Our Counselors

How to choose somebody

You do not have to choose well. Any of the twelve will take the call, none of them will ask why you picked them, and nobody keeps a note of it. If you have read one of these pages and something in it sounded like you, that is a good enough reason. If you have read none of them and simply want to talk to whoever is free, say exactly that when you call and it will not be a problem.

If it helps to narrow it down, this is roughly who tends to be asked for and why.

• You have never told a living soul. Pat has walked more people through that first sentence than anybody here. Phillip went twenty six years without saying it and is often easier for men to say it to first.
• You need to tell a partner. Cathy was the one who got told, nineteen years into her own marriage. Denise will help you plan the conversation rather than just brace for it.
• The shame is really about right and wrong. Sarah spent a decade separating her own beliefs from the ones she was raised with, and she will not argue with your faith.
• Your family is the hard part. Jennifer watched her own family go quietly cold on her brother, and chose him anyway.
• You are brand new to this and have no words for it. Anna knows what it is to have a full interior life and no language for it. Michelle is the one for people in their twenties, and for anybody a conventional therapist has already handled badly.
• It is medical as well, or instead. Lanier has worn diapers since he was a boy and has already lived every practical question you have.
• What you want is to be looked after. Andre has been a caregiver his whole life and has never once thought less of anybody for wanting it.
• You feel it in your body more than your head. Helen spent fourteen years as a massage therapist and works on the physical side of it, including sleep and anxiety.
• You have carried this for decades. Evelyn was a hospice nurse for twenty two years and left that work specifically to reach people sooner.

What they all have in common

Not a qualification. Every one of them arrived at this work through something real in their own life. A brother who confided. A husband who finally said it in a parked car. A client who took nine months to get the words out. A childhood accident. A career spent caring for somebody. Nobody here took this job because it happened to be the one going.

That matters more than it sounds. The single most common thing people tell us is that they once tried to explain this to a professional and watched their face change. Nobody here will do that, because for most of them it is not an unfamiliar subject at all.

What actually happens when you call

Nobody asks your real name. There is no form, no intake questionnaire, and no assessment at the end. You are not building a file and nothing gets written down about you.

You can start anywhere. You can start with a practical question because it feels safer. You can start in the middle of the story. You can say you are not sure you should have rung and let the counselor carry it from there for a minute. All of those are completely ordinary openings and every person on this page has heard each of them many times.

You can also stop whenever you like. Nobody will talk you into staying on longer, and nobody will call you back. Sessions run from ten minutes at $22 up to a full hour at $110, there is nothing to sign up for and nothing recurring, and you choose the length when you call rather than committing to anything first.

The first sixty seconds are the hardest part of the whole thing. Everybody here knows that, which is why none of them will rush you through it.