Counseling Services FAQ

I'm based in the San Antonio area, serving people across the State of Texas. At this time, my services are conducted entirely through telehealth, and I do not foresee that changing in the near future.

At this time, I am only licensed in Texas. Therefore, I am not able to see clients outside of Texas. However, if Texas ever joins the Counseling Compact, I would be able to apply for practice privileges with the compact, which would allow me to see clients in participating states. Legislation has been introduced for the 2025 Texas legislative season, proposing that Texas join the Counseling Compact.

I do not work with anyone under the age of 18 or those seeking family or couples therapy, as these are areas in which I have limited training. If you need services for a child or adolescent, for you and your partner(s), or for you and your family, you deserve to work with someone who specializes in these areas. 

I accept health insurance and some EAP's through Headway. The companies I am in network with are: Aetna, BCBS, Carelon Behavioral Health, Cigna, Oscar, Oxford, Quest Behavioral Health, United Healthcare, and United Medicare Advantage.

You can check if I am in network with your specific plan by going to the following link:

https://headway.co/does-my-insurance-cover-therapy

**Please note, I am not able to accept BCBS TX plans purchased through the Marketplace. This is due to the way that BCBS TX contracts its mental health benefits through Magellan for these plans, and I am not in network with Magellan as Headway does not have an agreement with Magellan at this time.**

The private pay rate per 60-minute session is $150. If I'm not in network with your insurance company, I can provide you with a super bill to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement. A super bill is essentially an itemized receipt detailing the service codes, dates, and costs of all services rendered. I cannot guarantee that you will be reimbursed upon submitting a super bill. Please verify your out-of-network benefits with your insurance provider before initiating therapy if this is important to you.

I reserve a limited number of appointment slots for those who are uninsured or underinsured and are facing financial hardship that makes accessing therapy difficult. While I would love to offer more availability to those facing these circumstances, I am not able to at this time. There are two options for folks in this type of situation:

1) A flat fee of $75 per 60 minute session, or

2) Sign up for, or use your existing, Open Path Collective membership, and pay a mutually negotiated rate ranging from $40 to $70 per 60 minute session. This rate is based on your current financial situation. To learn about Open Path Collective, you can go to the following link: https://openpathcollective.org

If you are considering therapy with me, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation to help both parties assess therapeutic fit. In this consultation, we'll briefly talk about what brings you to therapy, what you're hoping to get out of therapy, and what you're looking for in a therapist. There is no obligation to schedule an intake appointment at the time of this consultation. I fully understand that you may need some time to consult with other potential therapists, or consider all of the options in front of you. 

If you decide to schedule an appointment after the consultation, I will verify your insurance, schedule your appointment, and send intake paperwork for you to complete. This paperwork must be completed at least 24 hours prior to the appointment to avoid rescheduling. The intake process can take one or two appointments to complete depending on the complexity of your concerns. By the third appointment, we will collaboratively develop a treatment plan tailored to your goals and needs. I typically recommend that clients do weekly sessions for at least the first 8 weeks to try to maximize the benefits of therapy, and then we reassess frequency from there. 

An important consideration when choosing a therapist is the average time you might spend in therapy with any given therapist. This could vary widely based on your presenting concerns (both the complexity and the number of things you want to work through), your readiness to address certain subjects that might be painful, what tools you have in your mental toolbox already and what tools need to be built up, your relationship with your therapist, and your therapist's approach to therapy, training, and experience level with addressing your specific presenting concerns. 

Personally, I can say that most clients working with me typically see an improvement in symptoms within 6-8 weeks, and many often feel better within the first one to two sessions because they've taken the step to start this process. My clients also average at least 1 year of working with me. For some clients their overall length of time in therapy might be much less, and others it might be longer. It's a perfect example of psychology's favorite answer, "It depends."

I completely understand that it can be challenging to find a therapist in Texas who approaches therapy in this way, and it is becoming increasingly important to clients that their therapist has similar values to them. With that need in mind, I do my best to keep my availability listed on my website and Psychology Today profile up to date, so you can trust that what you see for availability is current. 

Having said that, if I'm not currently accepting new clients, I'm unfortunately not able to provide an estimate for when I will be accepting new clients again. This is due to a few factors:

1. I work part time, so I carry a smaller caseload than if I were providing full-time care. This is to ensure I have a healthy life-work balance, which in turn allows me to continue to provide the best care possible. It also allows me to provide flexibility in scheduling for current clients if their needs change.
2. It is difficult to predict when each person will complete therapy. Throughout my career, there have been times when I thought someone was ready to complete therapy, but then life threw a curveball at them and a new presenting concern arose. Because of that, I learned not to give estimates for my future availability. Also, due to the complex nature of the presenting concerns I work with most often, most of my clients tend to stay with me longer than if my area of expertise focused on concerns that benefited more from a modality like Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), which is more short-term. And still others might opt to continue therapy because they value the continued benefits to their mental wellness. 

Even if I am not currently accepting new clients, I still encourage you to reach out to me if you are interested in working with me and would like to be added to my contact list. Please keep in mind that it could take six months to a year, minimum, for me to accept a new client again, so I encourage you to continue your search for a therapist and not delay care. If you have to find another therapist and then are ever not satisfied with the care you are receiving, feel free to reach out to me again in the future.