FAQS

If you’ve ever left therapy thinking, “That was nice, but nothing actually changed,” I understand why you might be hesitant to try again.

I take an active and engaged approach to therapy. I won’t just listen and send you on your way. I’ll ask questions, offer my perspective, point out things you may not be seeing, and tell you when I think we need to look at something more closely. You’ll know what we’re working on and why, so therapy feels purposeful rather than like another conversation about your week.

Both. There are times when having something concrete to try between sessions can make a real difference, and I’ll give you strategies when they’re useful. But I don’t want therapy to become a collection of “tips and tricks” that help for a few days without changing much.

We’ll use our conversations to understand what’s happening, and when there’s something you can practice, try, or approach differently outside of therapy, we’ll work on that too.

I don’t accept insurance directly, but many clients are able to use their out-of-network benefits for partial reimbursement. I’ll provide you with a superbill that you can submit to your insurance company.

I believe decisions about your therapy should be based on what you need, not what an insurance company is willing to cover. Using insurance typically requires sharing a diagnosis and information about your treatment, and the insurance company ultimately determines what qualifies as medically necessary and what it will reimburse. Working outside of insurance gives us more privacy and flexibility to decide together what your therapy looks like, including how often we meet and how long we work together.

If you plan to use out-of-network benefits, I recommend contacting your insurance company before starting therapy to ask about your mental health benefits, deductible, reimbursement rate, and any requirements for submitting claims.

Books, podcasts, and online resources can teach you a lot about mental health. They can help you recognize a behavior, put a name to something you’ve experienced, or give you an idea to try. What they can’t do is know what you don’t know to look for.

In therapy, I may notice that you minimize something every time you talk about it, that you make excuses for someone while blaming yourself, or that the same reaction keeps appearing in situations that seem completely unrelated. I can remember something you told me months ago that suddenly connects to what’s happening now, ask questions you wouldn’t think to ask yourself, and point out when what you’re saying doesn’t quite match what I’m hearing.

That’s the difference between learning about mental health and having someone trained to recognize what may be difficult to see from inside your own experience.

Progress doesn’t always look like one big breakthrough. Often, you notice it in moments that used to be difficult. You have the conversation instead of avoiding it. You make a decision without questioning it for three days. You set a boundary without immediately feeling guilty. Something that once sent you into a spiral still bothers you, but it doesn’t take over your entire day.

Over time, those moments add up. You may trust yourself more, recover more quickly when something throws you off, feel more comfortable saying what you need, and make choices based less on fear, guilt, or what other people expect from you.

The goal isn’t to never struggle again. It’s to have more choice in how you respond when you do.

It’s completely reasonable to wonder about that, especially if you’ve tried therapy before or you’re investing significant time, energy, and money into it.

We’ll talk openly about how therapy is going and whether you’re getting something useful from our work together. If you’re not, I want to know. We can look at what isn’t working, reconsider what we’re focusing on, or try a different approach. And if I believe you would be better served by another therapist or a different type of treatment, I’ll tell you.

Therapy isn’t meant to go on indefinitely. I want our work together to get you to a place where you feel ready to continue without it.