Q—

How much does counseling cost?

Individuals: $180* per 50 minute session which is commensurate with the counselor’s level of education and expertise. Extended sessions are available upon request and counselor availability.

Couples: $180* per 50 minute session which is commensurate with the counselor’s level of education and expertise. Extended sessions are available upon request and counselor availability.

Pre-engagement/Pre-marital: I offer a package of 5 sessions for $750 paid up front at the time of our first session. I utilize the Prepare/Enrich assessment (an additional cost of $35 will be collected to take the assessment) to tailor our sessions together to meet your needs . If you would rather pay per session, each session will cost $165.

Accepted forms of payment include: cash, check, card, HSA/FSA. I do not accept insurance as an in-network provider, however, I will gladly give you a receipt and insurance statement that you can submit to your insurance company. I do not guarantee reimbursement as every insurance company is different and I cannot be held responsible for an insurance company’s decision.

*Note that your first session is considered an intake session and is a longer session at 75 minutes in length, thus it will cost $265 for the first session.

Recognizing that each client takes a different amount of time in the therapeutic process due to their family of origin, trauma history, attachment styles, and goals, I conduct check-ins with my clients to ensure that we are working well together and addressing the most pressing issues. Some clients find that after a few short months, they feel good tackling their problems through other means than therapy. I am happy to end our relationship at this time and help make a plan for continued success, which may include maintenance sessions as needed. However, other clients desire to stay in therapy longer as they find it helps them gain traction in who they want to be and in where they want to go in life. Generally speaking, clients that I work with are in therapy anywhere from 6 months- 3 or more years on a consistent basis as research suggests people improve in therapy somewhere between 8 and 26 sessions.

A good rule of thumb is that new clients will greatly benefit if they come to therapy weekly for the first 4-6 sessions in order to build a relationship with the therapist and begin to see change and traction towards meeting their goals. During our first few sessions together, we will discuss what is best for your schedule and finances moving forward based upon your therapeutic goals. Most clients come to therapy on an every other week basis for roughly one year, and then we work towards maintenance sessions. Of course, there are exceptions to this general rule of thumb and I am happy to discuss options with you.

I understand that things come up, so you can cancel or reschedule your appointment with at least 24 business hours (M-F) notice. If it’s less than 48 business hours notice, you will be charged for the full rate of the appointment with the credit card you have placed on file with me at the time of your intake session. If cancellations continue to occur, we will process this together as this often means there is some resistance to the therapeutic work.

I define trauma as, “an overwhelming experience a person has faced that has rendered them powerless.” I like Judith Herman’s expanded definition of trauma in her classic book, “Trauma and Recovery” (1992), p.33.   

“Psychological trauma is an affiliation of the powerless. At the moment of trauma, the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force...Traumatic events overwhelm the ordinary systems of care that give people a sense of control, connection, and meaning...Traumatic events are extraordinary, not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life. Unlike commonplace misfortunes, traumatic events generally involve threats to life or bodily integrity, or a close personal encounter with violence and death. They confront human beings with the extremities of helplessness and terror, and evoke the responses of catastrophe.”

I work with people who have experienced trauma in their life by first taking time to develop a sense of safety and stabilization; this often comes in the form of building rapport and learning how my clients cope with the effects of their trauma. I work on resourcing my clients with grounding techniques, mindfulness tools, and developing healthy intrapersonal and interpersonal boundaries. From this place, clients and I will choose the modality of trauma processing that best fits their needs, this may include an evidence-based therapeutic modality called, “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing” (EMDR) and/or utilizing interventions through the evidence-based Restoration Therapy model. I will work with clients on their preferred modality and at any point, clients can choose whether or not they want to continue the process. I find it important for each client to have greater control of their trauma processing so to aid in their recovery of moving from being victimized to becoming a victor over their deeply painful experiences. Lastly, I will continue a maintenance process with clients that will include continued work on emotion regulation and grounding skills, potentially more trauma processing if needed, and continued work towards walking into the truth versus staying stuck in the pain of the past.

Q—

What is “EMDR” and can it help me?

EMDR is an abbreviation for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., developed EMDR in 1987 and to date over 200,000 mental health therapists in 52 countries have been trained. It is an innovative form of counseling that links many successful elements of a variety of therapeutic approaches in combination with eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulations, such as hand held tappers. The eye movements/tappers help to effectively stimulate the brain’s Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) system, which may generate significant improvements in a short period of time.

This type of therapy can help with both the healing of psychological pain and physical discomfort related to trauma, depression, anxiety, self esteem issues, painful birth, miscarriage, surgeries, and other life events. It is used to effectively treat both upsetting past events and present life conditions. Please do not hesitate to contact me and ask more about this treatment option as I have seen many clients improve their lives through this treatment and would love to answer questions that you may have about how it could help you!

You can read more about EMDR at emdria.org.

I enjoy remaining active and healthy through living a lifestyle committed to self-care, which isn’t easy in our world, especially in the many changes we have all experienced due to the roller coaster experience that was the past few years! Some ways in which I do this are through exercise (yoga, biking, swimming, walking, hiking) and practicing Christian contemplative spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, and stillness. I also love traveling, being an active part of my local church, journaling and reading, listening to podcasts, watching a good movie, soaking in an epsom salt bath, and most of all spending time with my husband, David, our 2 adorable kids, Blakely (4 yo) and Davey (1 yo), and our wonderful community of family and friends!