Psychotherapy for Your Overall Well-Being
Psychotherapy for Your Overall Well-Being
Services
I typically hold 50-minute sessions with clients, unless we determine that it is more advantageous to meet for longer periods of time. Depending upon a client's therapy goals, I typically see clients once every week or two. Please contact me for current fees.
I am an "out-of-network" provider, which means that I have not contracted with your insurance company nor Medicare to provide services to you. Some health plans do not reimburse out-of-network providers at all, which means that you will be responsible for my full fee (payment must be made at the conclusion of each session by cash, check or credit card via Ivy Pay).
Depending upon a client's presenting issue(s), if psychotherapy is the modality used, it will usually require between 4 to 10 sessions to begin to experience desired changes. And, when EMDR Therapy is the exclusive approach, it may take 4-10 sessions to address a single target issue. Each person is unique and, therefore, depending upon their particular personality, mental state, history and specific complaint, they may require more or less time for desired changes to occur.
Other health plans offer coverage for out-of-network providers, but your responsibility is usually higher than it would be if you were seeing an in-network provider. Either way, I do not bill insurance companies for my services on a client’s behalf but, upon request, will gladly provide a monthly “superbill” for a client who chooses to submit a claim for reimbursement. Please make appropriate inquiries with your insurance company if that is of concern to you.
Depending upon a client's presenting issue(s), if psychotherapy is the modality used, it will usually require between 4 to 10 sessions to begin to experience desired changes. And, when EMDR Therapy is the exclusive approach, it may take 4-10 sessions to address a single target issue. Each person is unique and, therefore, depending upon their particular personality, mental state, history and specific complaint, they may require more or less time for desired changes to occur.
Psychodynamic, CBT & Family Systems Approaches
Being trained in the use of psychotherapy, and EMDR Therapy enables me to address client issues from a variety of therapeutic approaches, which I tailor to meet the specific needs of each client. Here is a listing of those approaches:
Psychodynamic Approach
Once we become conscious of how these old patterns interfere with or complicate our current relationships, we can begin to make new choices. In many cases, behaviors that were essential to our survival, or otherwise worked for us in the past, no longer serve us. For most clients, the ability to change requires both insight and allowing themselves to experience the feelings which surface with it.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ("CBT")
When clients come to understand a link between their automatic thoughts, their core beliefs about themselves, and their corresponding behaviors and how, by changing their thoughts they can influence their outcomes, they discover a formula that allows them to successfully challenge the negative or irrational thinking that leads to unwanted actions.
Family Systems Approach
Clients who suffer from troubled relationships frequently benefit from some education about the family system and how family dynamics contribute to supporting or upsetting the fragile balance of that system - depending upon how connected members are in relation to one another.
EMDR Therapy & Spiritual Psychology
EMDR Therapy
A specialized psychotherapeutic approach, EMDR Therapy requires a screening and assessment process to evaluate the appropriateness of a client’s readiness before proceeding. This is determined by a protocol that is mandated by the EMDR International Association. Just as any other psychotherapeutic approach, the screening and assessment process can take up to 2-4 sessions. Only then can a determination be made as to whether or when to proceed with the eight phase protocol. Through bi-lateral stimulation, EMDR Therapy desensitizes traumatic images and memories and allows them to be reprocessed as "normal" images and memories instead of remaining "frozen" ones that may otherwise interfere with one's enjoyment of life.
Most clients who complete EMDR Therapy notice that it erases former negative ways of thinking about a targeted situation(s) and about oneself, and helps to lower emotional intensity – almost like having your brain rewired for the better!
Spiritual Psychology
I believe that one of the reasons we are here on Earth is to learn how to love and accept ourselves more (for both our "positive" and "negative" attributes), particularly if we didn't get the benefit of having the loving parents we wanted. When we can look at life as a learning opportunity, and view our behaviors and others' behaviors from a more elevated perspective, we can begin to appreciate the difficulties of our humanness and be kinder and less judgmental towards ourselves and others. From such a vantage point, we can also discover and apply the compassionate forgiveness that will contribute to feeling and being more whole and content with ourselves and our lives.
Many of us know or suspect that our parent(s) love(d) us. They just haven't or didn't love us the way we want(ed) or need(ed). For various reasons, most often having to do with our parents' limitations as human beings, we can't always get what we need or want from them. When we finally realize and accept that, we can grieve the loss. Still, we need to get the love we want from somewhere and often look to other relationships to fill up a sense of emptiness. Ultimately, however, we're best to look for love inside ourselves - where it truly resides - instead of as a reflection in someone else. So, counseling with the use of a spiritual psychology approach essentially becomes a way to learn to love yourself more - with a guide. Allow me be your guide on your journey to wholeness.
Understanding Feelings, Addiction, Grief & Communication Skills
Understanding Feelings
Whether you are anxious, hurt, sad, lonely, depressed, grieving, guilty, bored, stressed or otherwise feeling overwhelmed, those feelings are present for a reason. Usually, it's because some important need, want or desire isn't being met. As human beings, we are constantly needing, wanting and desiring and our feelings change accordingly. So, for some clients, I help them to identify and adequately and effectively express feelings that have been causing them pain or preventing them from making satisfactory adjustments in their personal, family or work lives. After all, happiness and inner peace is a commonly desired goal - which can only be achieved when feelings are understood, validated and satisfied, as opposed to ignored or avoided.
For example, when a client comes in to see me for anger issues, I remind them that anger is present because they've perceived some situation as being unfair and, once that anger is acknowledged and validated, then it's usually a matter of the client making the choice of a more effective response to get the underlying need for fairness met. And, when the need for fairness is met, the client's anger dissolves.
Addiction (Viewed as a Distractor from Feelings)
Some people are overcome by their feelings. Others purposely or unconsciously ignore or avoid them. There are many proven methods for distracting ourselves from feelings. Some of the more common ones include: abusing alcohol and drugs, overeating, smoking, gambling, compulsive shopping, pornography and masturbation, sex addiction, playing video games to excess, or simply working way too much.
Most clients with alcohol or drug problems, or who suffer from other forms of addiction, are merely trying to distract themselves from painful feelings. For them, we first identify the underlying feelings. Then, we look at ways they can challenge feelings they may have labeled as "overwhelming" and accept and process them in ways that are more satisfying, so that they no longer have to be avoided. These clients ultimately learn that they've been missing out on valuable information that their feelings contain to help them get important needs, wants or desires met. As such, there really is no such thing as a "bad" feeling - although some admittedly feel worse to us than others do. However, feelings that are avoided or go unnamed cannot provide us with the essential information that we need for greater contentment.
Grief
Grief can occur when we lose people, relationships, pets or things we formerly enjoyed. Grief can also happen when we never had a person, relationship, pet or thing in our life that we wanted or thought we should have. Grieving can be short-lived for some and longer for others. Older teachings informed us that grief followed an expected course of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This is no longer the enlightened viewpoint. What we now know is that each person grieves very differently and, as such, accommodations need to be made for those who experience more complex and prolonged emotional and behavioral responses.
Communication Skills
Most people with relationship problems require some help with communication. Frequently, the source of the conflict in relationships is the inability to tell another person what we want or need and to actually be heard by them. Another challenge often reported is the inability to be an effective listener. With such clients, we discuss and reflect upon the ways in which they currently interact to get their needs, wants and desires met and the components needed to become a better communicator and listener. A majority of us use an aggressive or passive-aggressive approach to getting our needs met, which either produce negative side effects or are too indirect to be truly effective. When a person learns how to be more direct and assertive in asking for what they want, they create many more opportunities for fulfillment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Psychotherapy sessions generally consist of listening to what a client has to say and then responding with a comment or question. I refrain from giving advice, as I prefer to empower my clients to find their own answers and initiate their own changes through a process of facilitating greater awareness about themselves and their issues. Our sessions will be about talking and exchanging ideas. I have found that what is helpful is to join you on this journey of discovery by listening and understanding and to offer questions that stir curiosity in you. With this new understanding of your thoughts, feelings and behaviors, you are freed up to see more choices and make better decisions. At times you might find me quiet. I encourage you to ask me any questions at any time so we can understand the meaning of things. In most cases, it will be imperative that an awareness occur on both a mental and emotional level before answers can be had or desired changes can be implemented.
It is normal and natural for strong feelings to arise during the course of psychotherapy. It is not unusual for a client’s symptoms to become more pronounced during the course of therapy, although therapy sessions generally assist a client in coping with the experience of painful feelings, difficult memories, or problems relating to others.
EMDR Therapy’s reprocessing and desensitization phase involves bi-lateral stimulation of a client’s vision, hearing and/or physical senses, by way of watching an electronic light bar move from right to left, listening to alternating auditory stimulation through headphones and/or holding electronically alternating pulsers – all of which serve to activate and better integrate certain structures in the brain. EMDR Therapy has been approved by the National Institute for Mental Health and is “highly recommended” by the Department of Veteran Affairs and Department of Defense for the treatment of trauma. Additional information about how EMDR Therapy works may be found on the EMDR International Therapy Association website.
Under federal law, health care providers must give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy services. A “Good Faith Estimate,” which will be provided to such patients at the outset of therapy and annually thereafter, will detail how much incremental psychotherapy services will cost over the coming year.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate. For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, please visit [www.cms.gov/nosurprises]