Rates
Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover card, cash, or a personal check is accepted at the time of your session. There is a $35 fee on any returned checks.
The initial session includes an intake assessment and you will need to plan for 90 minutes. Counseling can be flexibly scheduled to meet your needs. This can be weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly consultations, depending on what your schedule and budget allows, but also taking into account the issues for which you are seeking help. We can discuss all arrangements prior to the first meeting.
Phone consultations can be scheduled and paid in advance and will be billed at special rates.
Call to discuss rates. No one will be turned away. 239-728-1886
Insurance and Special Arrangements
Because of the changing environment of the behavioral health insurance industry in recent years, I do not participate in insurance provider networks. Clients pay in full at the time of the session.
Consumers must be aware of some of the current issues surrounding using insurance for mental health care needs:
- Insurance companies approve only counseling considered “medically necessary” and require the clinician to submit a psychiatric diagnosis. This bias toward payment for only emergency or serious conditions limits the benefit many could obtain from counseling for everyday needs and issues. Insurance will not pay for couples or family counseling or where hypnosis is used as a therapeutic intervention, thereby limiting the healing instruments a clinician can use.
- How diagnostic information is used by others or in years ahead is out of my control. I keep all your information confidential but cannot guarantee others will.
- Insurance has many mechanisms at their disposal to discourage or sometimes even penalize utilization of benefits.
- Some companies (Medicare, Medicaid) will only pay for treatment by Ph.D’s, MD’s, or Licensed Clinical Social Workers. This arbitrarily leaves out others who hold a state license to counsel and who often have advanced training in relational issues, like Licensed Mental Health Counselors and Licensed Marriage and Family Counselors.
- Most managed care companies strictly limit the number of sessions you may have or require extra documentation to get more sessions. Some life issues require more than 4-8 sessions, making accessing counseling an ongoing burden that falls on the consumer and the practitioner.
- In recent years some of the larger companies have subcontracted or formed new alliances so often that a member’s benefits can change unknown to them midway through therapy. The burden is on the member to discover this and you could find yourself suddenly paying larger portions of the session cost.
Because of all these realities, I prefer to keep things simple and work out a fee directly with clients that both they and I can live with. It also allows me the flexibility to adjust to client circumstances, and once therapy begins, keep the atmosphere safe and the stress level low so both the client and I can accomplish our work together.
