Fees & Insurance

When you pay out of pocket for sessions, you preserve your privacy. Though rare, insurance companies have been known to audit client files, but even without an audit, they know how often you are treated and for what diagnosis. Sometimes they ask for a specific treatment plan. And although your health information is protected by HIPAA, breaches of protected health information have been known to happen.

In order to use insurance, I need to give you a diagnosis. This goes on your permanent health record. A mental health diagnosis could potentially impact your ability to acquire life or disability insurance in the future.

When you don’t use third-party reimbursement, we are not bound by the time limits health insurance companies put on outpatient mental health sessions. This can be particularly useful with couples work and when using alternative techniques such as energy-based therapies. For those interested, I schedule the session at the end of my day or on days I'm not typically in the office and then we are free to work until we’ve reached some sort of resolution. Many of my cash-paying clients who make use of extended sessions have observed that they feel they get exponentially more out of extended sessions because we are able to really complete a treatment or go deep on a complex couples issue.

I have often observed that those who pay cash for their therapy take it more seriously and get more out of it. They are setting a value on their mental health by paying out of pocket and often that translates to deeper, more transformative work.