will also confront you about patterns of thoughts and
behaviors apparent to the trained professional.
- Support your aspirations for healing, wholeness and growth.
- Be realistic with you about your strengths and successes, along with your weaknesses and challenges.
- Not use the therapy interaction for personal ends, neither accepting nor initiating personal or social relationship.
Tips for Making Progress
- Trust the psycho-therapeutic process, which is somewhat slow and
gradual (despite what the media and insurance companies would have your
believe.). Know that growth and evolution to move away from lifelong
problems occurs over months, sometimes many, many months, rather than
day or weeks. Slow growth is more real and lasting than rapid, often
quite illusory and transitory changes in feelings.
- Make a commitment to talk first, rather than act first. While
participating in psychotherapy, discuss all anticipated major life
changes with your therapist.
- Be committed to allow your therapist to share in decisions about
changing your treatment. This especially applies to increasing or
decreasing your psychotherapy sessions, when considering adding other
treatments or experiences and engaging in any other situations oriented
toward mental and emotional development and change.
- Understand that negative feelings will occur about the therapy or
the therapist. These are "in-the-moment" rich opportunities for
discussion and are a part of the therapy process. Do not avoid or hide
these feelings. These feelings are natural and common and can be very
useful to your therapy efforts when handled openly. These feelings are
generally not an indication to stop or flee the therapy experience but
an opportunity for growth.
- Allow the therapist to give you their professional expert opinion. A
good therapist should be understood and trusted to have advanced
psychological knowledge and to have expertise in the guidance and
shaping of your care.
- Allow the therapist to confront you, tell you, and work deeply with you regarding "hard truths" about yourself.
- Discuss and list, in the presence of your therapist, goals for your therapy and your life.
- Discuss nighttime dreams, daydreams, fantasies, and aspirations with your therapist.
Between Sessions
- Think and reflect about yourself and your therapy between sessions.
- Commit to yourself to be in the moment, the here and now. Commit to living intentionally.
- Observe and reflect upon experiences that give you joy, are difficult to navigate, or add chaos to your living.
- Commit to processing thoughts and feelings to allow you to choose behaviors that reflect what you say you value.
- Commit to being curious about thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and be willing to explore them.
Doing
- Write down your thoughts about your therapy meeting shortly after the session.
- Resolve to sleep normal hours, seven to eight hours nightly and at
consistent times over weekends. Being rested helps you take advantage of
human physiology's healing powers.
- Eat fresh, clean, nutritious food, limiting processed foods. Eat every three to four hours while awake.
- Participate in exercise appropriate for you and the time of year.
- Draw cartoons or art about your therapy, life, concerns, interesting
events or things that catch your attention or matter to you.
- Commit to writing about as many of your dreams as you can.
- Keep a journal about thoughts, feelings and observations of interest to you.
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Fees, Insurance and Other Things You Should Know
Counseling services to you are based on an initial evaluation and on-going assessment of our progress. I continually alter treatment as necessary to best meet your therapeutic needs. Your willing participation and cooperation are necessary for the initial assessment to be completed and for any of our work to be beneficial to you.
Fees
Fees for my services are based on the treatment options you and I select as best for your care. Please call the office so I will have the opportunity to talk to you about your unique situation(s). Talking with me over the phone gives you more latitude to ask questions and gives you an opportunity to learn how you might like working with me.
For your convenience, MasterCard, Visa, and Discover credit cards are accepted for payment, as well as checks and cash.
For Dr. George Pazdral's information and fees, please call (512) 328-2488.
Insurance
My service is usually reimbursable as an out-of-network clinician on PPO health insurance plans. Insurance-ready receipts are provided to help you in filing for your benefits. If you are an employee of a company with 50 or more employees, you should review the article on the next page about Mental Health Parity regulations for employee-sponsored health insurance plans.
Sessions and Appointments
All sessions are 45 to 50 minutes long. Usually I see people weekly on a standing appointment basis, or occasionally on a bi-weekly basis.
Emergencies and After-Business Hours
For severe or life-threatening psychiatric situations, contact 911.
For non-emergencies, please call my office number at (512) 306-9992. Telephone calls with established patients beyond five (5) minutes for therapeutic care or consultation are charged at the session rate on a pro-rated basis.
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Contact us for more information
Please note: This form is for new and prospective clients only. Existing clients or vendors: Please call (512) 306-9992 and leave a confidential voice mail. This form is not appropriate for cancellations, changes or solicitations. Thanks very much for your cooperation.
New or prospective clients: You may call (512) 306-9992, or send this quick form. Please be assured that all
information will be held in strictest confidence.
During a business week, we will contact you within 24 hours
after receiving your inquiry. We respond to weekend inquiries during
the following business week. Due to the nature of the Internet, we do not counsel clients by e-mail. Working with you in person is the best way to help you achieve your goals.
Space is somewhat limited on the form to the right. It's best to summarize, using brief sentences or phrases. We can communicate more fully when we return your inquiry by telephone.
Thank you for your interest in our services. We look forward to receiving your inquiry.
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