Questions & Answers
What type of clients do you work with?
I work with anyone who is ready for growth and change. My motto is ‘expect to explore’. I want to be your guide through change as you grow spiritually, emotionally, and sensually. I have the most success with clients who are ready and willing to take ownership of their lives and their goals. If you are ready to work, I am here for you! I have worked with adolescents, adults, couples, throuples, family members, and friends. I love seeing the growth of my clients. They are amazing, vulnerable, and willing people that care about personal growth, development, and relationships.
What is your clinical background?
I have a master’s degree in social work with a focus on human rights and social justice, as well as critical social constructivism. My clinical training is in person-centered therapy, as well as eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and couples and sex therapy.
What makes you different from other therapists and counselors?
My clients want to do work to understand themselves. While there are plenty of different modalities out there to do a personal inventory— for instance, an astrological quiz or a Myers-Briggs personality test— the real benefit of self-introspection comes with the way we decode this information and apply it to our lives. I can help you understand how the things you experienced as a child and the way your brain works shaped who you are today.
I want to help you understand yourself better! I can guide you to a better understanding of yourself as a unique individual, as a person in a relationship, in a culture and system, and in the universe as a spirit. I help you focus and refocus on what you want, and use my expertise in psychodynamic, humanistic, and cognitive-behavioral approaches to help you understand how to make lasting changes. I am a non-judgemental, empathetic, and genuine person who will show up for you consistently in these ways.
What is your approach to sex and intimacy therapy? Who attends sex and relationship therapy?
I will ask the hard questions to address sex and intimacy issues. By providing you with a safe space to talk about sex and intimacy, we can address the erectile, orgasm, or communication issues you might be having. Rapid orgasm in men, also known as premature ejaculation, is usually born of anxiety. Its counterpart in women is delayed orgasm. Sex therapy can be a primary intervention or an intervention woven into couple therapy. The strategies can be used by individuals without partners, or by those whose partner is unwilling to attend, gay couples, couples who have experienced sexual trauma, or as a resource for education and deeper intimiacy in couples age 20 to 80's.
My focus on social constructivism for my master’s degree informs the way that I guide my clients. Social constructivism looks at the idea that meaning can be found through experience, and that social relationships are the way we make meaning of the world. I look at all aspects of relationships in your life to help understand the way that you view the world. This understanding of the way that you see things also helps us decode and unpack ways of viewing ourselves or others that may no longer be serving us. To learn more about relationships and therapy, click here.
What do you mean by 'trauma'? What is trauma-informed therapy?
Trauma-informed therapy looks at the way that things we experienced as overwhelmingly stressful impact us mentally, behaviorally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. While we may think of big events when we hear the word ‘trauma’, a person may actually experience trauma as a response to any event that they find physically or emotionally threatening or harmful.
To learn more about the ways that trauma-based therapy can serve you, click here.
What should I expect from my first session?
Our first session will be an intake and diagnostic assessment session where I will collect information about your developmental and sexual history. We will talk about what the inciting problem is that brought us to work together, and we can spend some time discussing that issue. With that said, it’s important for me to get your history to understand you, and in turn, help you understand yourself. I want to work with you if you are ready to look inward and walk forward together. When we work together, you can expect to explore.
What is the time commitment? How long will I need to be in therapy?
The answer to the question “how long will I need to be in therapy?” relies on a couple of factors including your goals and the amount of self-work you are ready to engage in. It also depends on what your ideal outcome is for therapy. For some, therapy is like a visit to the doctor: a time to target a specific issue until that issue is healed. For others, therapy is like going to the gym: a time to maintain something that you have spent time building up already.
Growth comes in many shapes and sizes. For us, it’ll be 60-minute sessions and in your willingness and intention to practice what you are learning in session in your actual life! We can work together for as long as you would like, but I have noticed a real sweet spot around 10-12 sessions in. I understand that this is hard, vulnerable work. The more time that we can have together to grow in trust and confidence, the easier it will be to be vulnerable and share ‘heavier’ feelings. I want to be your guide through the big stuff, the little stuff, and everything in between.
What is your practice like? Where do we meet?
I am a licensed clinical social worker in Vermont. Because of telehealth and the laws and guidelines I follow, I have the ability to serve clients in Vermont and some other states. If you have an internet connection, I am able to work with you! I use an encrypted, secure platform to conduct our teletherapy sessions.
What is the investment for a session with you?
Sessions are $200 for a 60 minute session. Sessions are generally held on a weekly basis. Depending on the work, this could increase to twice a week or decrease to every other week, or to monthly maintenance sessions.
Do you accept insurance?
I am an out-of-network provider and therefore I do not work directly with any insurance plans, except Vermont Medicaid. I can provide you with what you will need to bill your insurance company. If you have a PPO, you will likely be reimbursed, and if you have an HMO, you likely will not be reimbursed for counseling. Any insurance claim requires a medical diagnosis to authorize treatment, even if a medical diagnosis does not exist in your situation. Even worse, the insurance company determines how many counseling sessions are appropriate for your treatment, regardless of where you are in the healing process.
By working out of insurance, we are able to work together regardless of any medical diagnosis (or lack thereof). We can choose how frequently we want to meet, and we do not have to terminate treatment on the whim of a third party.
What about Out-of-Network Benefits?
The first step is to call your insurance provider at the number for member services listed on the back of your card to check on your coverage by asking the following questions:
1.) What are the benefits for mental health outpatient services with an Out-of-Network provider?
2.) How much is the deductible that needs to be met before the benefits are able to be used?
3.) When does the deductible renew (at the beginning of the year or mid-year) and how much has been met so far?
Have a question I haven’t answered? Contact me.