Frequent Questions

Being in therapy can help you feel less anxious and stressed, introduce you to new tools and skills for addressing problem areas, and improve your relationships (family, friends, partner, etc). People often seek out a psychotherapist/counselor in order to find a more objective viewpoint than friends and family might have. Talking with a therapist can help with problems that are bothering you or that are keeping you from being successful and happy in important areas of your life. 

Typical sessions are 50 – 55 minutes in length. I generally find it important to meet on a weekly basis, especially while we are initially developing a working relationship with each other. Meeting weekly can help you to find relief from your troubles more quickly. After we have gotten used to each other and you are feeling some alleviation from distress, some prefer to meet every other week . For family work in addition to individual, or in times of higher sensitivity, I will work to accommodate scheduling more than one session per week. 

I understand and empathize that entering in to therapy may feel awkward! It can feel intimidating to open up to someone about very personal things that are going on in your life. For most people, knowing that what they say will be kept private helps them feel more comfortable. Privacy, also called confidentiality, is an important and necessary part of good counseling. As a general rule, I will keep the information you share with me in our sessions confidential (private). There are some exceptions to confidentiality – relating to threat of danger to self or others – which will be further explained at our first appointment.  

As a general rule, I will not tell your parent/guardian specific things you tell me in our private therapy sessions. There are some exceptions, however, mostly related to if you may be a harm to yourself or to someone else. We can talk about some more specific and hypothetical situations together in our first few sessions so that you get a better understanding of what I mean.

Sometimes a parent or guardian will contact me, and I will listen to what their concerns are regarding you and your therapy. I will not give details about what we talk about in our sessions. However, it can be important for parent(s)/guardian(s) to hear about how things are going in your life. In these cases, you and I will talk together about how to best communicate some of those feelings and logistics. Sometimes it helps if we meet together with your parent(s)/ guardian(s) for a ‘check-in’ on how things are going; other times it helps if I talk to your parent/guardian, in general terms, about what a better approach may be in relating to you on certain issues and concerns.

Sometimes parents feel cautious about bringing their adolescent to therapy, for any number of reasons. I assure you that therapy with me takes place in a blame free environment, as I work with each family to capitalize on their strengths. We will determine how much or how little you will be involved in the therapeutic process, as that is based on the dynamics, needs, and desires of the family, and upon the age of the teenager. In order to help your teenager, it is very important that they feel they can trust me and that things we talk about in sessions are kept private. We will work together to find a good balance so that privacy is maintained for the teenager and you are included as the adult and integral piece in the process. I think it can be very beneficial for teenagers to see their parent being willing to hear what the therapist has to say and be willing to make some accommodations, as it presents more of a team approach. 

Our first session will focus on the concerns bringing you in for therapy, we will begin creating a plan for treatment, and be assessing whether we are a good fit to do the therapeutic work together. For a first session with an adolescent, I generally meet the teen together with one or both of their parent(s)/guardian(s) so I can get a better idea of everyone’s perspective and your family can all begin to feel comfortable about what to expect from me in therapy. 

I find that people generally feel more at ease after our initial phone call, and certainly more so after the first session or two of meeting in person. I can help you see difficult issues in a new light, find solutions that may have escaped your notice, increase fulfillment in your interpersonal relationships, and provide a safe, judgment-free environment for all this work to take place.

If you have further questions, or want to speak to me about setting an appointment, I would welcome your call or email.

There are a lot of reasons why a teenager might go to therapy or why a parent might be concerned about their teenager. Some reasons teenagers come to see me include:

• Transitions – adjusting to parents’ divorce or remarriage, graduating from jr. high to high school, high school to college, ending college, and the like.

• Overwhelmed – with school pressure or expectations from parents.

• Parents concerned about who you hang out with and what you might be doing when you’re with those friends.

• Communication- parents/teenagers concerned about not having proper/continuous communication with each other.

There is not a fixed set amount of sessions for therapy, because working together is very individualized. However, that being said, I can work in one of two ways: short-term goal oriented, or longer term in-depth. Most therapeutic work tends to begin as goal oriented to work on and help alleviate the reason(s) bringing someone in to therapy in the first place. Once we work on the reasons initially bringing you in for therapy, we may work to see in what other ways these concerns affect your life or how periodic therapy sessions can be part of your self-care.

We will work together until a point where you feel comfortable and would like to end therapy. Ideally this will be a mutually agreed upon end time and include a couple of sessions for preparation and review, however you are free to terminate therapy at any time.

You may pay in the form of cash, personal check, credit, or debit card.

Sessions are $150 per 50 minute individual session. Family/Couple sessions rates are $185 per 55 minute session. 

In order to maintain a small practice so that I can devote greater individual attention to clients, I have not contracted with private insurance carriers and have opted out of medicare.  Some health insurance plans allow for what’s called ‘out of network’ coverage. If you are interested in this option, I recommend you contact your health care plan’s benefits department and ask about ‘out of network’ benefits, reimbursement rate, and any associated deductible, if applicable. I am happy to provide you with proof of service so you can recoup some of your costs by your submitting receipts to your insurance company.

You also have the option to private pay for sessions, forgoing any out-of-network insurance involvement.

Most Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can be used to pay for therapy.

Your appointment is reserving my therapeutic time for you. Since it is difficult to fill a missed or cancelled appointment on short notice, I have a 24 hour cancellation policy, whereby you are charged your full appointment fee should you choose not to give more than 24 hours notice. 

self-compassion.org/category/exercises/ – this page has guided meditations and exercises for increasing self-compassion, from the work of Dr. Kristen Neff

www.actmindfully.com.au/about-act/ – this website explains Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

www.nami.org – specific mental health concerns (e.g., Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder)

www.youthcrisisline.org – the California coalition for youth provides a 24 hour toll free number for teens in crisis or their parents who need crisis support for their teen.

grownandflown.com/ – a helpful website for parents, with blog entries about high school and college.

In compliance with the No Surprises Act that went into effect January 1, 2022, healthcare providers are required to notify clients of their rights and protections against surprise billing.

You are entitled to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” of what the charges could be for psychotherapy services provided to you.  Your cost per session is established before our first scheduled session, as well as is disclosed on this FAQs page of my website.

The Good Faith Estimate’s purpose is to show the sum cost of services to avoid an unreasonably large bill. Your treatment and cost of course of treatment will vary based on your individual needs and the amount of therapy sessions needed/wanted. I would have difficulty predicting the exact amount of therapy sessions or services that will be needed or recommended, however I can provide some examples of total costs for reference.  Please remember you can always decide when to end your time with me, moreover you can always discuss billing, cost, treatment plan, and/or amount of sessions estimate with me.

You have the right to initiate a dispute resolution process if the actual amount charged to you substantially exceeds the estimated charges stated in your Good Faith Estimate (which means $400 or more beyond the estimated charges).

For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate or the dispute process, visit https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises/consumers or call 1- 800-985-3059.