You must be in Texas or Florida
Nick Hoenes is licensed as a Professional Counselor in Texas, LPC #90948, and as a Mental Health Counselor in Florida, LMHC #MH28266. You must be physically located in Texas or Florida at the time of each session. Your home address does not override where you are that day.
For couples and relationship therapy, every participating partner must be physically located in Texas or Florida during the session. If travel changes your location, raise it before the appointment so the practical limits are clear.
Privacy needs to be real enough
A private room is ideal, but homes and lives are not always ideal. The goal is a place where you can speak without being monitored or routinely interrupted. Headphones may help with what others can hear, though they cannot prevent others from hearing your side of the conversation.
A parked private vehicle may feel more confidential for some people, but the session should not happen while driving. Partners joining together should discuss whether they can speak freely in the same space. Partners joining separately still need privacy on each side.
The connection has to carry a conversation
You need a device with a working camera and microphone and an internet connection stable enough for live conversation. Charging the device, closing bandwidth-heavy applications, and having headphones nearby can reduce avoidable disruptions.
Technology still fails sometimes. A frozen screen or dropped connection is not a personal failure. The important practical question is how the session will proceed if the connection becomes unreliable. That can be clarified at the beginning of care.
Telehealth is still a bounded appointment
Joining from home can make therapy feel casual, but the time still benefits from a beginning and an end. A few minutes before the session can help you shift from work, caregiving, or conflict. A few minutes afterward can help before returning to the rest of the day.
The space should support attention. That does not mean it must look polished. Pets, ordinary rooms, and imperfect backgrounds are part of real life. The issue is whether you can participate safely and with enough focus for the conversation.
What the consultation covers
The free 15-minute consultation is for fit and logistics. You can briefly name what brings you to therapy, ask how Nick works, confirm that telehealth and licensure fit your location, and discuss whether individual or couples therapy is the appropriate format.
It is not a therapy session, assessment, crisis appointment, or promise of a particular outcome. Atlas Minds is private pay, can provide superbills for possible out-of-network reimbursement, and provides every client a written Good Faith Estimate. Individual sessions are 50 minutes at $175; couples sessions are 50 minutes at $200.
The first session should not require guesswork
Before beginning, you should know the fee, session length, how to access the appointment, what happens if technology fails, and how privacy is handled. You should also receive the practice's informed consent information and written Good Faith Estimate. Questions about superbills and possible out-of-network reimbursement belong before they become a surprise.
For couples, it helps to decide whether partners will join from one location or separate private spaces and to confirm that everyone will be in an eligible state. The physical setup is not a test of commitment. It is part of creating conditions where each person can hear, speak, and participate. The consultation is the right place to raise these logistics without turning them into clinical disclosure.