How is Elbow Tree handling COVID-19 Coronavirus
We are currently meeting with clients face to face in our St. Augustine office (with enhanced safety measures) or online using a secure telehealth platform. Be sure to clarify the location (office or online) for where you will be meeting with your Elbow Tree therapist. Be in communication with your counselor at any time, with any concerns, questions or updates on your end.
Do I have to be a Christian to come to Elbow Tree?
We welcome every person into the space of therapy with us no matter what their spiritual context may or may not be. This space is one of freedom and non-judgement. A third or more of our counseling clients do not hold a distinctly Christian worldview or belief. Most of our clients do, however, claim to be spiritual. If you do identify as a Christian, as mindful Christians, we invite you to integrate your spiritual life into your therapeutic counseling journey.
Are Elbow Tree counselors “REAL” counselors?
Our team is made up of 15 licensed and pre-licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers and educational therapists. Every licensed and pre-licensed counselor in the state of Florida is governed by the same ethical code of conduct and are held to an extremely high standard of care. If a counselor identifies themselves as a Christian Counselor, it often is simply a way of helping Christian clients find therapists who are trained to help integrate faith into the therapeutic process.
At Elbow Tree, we are each deeply committed to the highest level of care. That is why we are each always pushing the envelope being trained in a wide range evidence based therapeutic modalities that you will find in any non-Christian Counseling setting.
Some of us are involved in disaster response work. To do so we are continually being trained by the ICISF, who are the gold standard for training first responders all over the world in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM).
Others of us are deploying best practices as trained trauma therapists, so we are trained in evidenced based modalities of approved therapy like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and (IFS) Internal Family Systems which are validated interventions for serving clients who present with post traumatic stress and a range of other trauma needs.
Others are doing cutting edge work with couples deploying evidence based interventions that include Gottman Therapy, Emotion Focused Treatments, and Imago Therapy.
Still others are being trained to apply Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT) and play therapies to serve the growing counseling needs local families are facing.
The list could go on and on as our teams in Chattanooga and in Saint Augustine deliver the highest quality of care to the communities we are fortunate to serve
Is Christian Counseling different?
No and yes.
NO - because we are committed to providing all clients with nothing less than high quality care using treatment interventions informed by a well of evidence based research.
YES - because we are creating an intentional space for clients to integrate their Christian faith only if they so desire. We are simply hoping to light a fragrant candle in the window for folks looking for something like this in the sea of options being provided.
Is Christian Counseling a glorified Bible study or does actual therapy take place?
We want to walk with you toward the full and meaningful life you are made for. How we go about shepherding the process is very intentional and deeply therapeutic. We see ourselves more as facilitators of your therapeutic process.
Our goal is to get out of the way so you can get into your process, where actual therapy does take place. We do not judge or pressure. Instead we join with you as a curious companion, hoping to demonstrate a holy curiosity, genuine warmth and consistent empathy.
Primary goals for therapy are 1) to “reframe” uncomfortable, distressing or perplexing situations into opportunities for healing, growth, change and restoration 2) give some real, practical, doable steps to take and 3) orient people towards a much larger story that is unfolding alongside their own.
Can you hold my story confidentially?
Sometimes people wonder if Christian Counseling is 100% confidential. Let me tell you that anything you share with a therapist at Elbow Tree will be held in complete confidence. Unless you elect to release information to a physician, pastor, priest, elder, neighbor or family member, everything you share is held in the strictest of confidence.
And this is not because we are such nice people. It's the law! Your information is thankfully guarded by HIPAA which holds licensed counselors to a very high standard when it comes to any aspect of your file. The only limitations of confidentiality are related to harming children, the elderly, or yourself.
What do you believe?
If there is another question not listed here that you'd like answered, please contact Hayne Steen at [email protected].
We are currently meeting with clients face to face in our St. Augustine office (with enhanced safety measures) or online using a secure telehealth platform. Be sure to clarify the location (office or online) for where you will be meeting with your Elbow Tree therapist. Be in communication with your counselor at any time, with any concerns, questions or updates on your end.
Do I have to be a Christian to come to Elbow Tree?
We welcome every person into the space of therapy with us no matter what their spiritual context may or may not be. This space is one of freedom and non-judgement. A third or more of our counseling clients do not hold a distinctly Christian worldview or belief. Most of our clients do, however, claim to be spiritual. If you do identify as a Christian, as mindful Christians, we invite you to integrate your spiritual life into your therapeutic counseling journey.
Are Elbow Tree counselors “REAL” counselors?
Our team is made up of 15 licensed and pre-licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers and educational therapists. Every licensed and pre-licensed counselor in the state of Florida is governed by the same ethical code of conduct and are held to an extremely high standard of care. If a counselor identifies themselves as a Christian Counselor, it often is simply a way of helping Christian clients find therapists who are trained to help integrate faith into the therapeutic process.
At Elbow Tree, we are each deeply committed to the highest level of care. That is why we are each always pushing the envelope being trained in a wide range evidence based therapeutic modalities that you will find in any non-Christian Counseling setting.
Some of us are involved in disaster response work. To do so we are continually being trained by the ICISF, who are the gold standard for training first responders all over the world in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM).
Others of us are deploying best practices as trained trauma therapists, so we are trained in evidenced based modalities of approved therapy like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and (IFS) Internal Family Systems which are validated interventions for serving clients who present with post traumatic stress and a range of other trauma needs.
Others are doing cutting edge work with couples deploying evidence based interventions that include Gottman Therapy, Emotion Focused Treatments, and Imago Therapy.
Still others are being trained to apply Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT) and play therapies to serve the growing counseling needs local families are facing.
The list could go on and on as our teams in Chattanooga and in Saint Augustine deliver the highest quality of care to the communities we are fortunate to serve
Is Christian Counseling different?
No and yes.
NO - because we are committed to providing all clients with nothing less than high quality care using treatment interventions informed by a well of evidence based research.
YES - because we are creating an intentional space for clients to integrate their Christian faith only if they so desire. We are simply hoping to light a fragrant candle in the window for folks looking for something like this in the sea of options being provided.
Is Christian Counseling a glorified Bible study or does actual therapy take place?
We want to walk with you toward the full and meaningful life you are made for. How we go about shepherding the process is very intentional and deeply therapeutic. We see ourselves more as facilitators of your therapeutic process.
Our goal is to get out of the way so you can get into your process, where actual therapy does take place. We do not judge or pressure. Instead we join with you as a curious companion, hoping to demonstrate a holy curiosity, genuine warmth and consistent empathy.
Primary goals for therapy are 1) to “reframe” uncomfortable, distressing or perplexing situations into opportunities for healing, growth, change and restoration 2) give some real, practical, doable steps to take and 3) orient people towards a much larger story that is unfolding alongside their own.
Can you hold my story confidentially?
Sometimes people wonder if Christian Counseling is 100% confidential. Let me tell you that anything you share with a therapist at Elbow Tree will be held in complete confidence. Unless you elect to release information to a physician, pastor, priest, elder, neighbor or family member, everything you share is held in the strictest of confidence.
And this is not because we are such nice people. It's the law! Your information is thankfully guarded by HIPAA which holds licensed counselors to a very high standard when it comes to any aspect of your file. The only limitations of confidentiality are related to harming children, the elderly, or yourself.
What do you believe?
- We believe that God is love…God's love is toward everybody. What does that work out as? We have a passion to include everybody. It’s hard work. That’s our first ethos. We’ll never ever ever ever impose this belief on you.
- We believe everyone is made in God’s image…WE…that means all of us. We treat everyone equally respecting differences. No special parking places. No special privileges. We’ll never ever ever ever impose this belief on you. Its hard because we think we deserve more.
- We believe God is a relationship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… This looks like a commitment to healthy open relationship. It’s WE. We are together in this. Good and bad. It means we need to get good at forgiving one another, good at listening to one another. We’ll never ever ever ever impose this belief on you.
- Death isn’t the end…We are people who believe in the resurrection of Jesus, which means that we have a deep sense of hope in every situation while we are each serving as change agents. This translates into the way we help people or how we interact with set backs.
- A sense of perseverance…We believe "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". This means we are persevering with one another. We are called to be marathoners not sprinters. There are no quick fixes.
If there is another question not listed here that you'd like answered, please contact Hayne Steen at [email protected].
