Two Chairs provides mental health service consultation, psychotherapy, and other mental health services. Our role is to help identify the appropriate type of care for you, recommend a clinician we think may be a good fit for you, and provide ongoing outpatient care. If we determine that Two Chairs is not the most appropriate treatment option for you at this time based on your needs and our services, we will make quality referrals to outside providers/organizations.
If you’d like a copy of these policies, please reach out to [email protected].
We are committed to providing the highest quality care for every client, because we believe that we all deserve access to high quality mental healthcare.
For clients seeking individual therapy, the Matching Appointment allows an expert clinician to get to know you and your clinical needs, and understand your preferences. After getting to know you and what brings you into care, your consult clinician will summarize your discussion and share their clinical recommendations, make a joint decision with you regarding next steps, and match you to the right service and therapist for your unique needs, goals, and preferences.
From there, we consider your preferences and use our research-informed matching process to identify a high quality fit with a Two Chairs clinician. Our matching process helps ensure you get the most out of therapy, and we are typically able to connect clients to individual therapy within 1-2 weeks. However, if you have strict scheduling constraints, it may take longer to find a high quality match that meets your scheduling needs. As part of our promise, we will keep you updated as we work to connect you to care.
To ensure a smooth transition into ongoing care, your Consult Clinician will provide your ongoing therapist with context from your Consult Appointment. However, 45 minutes can go by quickly - you will dive into your needs and goals in much more detail with your ongoing therapist, over several sessions, in order to build the foundation for successful work together.
We take the time to understand every client’s unique needs, goals, and preferences, so we can tailor care and ensure a high quality match between you and our clinicians. As such, we cannot guarantee to accommodate requests for a particular individual therapy clinician. After we’ve made a match, we will follow up with you to ensure that you are satisfied and that ongoing treatment is going well (often in the form of an online questionnaire).
If you are dissatisfied in any way with your experience getting connected to care, please let us know by emailing [email protected] Whether you felt under-served by the Matching Appointment, the process of getting connected, or your interactions with our team, we will always work with you to understand what went wrong and course correct together.
If you feel like your clinician is not the right fit please either speak with your clinician or email [email protected] and they will help you to find a new clinician.
We cannot treat an empty chair.
At Two Chairs, we believe everyone should have access to exceptional mental healthcare. In addition to a high quality match, decades of research show that continuity and consistency of attendance is one of the best predictors of whether therapy will be effective for you. Attending your appointments regularly and on time allows you to make the most out of your time with your clinician and ensures that you are both set-up to do the best work possible together. While many people attempt to cope with stressors by using substances, intoxication can impair one's ability to function and get the most out of treatment. As such, please abstain from using substances prior or during session.
Additionally, we do our best to prioritize your scheduling needs and preferences. In order to both make sure you have your desired weekly appointment slot and to offer empty slots to other clients seeking care, advanced notice of appointment cancellations is needed. Advance notice also allows us to accommodate rescheduling, when appropriate, as we know some changes are unavoidable.
Your care, the care of our other clients, and the empowerment of our clinical team are our highest priorities. Our attendance policies are built with that in mind.
For Matching Appointments:
Notification can be sent via email to [email protected] or by phone at 415-202-5159 (9:00 am - 6:00 pm, Monday through Friday).
You will be responsible for the entire consult appointment fee if cancellation or a request to reschedule occurs fewer than 48 hours before the start of the appointment, regardless of our ability to reschedule.
For Individual and Couples Therapy Appointments:
Earlier notice, especially for multiple cancellations (e.g., due to extended vacation) is greatly appreciated, as it allows your clinician to accommodate other clients’ needs during that time. With earlier notice, we might be able to reschedule your session. If you give us more than 48-hour notice and we are able to reschedule your session within the same Monday - Friday week, it will not count as a cancellation or towards your missed appointment count. If notice is given less than 48-hours in advance, the appointment will count as a cancellation/missed appointment regardless of whether we are able to reschedule.
We recognize physical illness can’t be predicted. If you are not well enough to meet in-person, we strongly encourage you to arrange a Teletherapy (virtual) session with your clinician via secure video session. As with above, 48-hour notice is greatly appreciated, though rare exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis for illness.
In order to hold your slot and ensure the continuity needed for high-quality care, we allow a maximum of 4 missed appointments (advanced cancellations and/or no shows) every 6 months (January - June; July - December)
After 4 cancellations, your clinician will work with you to find a solution if a different time slot would work better for you.
Please try to be on time for your appointments to make the most use of your time with your clinician.
Teletherapy is the provision of psychotherapy services digitally, typically via secure video conference or in some circumstances, via phone. We focus on in-person connection wherever possible at Two Chairs. However, teletherapy offers a highly effective option for continuity of care when in-person care is not possible or not preferred. If you and your clinician decide to engage in care via teletherapy, your clinician will review the below information and obtain your verbal consent to proceed at the beginning of your first teletherapy session.
Making sure teletherapy is effective for you
Finally, some insurance health plans do not reimburse teletherapy sessions. It is your responsibility to find out if your plan will cover these appointments.
Understanding how therapy is going for you allows us to tailor your care.
Measurement-based care (MBC) is the practice of regularly checking in on how therapy is going for you, enabling your clinician to better tailor care to your unique needs, goals, and preferences. In addition to a high quality match and consistent attendance, decades of research show that measurement-based care makes therapy more effective. It is an essential part of our approach at Two Chairs, as we work to deliver the highest quality care possible.
The information collected as part of measurement-based care will be a part of your health record and will be used by your clinician to inform your care. Your information may also be used in anonymised and aggregated form to assess the quality and effectiveness of our services across the organization. If you have any concerns about completing the surveys, please discuss them with your clinician.
Payment is due at the time of the appointment. We will automatically charge the credit card number you provide to us once the session has concluded. Please note that we update our fees at the start of each year and as needed in line with growing business and team costs. Our fees listed below are subject to change with 30 days written notice at any time.
Matching Appointment: $169 / session
Individual Therapy: $195 / session
Couples Therapy: $225 / session
If your credit card is declined, we will contact you directly to coordinate an alternate payment method. Please note that if you have a balance, your care may be interrupted or terminated.
We require direct payment from our clients at time of service. However, we can help you submit paperwork to your insurance company to help you obtain reimbursement for a portion of the cost of your care if your health plan includes out-of-network coverage (common with PPO plans, for example). Under some plans, in-person and teletherapy sessions may be reimbursed differently. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to get you reimbursed for any of the cost of a session.
The session content and all relevant materials to the client’s treatment will be held confidential unless the client requests in writing to have all or portions of such content released to a specifically named person/persons. Limitations of such client held privilege of confidentiality exist and are itemized below:
A note regarding release of records for Couples therapy - If you are currently or formerly a Couples therapy client of Two Chairs, it is our policy that both partners must provide authorization for the release of records to a third party. In this case, Two Chairs will provide an authorization form that requires both parties to complete and sign prior to the transmittal of records.
We will use digital forms of communication with you (unless you would prefer an alternate means of communication), including text message, email, and our online client portals. Please know however that we cannot ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages.
Our care coordination team will seek to return messages in a timely manner, but we cannot guarantee an immediate response. We request that you do not use these methods of communication to request assistance for emergencies. You should instead seek appropriate emergency services. If you or someone you know is experiencing an emergency or crisis and needs immediate help, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. Additional crisis resources can be found at https://twochairs.com/crisis-resources/
These practice policies were most recently updated on November 13th, 2020.
If you or someone you know is experiencing an emergency or crisis and needs immediate help, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. Additional crisis resources can be found here.
