FAQ

I am currently offering in-person appointments to all individuals. Due to ongoing concerns related to COVID-19, I will have a HEPA air purifier running during our appointment, and there is the option to sit six feet apart. If you are feeling unwell on the day of our appointment and/or have a confirmed exposure to COVID-19, let me know, and we will hold an online appointment instead. Likewise, if I am feeling unwell or have been exposed to COVID-19, I will switch to virtual appointments for a period of time in line with CDC recommendations.

Here is how an online appointment works: When you make an appointment, I will send you a link for our specific appointment time. When you click on the link at our appointment time, we’ll be able to see and talk with each other, like on a Zoom call or FaceTime.

There is nothing to download on your computer. Although if you are using a phone or tablet, you will receive a prompt to download an app. Most people connect with minimal effort.

I plan to continue telehealth appointments indefinitely for those who prefer them. You can learn more about telemedicine here.

I do not take insurance, and you are not required to involve your insurance company in our work. However, the following are a few ways to make therapy more affordable:

HSA and FSA Benefits – My services are eligible for reimbursement from HSA and FSA accounts, and I accept HSA and FSA credit and debit cards.

Out-of-Network Benefits – You may choose to access out-of-network benefits through your insurance company, which means that your insurance company may reimburse you for at least a portion of my fee if you have a diagnosable mental health condition.

If you wish to use out-of-network benefits, you must pay me directly at our session. I will provide you with a receipt called a “superbill” that has all the information needed for your insurance company to reimburse you.

It is your responsibility to discuss with your insurance company how much coverage you have and what your deductible is for out-of-network providers. 

My rates are $275 for the initial, 60-minute intake session, and $210 for 45-minute follow-up sessions.

You are entitled to a Good Faith Estimate of projected charges for services. You can find the required notifications here: Notice of Right to Receive a Good Faith Estimate of Expected Charges and Disclosure Notice Regarding Patient Protections Against Surprise Billing

For most people, weekly psychotherapy is most beneficial. Some people choose to come more often.

I do require that clients commit a specific time each week, at least in the first few months of our work together.

As we move toward wrapping up our work, meeting less frequently may be advised.

It’s hard to say how long you will have to come to therapy. Some people find that they feel so much better that they do not need to go anymore after a few months.

Others find it takes a year or several years. It depends on the depth of the problem, how long you have had it, and how well you respond to what we are doing.

I treat individuals age 18 and older. I do not treat anyone younger than 18, and I do not treat couples or families regularly. However, if your family or partner is involved in the issues we’re working on, we can bring them into a session (or several sessions) if you and I agree it would be helpful.

Yes. I would love to talk with you to see if we would work well together.

In addition to working on chronic pain and trauma, I often work with autistic/neurodivergent folks or parents of autistic kids.

I also have helped people work on Borderline Personality Disorder (which has a LOT to do with trauma), depressive/mood disorders, setting and keeping boundaries, chronic illness, stress management, and anxiety in general.

If you think you might benefit from my approach, schedule a free 15-minute consultation with me, and we will see if we might work well together.

I cannot make you do anything you don’t already want to do under hypnosis, and I have no idea why you would want to quack like a duck.

I don’t mess around with memories in hypnosis. With hypnosis, I can teach you to use your subconscious mind’s power to make changes you want to make and access healing resources that you might not realize you have.

We do this by helping you access a trance state, a naturally occurring form of intense concentration and focus.

Some examples of trance states include being lost in thought, highway hypnosis (not remembering part of your drive, like when you miss your exit), or being so wrapped up in a book or movie that you overlook when someone is talking to you. You are not asleep and are fully conscious but just in a different, more relaxed, and focused state of mind.

Also, I do not use hypnosis independent of psychotherapy (that is, I will not just hypnotize your problem away), and I would caution you to steer clear of those who promise to do this.

There are a few reasons for this – one is that when you go rummaging around in the subconscious mind, you might find more than you bargained for, and we need to make sure we have the context to deal with that. Also, if we don’t take a complete history of your problem, we might miss some way in which the thing you’re trying to get rid of was helpful to you or protecting you from something else.

By using hypnosis in the context of psychotherapy rather than just skipping to the hypnosis part, we’ll make sure you get the safest and longest-lasting result.

Yes – both EMDR and clinical hypnosis work effectively via telehealth. We will probably go a bit slower than we might otherwise go in person to make sure that you are tolerating these methods well, but we can do almost anything online that we can do in the office.

We do EMDR online by using audio bilateral stimulation, which means playing tones that alternate in each ear. This approach is the preferred method of bilateral stimulation when working with pain-related problems, but it also works well for other issues.

You need to have a second device like a phone or tablet in addition to the device or computer you are using to talk to me and have headphones to plug into that second device.

There are apps (EMDR 101 and Remote EMDR are two that clients have used), and even YouTube clips provide the bilateral stimulation needed. I have been working with many people during the pandemic on EMDR via video appointments, and clients say it is very effective.

Working with chronic pain has special significance for me because I have dealt with it for most of my life – I was hit by a car when I was 13 years old (I was in the crosswalk with a crossing guard. This should not have happened!). A driver rear-ended me on the highway, and I fell down half a flight of concrete steps when I was a social work intern. I’ve been accident-free for over ten years now.

While I received almost every treatment imaginable for back and neck pain, some with great results and some not so much, chronic pain plays more of a supporting role in my story now rather than acting as the main character.

I still need to be careful (my family banned me from painting ceilings in my house), but chronic pain is just part of my life, not the focus of it. I’d love to help you feel that way, too.

Maybe. Since I gave birth to three autistic kids, and we know there’s a genetic link, it’s certainly possible and something I think about often. I will say, the more time I spend with my autistic clients and family members, the more I relate.

I’ve never been diagnosed as autistic, but I have been told that I am a “Highly Sensitive Person” (HSP), which has become a controversial term amongst neurodivergent-affirming people. Some say that HSP is actually autism as it presents in people who are skilled at masking symptoms, are quite verbal, and/or are socialized as female/assigned female at birth.

I do share a lot of traits, including a need for routine and order, sensitivity to my environment (overhead lights are a no-no – I make a face like the Wicked Witch of the West being doused by water when someone unexpectedly turns on one), social awkwardness (I can fake it pretty well now, except when it comes to introducing people to each other), a strong interest in Victorian home decor and dollhouse miniatures as a child and teenager, and experience intense emotional responses (something I have had my whole life).

But then again, these characteristics of mine don’t “cause clinical impairments” to the extent that they might have if I fit the medical model’s current diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (which I find problematic, to say the least). However, I consider myself part of the larger neurodivergent community, even if I do not claim an autistic identity (yet).