What will our first session look like?

It’s perfectly normal to be nervous when starting therapy! Our first session should help you feel more comfortable with me and the process.

Prior to your first session, you’ll receive intake paperwork and my practice policies to review and sign. During our first session, we will start with a few minutes to review my policies and go over any questions you might have. We’ll then discuss what’s bringing you into therapy and what you’re hoping to get out of your experience. We’ll cover what’s bringing you into therapy, your history, what’s working and what isn’t, and scratch the surface of who you are as a person and what’s meaningful for you. From there, we’ll develop a treatment plan as a guideline for our work together.

How long does therapy take?

This really depends on what you are looking for and what areas you’d like to work on. Some clients prefer long-term therapy and some are looking for more brief, solution-focused therapy. This is something that we will discuss at the start of treatment. I typically meet weekly with all new clients for the first 3 to 6 months and then we reassess from there.

Why don’t you accept insurance?

In recent years, insurance companies have tightened their requirements and begun shifting towards what's called value-based care. While this may sound positive on the surface, it can have unintended consequences for therapy.

Value-based care is a model that ties reimbursement to outcomes—meaning insurance providers want to see measurable, short-term progress in order to continue approving or covering treatment. This might work well in some areas of healthcare, but in therapy, healing, growth, and personal change often don't follow a quick or linear path.

This shift means therapists are increasingly required to:

• Assign diagnoses that meet insurance criteria—even if someone is seeking therapy for grief, relationship issues, identity work, or personal development (which often aren’t covered).

• Provide frequent progress reports to justify care.

• Demonstrate that therapy is "working" based on external measures, rather than focusing on what actually feels meaningful or helpful to the client.

• Fit sessions into insurance-defined treatment models, regardless of what pace or depth is clinically appropriate.

These growing requirements can undermine the trust and privacy that are central to effective therapy. They can also push therapy towards a checklist-style approach, rather than allowing space for emotional processing, insight, and personal transformation.

Working outside of insurance gives us the freedom to:

• Focus on your unique goals, not a diagnosis or reimbursement code.

• Move at a pace that feels right to you, without pressure to produce short-term outcomes.

• Keep your therapy confidential and free of third-party involvement.

• Honor the depth and complexity of your experience without reducing it to data points.

What is a superbill?

Some insurance plans offer out-of-network benefits. Depending on your plan, you may be eligible for partial or full reimbursement of the fees you pay for therapy. Always check with your insurance company to verify your out-of-network coverage.

This is where superbills come in! Superbills are basically special receipts I can provide after therapy sessions for you to submit to your insurance company. They include details about when service was completed, information about my credentials and license, a diagnosis code (if applicable), and the fee you paid for our session.

If you have out-of-network benefits, I’m happy to provide a superbill that you can submit to your insurance provider for potential reimbursement.