Are you an insurance provider?
I am not an in-network provider for any insurance panels. I made the conscious decision to not be on any insurance panels because more and more of my clients’ confidentiality was being put at risk.
Insurance companies have asked for complete records to be sent to them and multiple calls to verify the necessity of the visits. When I would advocate for my clients privacy, I was told that as long as I was a provider I had to comply with every request. Insurance companies also attempt to dictate the treatment plan and how it needs to be delivered.
If you are planning to use your health insurance, you must call your insurance company to ask if they cover therapy services.
Here are some questions to ask your insurance company:
- Does my policy cover out-of-network providers?
- What is the out-of-network rate?
- How much does my coverage pay per visit?
- Do I have a maximum number of visits or maximum dollar amount per calendar year?
- How much is my deductible?
- What is the reimbursement policy?
- Does my policy have a requirement regarding licensure and degree (i.e. MD, Psy.D., M.S.W, M.A.)?
Services provided as a professional coach also does not allow for sessions to be billed with insurance companies.
Not sure if Therapy or Coaching is right for me?
During our initial consultation, we will clarify any questions, explore manners of helping, and whether therapy or coaching would serve more powerfully.
Therapy deals with healing pain, patterns, dysfunction, and conflict with an individual or in relationships both in the present and in the past.
Coaching supports personal and professional growth on self-initiated change and is future focused. In therapy, there may or may not be specific outcome because the underlying goal is healing and improving relationships with self and others.
Coaching’s primary focus is on creating explicit strategies that assist in taking actionable steps, being accountable and have follow through towards an established goal.
Therapy may be on-going while coaching is time limited. Both therapy and coaching can be used for individuals and couples.
Are you a therapist or a coach?
I am both. I am a licensed therapist in the state of California and I also provide services as a Life and Professional Coach. I love being able to offer a combination of both templates.
Being a coach also offers me the freedom to see people from different states and countries as well as continue to use a variety of modalities offered in therapy and coaching.
I have worked as a therapist for over 15 years and have come to deeply love the work and the service it brings to others yet I found myself wanting something more. I found myself wanting to help people not just heal, but build extraordinary lives.
I made the transition into coaching and have created a beautiful hybrid of both worlds. I am blessed and privileged to witness my clients heal wounds, release old patterns, and move into creating the life they have aways desired.
Is my relationship going to be saved?
I believe that most people seek therapy or coaching, either individually or as part of a couple, because they want to change a pattern, want to clear resentments and anger, or are at a transition in their lives that may lead to the end of the relationship.
I cannot tell you which one of these is you and I cannot tell you if you’re relationship will be saved.
What I can say is that I will hold a sacred space where you (and your partner) can give voice to what is causing upsets, exploring what you want to change and have different, and most importantly how you can be different with yourself and your loved one.
Whether a couple decides to remain together or separate is part of the process, and both can be done from a place of kindness and love and not anger or fear.
Other therapists only want to talk about my childhood, do I have to talk about that all over again?
I don’t believe in rehashing everything that has ever happened to you or placing blame on others. The past helps us understand how we got to where we are.
My intention when exploring my clients’ past, including childhood, is to gain a better understanding of a pattern or belief that may be causing a problem in the present.
What is important is not telling detail for detail everything that happened to you in the past, but how does that impact you right now.
How does a childhood issue continue to show up in relationships today? Are there judgments created in the past that get in the way of your full potential? Forgiving these past judgments of self and others can be very crucial.
“Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future.” ~ Paul Boese
Will you put a label on me? Will you have to give me a diagnosis?
If you chose to use your insurance benefits, a therapist is required to have a diagnosis because insurance companies will not pay for your benefits without one. It is important that you are aware that any diagnosis used also becomes part of your medical health record.
When providing services as a professional coach, I do not label people or label problems because insurance companies do not reimburse for coaching services.
Do I really need to get help? And if I do, does this mean there is something wrong with me? Is it true that only crazy, weird, or weak people seek help?
In my experience, even people who have good social support, strong coping skills, and have handled other issues well, can be overwhelmed when life suddenly shifts.
New stresses or new challenges, even those considered positive ones, new job, new home, baby, or a series of difficult changes, such as illness for yourself or a loved one can cause a shift.
Therapy or coaching may add an invaluable layer of support so that you can re-assess, strengthen, or learn new coping skills. Therapy or coaching can also provide a supportive, caring, outside perspective.
I fully believe that when someone begins to contemplate and seek support, it is an indicator that an inner knowing is at play. Seeking therapy does not mean there is something wrong with you. Sometime it means that you are ready to seek something new.
“What you seek is seeking you.” ~ Rumi
We tried couples therapy before and all we did was fight.
Fighting may increase for a number of reasons. The fact is, an average couple might be unhappy for six years before seeking counseling.
At that point, it can feel pretty tough to narrow down and fix any problem and the emotionality surrounding the issues is often quite high and may even feel volatile.
Couples many times choose not to talk about what is upsetting them for a long time because they don’t want to rock the boat or add more discord to their relationship.
Partners begin to withdraw and ignore what is happening, in the relationship and with him/herself, in an effort to experience less pain.
Because counseling is a safe place, many times partners decide to go for it and share grievances and what is shared can be difficult to hear or even taken personally.
Fighting is not a sign of counseling not working rather it is a sign that what needs to be cleaned up and healed is coming to surface.
A well-trained couples therapist will contain the arguing and assist the couple in creating and holding space for one another so that the ‘fighting’ becomes productive and eventually healing.