What to Expect from Therapy

FIRST THINGS FIRST 

It's hard to know if I am the right therapist for you unless we sit down and interact in person, which is why I offer a free initial 30-minute consultation. This is a chance for us to meet, explore your concerns, answer your questions about therapy, and decide if we will be a good fit. 

If you decide you’d like to move forward after our consultation, we will schedule our first session and I will send you an email inviting you to my client portal, where you will review and sign the forms in my intake packet. These forms are legally required, and are an important part of therapy because they explain your rights as a client, outline our agreement of services, and help provide me with important background information.  I always make room to discuss these form in your first session, so bring your questions and concerns. 

WHAT HAPPENS FROM THERE?

Though we will identify important issues that you want to address, therapy is a week-to-week process of paying attention to your life. Therapy is your time, which may be an easy or difficult thing to get used to. Depending on where you are, your sessions may be full of laughter, tears, grief, joy, stories, and/or silence (often all in the same session). 

As a trained interpersonal psychotherapist, I utilize many different theories to help you connect with your truest self. Often this includes focusing on the 'here and now' of our relationship as it develops, using our experience together as a way to reflect on the relational themes causing pain in your life.

I'll invite you to notice your emotions as they present themselves during therapy. This moment to moment noticing of your bodily sensations is a way to track your experience better than your memory, and here is a good place to use the creative arts to express the 'unsayable' parts of your story. 

I often use Internal Family Systems (IFS) with clients. IFS is an evidenced-based modality that conceives of individuals as a collective of parts (part of me is depressed; part of me is frustrated at being depressed) as opposed to a single, monolithic “I” (I am depressed). Through IFS, I will guide you to restore and adjust your internal relationships so that you will experience greater clarity, connection, courage and compassion with and for yourself.

I also rely on a variety of techniques and frameworks (relational, story-based, poetry, dreamwork, somatic experience and spirituality) and teachers (Carl Jung, Dick Scwhartz, Pema Chodron, Stephen Aizenstadt and Mary Oliver among others) to better help you understand the whole of who you are now, have been and are becoming.

Fees + Insurance

I offer in-person and virtual sessions for individual adults (18-65). Sessions are scheduled on a weekly basis.

INSURANCE

• Regence

• Premera

• Lifewise

• Blue Cross Blue Shield

FEES [cash rate for those not using insurance]

50-minute intake session: $200

50-minute individual psychotherapy session: $160

I require an active credit or HSA card be on file and will charge your card after each session is completed.

A NOTE ON INSURANCE

If you plan on using insurance, I recommend you confirm that I am in-network with your specific plan and clarify your benefits (often listed as “mental health benefits” or “behavioral health benefits”) directly with your insurance company. It’s important you understand the deductible, co-pays and co-insurance you’ll be responsible for.

If I do not accept your insurance, you may still be able to apply for partial reimbursement through your insurance company. I can provide you with a Superbill, the document insurers require in order to process reimbursement, which you can then send to your insurance company. I recommend you confirm your Out-of-Network benefits to understand how much you might be able to be reimbursed for.

REGARDING VIRTUAL SESSIONS

• You’ll need to be in a quiet, private place to attend your session (a bedroom, your car, etc.). Privacy is important to be able to speak your mind freely and feel fully what comes up during session.

• A computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone with a stable internet connection.

• I use Sessions Health, a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform that is secure and encrypted to ensure your privacy.