Our Practice
Our practice specializes in offering a wholistic and integrative couples-based approach to overcoming addiction, depression, anxiety and sexual issues. Based on groundbreaking research on the brain, we integrate Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy with body-centered practices (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, yoga and energy work). We continually integrate our knowledge gained from other experts such as Sue Johnson, John Gottman, Richard Schwartz, Diana Fosha, Dan Seigel, Bessel van der Kolk, Brené Brown, and others. Our integrated approach helps us get to a much deeper place. It offers you access to a powerful and sacred capacity for healing.
A Collaborative Team
You and your therapist(s) are a collaborative team. We invite you to check in on your progress and report to us every 3-4 months. The link below is below and you can submit a form at any time. The information will be forwarded to your therapist to discuss progress and stuck places with you in session.
What to Expect
SCHEDULING/CONSULTATION
Your first step is to use the contact form to express your interest. You may share a few sentences about your needs. We will contact you and schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation. During this call you can share with us the problem you are facing and we’ll give you an idea of how we can help. You are welcome to ask any questions about us, our background or the process. From there we can schedule an initial session.
INTAKE
Before your first session, you’ll go to our secure online portal to create your account. If you are coming as a couple, you’ll each need to create an account, which we will link together. In CounSol you will sign forms, track appointments, and manage billing. You will get appointment and email confirmations as well as text and email reminders. You can manage your notification preferences in your account.
INSURANCE
We are out-of-network providers. We do this because it allows us to provide the best services possible. You can ask your insurance what they will cover. If you choose to submit insurance claims, we will need to enter a diagnostic code for the individual who will be submitting claims. (If you are not submitting claims no diagnosis is necessary.) You will be able to log in to your account and download your invoices to submit at your convenience. Once a diagnosis code is entered, all of the information that the insurance company needs will be on this invoice.
BILLING AND FEES
Our rates range from $150-$250 per session based on each therapist’s experience and length of session. Sessions are typically billed as 50-minutes for individuals and 60-minutes for couples. After your account is created you can go into the Billing section and add a payment option. You may pay with credit/debit card, a card linked to your Health Saving Account, cash, or check. For couple’s sessions, one individual will be billed and the other will be linked. We typically process your payment on the day of each session.
THE COURSE OF TREATMENT
The first 3-4 sessions are considered the assessment phase where we are getting to know one another. For couples this will include an individual session with each partner. Through this phase we’ll establish clear goals and a road map for treatment.
Most clients have sessions weekly. This is important as it is much like exercise – you are building and stretching new emotional muscles and neuropathways. Regular and consistent meetings are necessary for steady growth.
Treatment Options
Because we all have unique needs, schedules and budgets we offer a few different approaches to getting help:
WEEKLY SESSIONS
This is the most common approach to therapy. We meet with you weekly at a regular time.
12 SESSION PACKAGE FOR COUPLES
This option is ideal for couples who are not certain that they want or need to invest in an extensive course of therapy. The package is paid for all in the beginning at the cost of 10 sessions. We have a set of topics and conversations to cover but adapt to meet your needs. We recommend you plan to do 1 hour of homework per week outside of therapy. In the 12th session we’ll go over what we’ve learned and provide either a self-help or therapist supported plan to continue to address the areas of your relationship you need to work on.
2 OR 3-DAY INTENSIVES
This option is ideal for couples who travel a lot, have a long-distance relationship, live too far from us to come weekly, or who need to really dig in to the work. Additionally, many couples find this is a more effective way to create shifts. This entails 12-16 hours of therapy, sometimes including yoga and other relationship building activities. These are usually scheduled 4-6 weeks in advance.
PRE-MARITAL COUNSELING
Our pre-marital counseling is usually 6-8 sessions. We have a series of questions and conversations to cover but adapt to meet your needs. We will cover topics such as commitment, finances, attachment styles, sexuality, and communication patterns. More than anything we want to help you learn to develop from the beginning the capacity for a deep emotional bond that is necessary for relationships to last.
Frequently Asked Questions
HOW WILL I KNOW IF THERAPY IS WORKING?
The most basic answer to this question is that you will begin to feel better, feel more alive and whole. However, since we are rewiring neuropathways and automatic responses in the nervous system the slow steady change can be hard to notice. Kind of like watching a flower grow, it might be that at one point you see it and then you look back and realize how far you’ve grown. Things you can look for are feeling symptom relief, new tools for handling conflict and emotionally charged situations, increased self-awareness, and a better sense of your authentic sacred core. Finally, one of the most important results is to have a sense of trust, safety and security with your therapist. Something that many people do not have in their natural environment.
HOW LONG WILL I BE IN THERAPY?
Since all human being are unique and complex, we can’t know for certain how long it will take you to get where you want to be. Imagine someone who weighs 250 pounds who wants to get down to 150 pounds and keep it off for a year. Achieving that goal will depend on factors including biology, personal habits, hours of exercise each week, among other factors. While it’s a bit more difficult in therapy to have a concrete goal like losing pounds, you might say I’d like to go X number of days without a relapse, limit the number of heated arguments we have to only X per month, or get to a place where I haven’t had a major depressive swing for X amount of time. From our model we have 3 stages we’d like to help you get through that are a bit less concrete from the client’s perspective, but exist as goals, nonetheless.
Another approach to therapy is simply to say I’m going to devote X number of hours to my mental health weekly for X months and see where I am at that point. We hope that this will become a new habit like exercise and that you maintain a regular practice throughout your life. Some choose to have individual or group therapy be a part of that weekly, bi-weekly or monthly for several years. Many couples and individuals find that after working consistently for 1-2 years they can manage on their own or simply come in for monthly checkpoints after that. Together we can figure out what is right for you.
