Shepherd's Heart Counseling sees clients by secure video anywhere in North Carolina — from the mountains to the coast — as long as you are physically located in the state at the time of session. This page explains who telehealth is right for, who it isn't, and what you'll need on your end.
Telehealth sessions are 45–60 minute video appointments on a secure, HIPAA-compliant platform. Before your first session you'll get an email with a link, a checklist, and the intake paperwork. When it's time to meet, you click the link on a phone, tablet, or computer, and John joins from the office. Length, price, and structure are the same as in-person — the only thing that changes is the room you're in.
Parents doing coaching or counseling work while a small child naps in the next room. Teens who won't drive to an office but will open a laptop in their bedroom. Educators and state employees who need to fit a session into a planning period or the hour after school. Anyone forty-plus minutes from Siler City. People who don't want to be seen walking into a therapist's office in their own small town. For all of these, video is often the format that makes therapy possible at all.
Being honest: some work goes better in the room. Young teens who barely engage in person will often disengage completely on a screen. Certain kinds of trauma work — especially EMDR when it's the first time you're doing it — tend to be more effective in person, because so much of the work is about your body settling in the same space as another human. High-conflict family sessions where multiple people need to be in the room together are usually easier in the office. And anyone in acute crisis needs in-person or emergency support, not a scheduled video call. We say all of this at intake rather than after three sessions of things not working.
John is licensed in North Carolina and only in North Carolina. State law requires that a client be physically located in the state where their therapist is licensed at the time of the session. That means if you live in NC but travel out of state for a week, we don't hold sessions during that week. If you're a college student attending school out of state, we can't be your regular therapist — you'll need to see someone licensed in the state you're in. This is not a technicality, it's a licensure requirement, and it applies to every therapist in every state.
A private space where nobody can hear you or walk in — a closed room, a parked car in a driveway, an office with a door that locks. Headphones if the household is loud. A reasonably stable internet connection; a dropped video call is fine occasionally, but if it happens most weeks we'll troubleshoot together. And you need to actually be in North Carolina at the time of the session. That's it.
Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina both cover telehealth mental-health sessions at the same rate as in-person visits for the plans this practice accepts. Your cost is your plan's copay or coinsurance, same as if you drove to the office. If you're out-of-network, you can pay $155 per session directly and file with your plan for reimbursement under CPT codes 90791 (intake) and 90834 (45–50 minute psychotherapy). Consultations are 15 minutes and free.
Prefer to meet in person? See the Siler City office. Ready to talk? Request a free 15-minute consultation.
A free 15-minute consultation. Send a request and John will get back to you with times that actually work — no pressure, no forms up front.
