What Happens During a Free 15-Minute Therapy Consultation?

A free 15-minute therapy consultation is a short phone call in which you describe what brings you in and ask about insurance, scheduling, and fit. At Change.Life, Mariann Arcari Rubin, LCSW, takes every consultation herself. The call costs nothing and carries no obligation, and it ends with a decision about whether to book a first full session.

What do you talk about on a 15-minute consultation call?

On a Change.Life consultation call, you give Mariann a few sentences about what is going on, and she asks follow-up questions to understand your situation. Then the conversation turns to your questions. Callers often ask about insurance and copays, open days and times, whether Mariann has worked with people facing something similar, and how long sessions run. Nobody needs a polished summary or a full history. No intake coordinator or matching system sits between the caller and the therapist, so the person who hears about your grief, infertility, or work stress is the person who would see you in sessions. The call is short and informal. Mariann answers each caller personally, because picking up the phone to talk about a loss or a health scare takes effort, and repeating the story to several staff members would add to it.

Is it common to make a call like this?

Reaching out for counseling is common. The National Center for Health Statistics reported in June 2026 that 14.0% of U.S. adults received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in 2024, including 16.9% of women. The National Institute of Mental Health says preliminary conversations with a therapist “may happen in person, by phone, or virtually” and can “help you understand how treatment will proceed.” In a NAMI blog post, Vincent Atchity, PhD, writes that “finding a convenient therapist is not nearly as advantageous as finding the right therapist.” Atchity adds that a great therapist sets goals at the onset of treatment, so the first conversation is a fair place to ask how that works at a given practice. These sources describe how people find therapists in general, and the call at Change.Life follows the same pattern: a preliminary conversation by phone before any session is booked.

How does the consultation call end?

The call ends with a decision that both people make together. Mariann describes plainly whether Change.Life looks like the right choice, and if it does, the two of you pick a time for the first full session. That first video visit runs about 60 minutes. A caller who moves forward also hears which paperwork to complete before the first appointment. A caller who decides against booking owes nothing, since the consultation carries no obligation. Mariann also answers insurance questions on the call, so a caller leaves knowing whether Change.Life is in network with their plan. Change.Life is in network with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare, Carillon, and various employee assistance programs, and does not accept Medicaid.

What does this page not cover?

This page describes the free consultation at Change.Life. It does not describe what other practices offer, since consultation length, cost, and format differ by practice. It does not cover insurance details, which depend on each plan, and it offers no clinical assessment, because a 15-minute call is a conversation and no diagnosis comes from it. It makes no promise about results from therapy and no claim about how quickly anyone will feel better. Readers who live outside New York and Arizona fall outside the states where Mariann is licensed. The statistics here describe groups of adults, not any one reader. The full guide, What Does Online Therapy With One Therapist Actually Look Like, From First Call to Ongoing Sessions?, walks through every step after the call.

Frequently asked questions