For pastors and care teams
You have somebody in front of you who needs more than a Sunday conversation can give them, and you want to hand them to someone good. This page is written for you rather than for them.
Our office, on Shoal Creek across from Pease Park. Sessions here or virtually, anywhere in Texas.
Somebody says something after a service, or in a small group, or in a meeting that was supposed to be about something else. You are often the first person they have told, which is a real trust and also a position with limits.
You can walk with somebody. You cannot always be the person who treats what is happening to them.
Handing that over well is harder than it sounds.
Give somebody a name and no context and they usually do not call.
Give them a name attached to a place you actually know something about, and they usually do.
This page exists so you have something to send, and so the handoff does not quietly go nowhere.
You do not have to know which category you are in, or what to call it.
Trauma work here is not about erasing what happened. It is about making plans for real relief over time: healthier relationships with yourself and with other people, and a clearer sense of what is going on inside, even when that progress is slow and not always seen on the outside.
You will not hear what happens next, and that is deliberate.
Once somebody is a client, what they say here is confidential, including from the person who referred them. We can confirm to them that you pointed them our way. We cannot tell you whether they came.
Refer someone nowThey book a consultation, or you do it with them. Twenty free minutes with the clinical practice manager, who is not in sessions and answers fastest. Somebody who is not ready to make the call themselves can sit with you while you make it.
We work out who fits. It ends in a recommendation, not an assignment. Where somebody is not a fit we say so rather than taking them anyway.
Appointments Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, in person in Central Austin (across from Pease Park) or virtually across Texas. Weekends are sometimes available, so please ask if that works better for you.
The edges
You are making a triage decision before anybody calls, so this is the part worth reading. Weekly outpatient therapy is not the right container for everything, and sending somebody to the wrong place costs them time they may not have.
The page to send an actual person to: Christian counseling in AustinELLEN WE NEED YOUR INPUT HERE. What this practice is set up for and what it is not. Specifically: what should a pastor send here, what should go to a psychiatrist, what needs a higher level of care than weekly outpatient therapy, and what should go to an emergency room. And where somebody is out of scope, what do we do rather than just declining.
If you are not sure whether somebody fits, call or text 512-222-7124 or email hello@decadescounseling.com before you send them. We keep a referral list and would rather work it out with you than have somebody land in the wrong place.
Worth knowing before you recommend anybody: the practice does not bill insurance directly, and out-of-network benefits get checked by hand.
Or the full list of what we work withNot sure which fits? Ask us on a free consultationSome people want their faith in the room and some want it left at the door, and both are normal. This is a clinical practice first. No counselor brings faith into a session; it is there when a client takes it there, and not before. Nobody is required to share a faith to be seen here, or to leave one behind. ELLEN WE NEED YOUR INPUT HERE. What faith-integrated therapy actually looks like in practice, and how a client is asked what they want. This is the question a pastor most wants answered.
Most of the team hold a license, or are working under a named supervisor toward one. Every associate names their supervisor on their own profile, so you always know who is overseeing your care.
It is an honor to sit with people in some of their most vulnerable moments. That is the tone we try to keep here, not a hustle toward a finish line.
The consultation is usually within a few days, and there is no waitlist to get started. How soon a first session follows depends on matching rather than on queueing. If somebody needs to be seen urgently, say so on the call and we will tell you honestly whether we can do it.
The practice does not bill insurance directly. We can check somebody's out-of-network benefits for them, by hand, before they commit to anything. Some of the team are working under supervision toward full licensure and see clients at a reduced fee, and it is a normal thing to ask about on the consultation.
No. The practice works with people of any faith and none, and it is a clinical practice first. Faith is integrated where somebody wants it and left alone where they do not.
ELLEN WE NEED YOUR INPUT HERE. Both of these get asked. Can a pastor make the consultation call on somebody's behalf, and can they be present for it?
That is the usual pattern, and it is worth a conversation rather than a form. Churches that send people regularly tend to want to know who they are sending them to.
No, and that is the answer you want us to give. Once somebody is a client, what they say here is confidential, including from the person who referred them. ELLEN WE NEED YOUR INPUT HERE. Is there a release process for the cases where a client does want their pastor kept in the loop, and if so how does it work?
Yes, and we would like to do more of it. Sessions for care teams, small group leaders, or a congregation, on what to do when somebody tells you something hard. The same goes for a conversation about how your care team refers in general, which is not clinical supervision, a different thing with a legal meaning. Either is a different conversation from referring one person, so email hello@decadescounseling.com rather than booking a client consultation.
Whether that is one person this week, or working out how your care team refers in general, the same conversation covers both.
Refer someone nowOr email hello@decadescounseling.com to talk about working together.
We talk through what would help, and what it would take.
You leave with a recommendation to work with someone on our team, or a referral to another resource in the area. Either way, you won't be back at square one.
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