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FAQ

Are you in-person or virtual?

Both! Please let us know your preference and we can try to accommodate your needs.

The address of our physical office is:

9900 SW Greenburg Road, Suite 200Tigard, OR 97223

What days and times are you available?

Sharon: Available Tuesday – Friday, 8am to 5pm.

Patience: Available Saturday, Sunday, and afternoons throughout the week.

Jesse: TBD

Jean: TBD

What’s the cost of a session? Can I use insurance?

Sharon’s Rate: $250 per 55-minute session

Intern Rate: $40 per 55-minute session

Insurance: If you want to use commercial insurance, you’ll have to meet with Sharon. She is out of network with all insurance plans, and uses a service called Reimbursify to submit claims to insurance. If you’d like me to check your benefits ahead of our meet and greet (which you can schedule right here), fill out this form and I’ll have the information handy when we meet. Check your insurance benefits here

Oregon Health Plan: We are able to bill OHP for sessions, depending on a few factors. Please reach out to us so we can discuss your options. 

How long are your sessions, and how often should we meet?

Our standard session length is 55 minutes. If you want to meet longer, we can do 90- or 120-minute sessions based on availability. We prorate the cost of the session based on length.

Weekly or bimonthly sessions are recommended to get the most momentum and maximize progress.

 

What’s your professional training and experience?

Sharon:

I graduated from George Fox University with a Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2011.

After graduation, I spent several years working primarily with children and families. Through this work, I started to realize that my real passion was in helping couples reconnect and thrive. In 2017 I started training extensively in Emotionally Focused Therapy and am now certified as an EFT therapist though ICEEFT. I’ve also served on the board of directors for my local EFT community, PCEFT, since 2020.

In 2023 I also began training in a therapeutic model specifically designed to address complex trauma: Neuroaffective Relational Model. This training has significantly impacted my work with couples and individuals and I hope to continue my training through 2024.

How do I set up an appointment?

Our next step will be to set up an initial “meet and greet” consultation to ensure we fit your needs well. We’ll spend about 25 minutes discussing your situation and therapy goals and ensuring our schedules align.

Please send us a message to schedule that consultation, or you can see my calendar here: https://halecounselingnw.com/

Do you give “homework” assignments between sessions?

I think of this therapy work like physical therapy: The bulk of your work occurs with me in session, and then you are set up to continue building on these insights between sessions. At the end of each session, we’ll talk about how you’d like to continue this work on your own or rest and let the work settle in your nervous system.

What will a session look like?

Like most things, every session has a beginning, a middle, and an end. 🙂

Beginning: I like to start each session by asking what you’d like for yourself out of the session. If you are here with your partner, I want to ask each of you what you have in mind. This question doesn’t come out of laziness or because I forgot your goals – It’s an intentional way to let you set the pace for your therapy and to help you be an active participant in your process. It’s okay if you don’t know what you want that day – part of the process is discovering your deeper wants and hopes!

Middle: After setting the intention for the session, we get to work discovering what gets in the way of your goals. Suppose you want to feel more heard and understood by others. In that case, we might process what internal dynamics might block clear communication. Or we might focus on recalibrating when there’s a miscommunication. We might see how your body sends you warning signals and how you can respond to those.

If you’re here with your partner, ideally, you both will get to process your patterns and how you impact each other in those dynamics. I’ve seen couples respond to each other in new ways just from this awareness and feel closer by hearing more about what happens on the inside for each other.

End: At the end of the session, we will process the work you did during the conversation and how you want to continue building on it. I try to help point out new moves you made during each session and help you offer yourself some gratitude and comfort if it was a difficult process.

What do you do for fun?

Sharon: At my core, I’m an energetic, adventurous spirit who loves to laugh and appreciate beauty. In 2020, I climbed my first mountain with a friend (Desolation Peak in Washington), which gave me mountain-climbing fever! To date I’ve climbed Mount St. Helens three times, South Sister, and Mt. Adams, and I’m always dreaming of my next hike.

Here is me and my husband on top of Mt Adams in 2022!

Two people on a mountain with sunset behind

I'm not sure we are a good fit. Do you have referrals?

If I’m not a good fit for you for any reason, I don’t take that personally. Here is a list of my trusted colleagues that you can reach out to:

 

Starting in January 2024, I will also be closely supervising an intern who will charge $40 a session while she completes her graduate degree. This is a good option if your budget is limited. If you’re interested in joining the waitlist to work with her, please send me a message at sharon@sharonhalecounseling.com

Are Jim and Pam real clients?

Nope! I made them up but based their stories on the hundreds of hours I’ve spent talking to people. You probably recognize yourself in those stories because you are like many of the other clients I have seen over the years.