CONSULTATION · ATREEF THERAPY
Our First Conversation With Real Direction
A consultation is a chance for us to understand whether this work feels like the right fit. We will talk about what brings you here, what has felt stuck, and how therapy at AtReef can help create a clearer path forward.
Choose your consultation
Which consultation are you booking?
Same 30 minutes, same cost, same person on the call. What differs is who is in the room and what we spend the time on.
Time
30 minutes
Cost
Same consultation cost
Clinician
Same person on the call
Relationship-focused
Couples consultation
- Who is on the call
- You and your partner, together where possible.
- What we cover
- The cycle between you, what has already been tried, and whether repair is possible and wanted.
- Fees
- Couples therapy is out of pocket because relationship distress is generally not a reimbursable diagnosis. You receive a superbill, an itemized receipt you can submit to your insurer if you have out-of-network benefits.
Individual-focused
Individual consultation
- Who is on the call
- You.
- What we cover
- The pattern that keeps repeating, what it is costing you, and what would need to change for that to stop.
- Fees
- A limited number of individual slots are open to clients using insurance. Otherwise, therapy is out of pocket, with a superbill you can submit against out-of-network benefits.
The booking link is the same for either consultation.
Choose the consultation that best matches what you want to discuss.
Booking about career direction or a work transition? Use the same link and say so when you book. See career counseling .
Your consultation
What happens during the 30 minutes
The call follows the same agenda every time, so you know its shape before you dial in. I end on time.
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Minutes 0 to 10
You describe what keeps happening
Not your whole history. The pattern: what starts it, how it escalates, how it ends, and how long it has been running this way. In a couples consultation both partners speak. In an individual consultation the time is yours.
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Minutes 10 to 20
I tell you what I am hearing
I describe the pattern I am hearing, whether it runs between two people or inside one, and what tends to keep it in place. This is a first impression, not an assessment or a diagnosis. You will also hear how I would structure the work and what the early sessions would likely focus on. I describe what I am seeing rather than handing you a label to argue with.
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Minutes 20 to 25
You ask me anything
Training, approach, fees, frequency, how long this usually takes, and for couples, what happens if one of you is unsure about staying. Ask the blunt question. It is usually the useful one.
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Minutes 25 to 30
We decide, out loud
Either we schedule a first session, or I say that another clinician or another kind of care is the better fit and point you toward it. I say which of the two it is on the call, not afterward.
You will know where things stand before the call ends.
30 minutes · ends on time
Who you will meet
The therapist you meet is the therapist you work with.
Every couples and individual consultation at AtReef Therapy is with Dr. Ehsan Adib Shabahang, the clinician who would continue the work with you. There is no intake team and no handoff to another therapist.
Ehsan Adib Shabahang, PhD, LMHC
Therapist · Founder of AtReef Therapy
Sessions available in
Continuity from the first conversation
Your consultation is with the clinician who would actually do the therapy.
It is not a screening call with an intake coordinator or someone you will never see again. The first conversation begins with the same person who would continue the work with you.
Clinical licensure
- Massachusetts
- Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
- North Carolina
- Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC)
- Texas · Michigan · South Carolina
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
- Florida
- Registered out-of-state telehealth provider. This is a registration, not a Florida license.
Education and training
- National Certified Counselor (NCC)
- PhD in Psychology, with a social psychology concentration and doctoral research on cross-cultural relationships
- MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from a CACREP-accredited program
- Trained in Gottman Method Couples Therapy through Level 3
How I work
Established methods, integrated around the pattern we are trying to change.
My work draws from CBT, DBT-informed skills, Gottman Method, and Jungian psychology, alongside Self-Reflective Relationship Therapy (SRRT), a framework I developed.
SRRT is my own framework rather than an independently validated treatment model. I distinguish clearly between established treatment approaches and the elements that come from SRRT.