Madeleine Dale and Erin Moudy
Finding a good therapist is a bit like finding the right spouse. It’s important to match up with a trusted confidante you can talk to about anything. You need someone who cares about you, even after they’ve heard all your secret fears and foibles.
Madeleine Dale founded Tuesday Counseling in July of 2024, and she welcomed fellow psychotherapists Erin Moudy and Jeremy Jones soon after. The three serve clients dealing with anxiety, grief, trauma and a variety of other issues, and their methods of working with patients vary, too. Dale exclusively sees her clients remotely, and Moudy’s visits are all held in their Lakewood office. Jones relies on a hybrid of remote and in-person interaction.
The pandemic, it turns out, improved access to health care for those unable or unwilling to visit professionals in an office setting.
“In some twisted, weird way for our profession, COVID-19 gave both clients and clinicians the freedom to choose what worked for them,” says Moudy. “You think about clients with disabilities who can’t easily leave the house, and virtual access has been a game changer.”
Psychotherapists like those at Tuesday Counseling hold a state license, and Texas recently joined the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT), a group of 42 states which now permit telepsychology across state boundaries. This makes serving clients remotely much easier, especially as Americans continue working from home in high numbers.
“It’s a funny time to be a therapist,” says Dale, who’s planning a move to New York with her husband, Rhett Derryberry, in the coming weeks. “There’s a lot more flexibility than there ever has been, at least on the clinician side. We can stay home and work, and clients sometimes prefer that. There’s a lot of leeway in how we do our job now. We have more technology integrated into everything, and it feels more streamlined than in generations past.”
Moudy weighed the remote-versus-in-person question over the past few months as she worked from home and waited for her new office at Gaston and La Vista to be ready. Now that she’s fully working in-person, she’s considering the benefits of both worlds.
“It’s my favorite discussion, because there’s a protective nature that inherently exists with remote work for both the client and clinician. The screen is like a barrier between us. You can’t see all the body language — all the nonverbal communication. When clients came to see me in person for the first time, some felt really exposed and vulnerable.”
Another new aspect of today’s tech-savvy practices is easy access by clients. It’s helpful when a client has a quick question or mental health emergency. It’s not so great when therapists are trying to carve out personal time for their own friends and family.
“Ten years ago, clients who had an issue would have to wait until the next session to discuss it,” says Dale. “Today’s new frontier of therapy is so virtual, so technology reliant, that our clients often text for an appointment or a chat. It makes us a lot more accessible. That can be a good thing, but that can also be a learning opportunity, a boundary conversation.”
Moudy admits she has to “check herself” to keep her “people pleasing nature” from immediately returning every text, call and message — especially on holidays and weekends.
“Oftentimes, people forget that therapy is a relationship,” agrees Moudy. “Professional and ethical boundaries are in place to safeguard the client. It causes me to do a lot of self-monitoring, too. I’m human. I want my clients to like me.”
Instead, she encourages clients to send messages through Tuesday’s portal system. She responds mostly during regular office hours.
Therapists at Tuesday Counseling are on the young side — Dale graduated from Lake Highlands High School in 2016 and Moudy in 2017 — and they tend to attract clients from their own generation. They use social media, including TikTok, to express themselves and connect. The good news: young people don’t feel stigmatized about seeing a counselor the way people of their parents’ generation may have.
Dale and Moudy say the goal of their therapy practice is simple — to work themselves out of a job.
“If we’re doing our jobs right, our clients will one day not need to come see us anymore. They can take a step back and say, ‘I don’t need this as a support anymore.’ They’ll know the relationship exists, and the door is open if they want to come back.”
Before Dale earned her master’s degree in counseling at SMU, she got a degree in public relations from OU. She was intentional in choosing a catchy name for her new company with meaning and purpose behind it.
“If Monday is the first day of the week, Tuesday is the next day. Choosing to start therapy is the first step, and actually showing up is the next step. Tuesday represents a progression.”
“There’s also something to be said about the fact that Mondays are hard. Tuesday is the day you wake up, take a breath and say, ‘Okay, let’s do it,’” agrees Moudy. “Therapy opens a can of worms for a lot of people, and I always want my clients to be armed with that knowledge before we start. This is going to be messy. The benefit of that, though, is self-awareness — understanding how and why you view the world, yourself, your relationships and other people the way you do. How much better are you able to love yourself and love others if you understand yourself well?”
Dale believes everyone can benefit from therapy, regardless of their background or life experience.
“No one at this point in their life — no matter how old or young they are — has walked out of what has happened to them unscathed. On the other hand, a lot of people just kind of want a mental health tune up, like an oil change for their car.”
After a tune up, most cars run like a champ. Do people function better following therapy?
“After the first two sessions, maybe not, because you’re taking everything out of a bag and putting it on a table to look at, and that doesn’t feel very good. I always say it gets hard and then it gets easier. I think what is miraculous about the human body is that our brain is constantly moving toward healing,” explains Moudy. “I think what is so beautiful about therapy is finding ways that feel authentic, that feel adaptive to being a human and being in relationships and feeling alive.”
To make an appointment, register online here.
Tuesday Counseling is at 6334 Gaston Avenue, Suite 212A.
Madeleine Dale and Erin Moudy of Tuesday Counseling
