Frequently Asked Questions
What are your rates?
Rate schedule for 50-minute sessions:
Individual therapy: $150
Couples therapy: $200
Nature therapy: $150 for individuals & $200 for couples
Life coaching: $150
A couples therapy intake is a unique process that includes one intake appointment, two individual appointments, and then an assessment appointment. Typically these four appointments are spaced out so that after the intake appointment occurs, the individual appointments are scheduled for the following week and then the assessment appointment is scheduled for the week after that. This typically looks like:
Week one: Intake appointment
Week two: Two individual appointments for each of you
Week three: Assessment appointment
After the assessment appointment, even if you choose not to continue to work with me, I can provide you with an in-depth analysis of your relationship and its specific issues. Please see the “What to Expect” page for more information about the couple’s intake process.
Why therapy? How will it even help?
The point of therapy is to help YOU understand YOU in a deeper way. I am highly educated in human behavior, how the brain works, and how relationship dynamics happen and maintain.
All of these things are usually happening outside of our awareness. And it is VERY difficult to “see” yourself from the outside. That’s why most good therapists go see THEIR OWN therapists…in order to stay in tune and aware of their own unconscious “stuff.” We just can’t see ourselves and our stuff the way a highly trained 3rd party can see it.
For couples specifically, we as humans get so trapped in our own reactivity. We know we are angry, annoyed, hurt…but often struggle to really understand WHY. I will help you understand the “WHY.” The “why” creates awareness and insight. And that is how change occurs. We can’t change something that we don’t even know is happening! So insight allows for CHOICE…do you want to keep behaving that old way that doesn’t work or would you like to behave differently now that you know other options?
Couples also gain a much deeper understanding of EACH OTHER in therapy. This creates more empathy and kindness, increasing your bond. When the bond is stronger, you can work together as team, moving from “me against you” to an “us against the world” mindset.
How long will it take to feel better?
Hope and a sense of relief usually occurs immediately after coming in. With a regular, weekly commitment to therapy, improvement can be seen in the first month. And greater improvements often continue from there.
If you do offered homework and use the tools and skills outside of session, treatment can be completed in about 6 months (longer if there is severe trauma).
An average ‘beginning to graduating’ is usually between 3 months to a year. And you are welcomed back with open arms anytime something new may arise in your life!
Like with most things, you get out with you put in. The more committed to the work, the quicker you will see results that are lasting and sustainable.
What is nature therapy? Why do you do it?
Since I was a child, I had a love for the outdoors. Moving to Colorado from South Carolina in 2009 reaffirmed this love and, like many Coloradans, I’ve found a true home in the beautiful mountains here. When I discovered I wanted to be a therapist, I specifically desired to be a wilderness therapist and work with people out of doors.
This passion has been a dream of mine for over ten years and I’m so excited to be offering this to people here and now. Personally, I have often found answers to my questions during time outside in quiet contemplation. And naturally, I think nature therapy offers a profound opportunity to discover more answers more quickly with a licensed wilderness therapist.
I think that nature has the ability to heal us. And I think nature therapy has the ability to heal us exponentially.
Come join me outside and see for yourself!
Why do you do this for a living?
It is a difficult job. I hear many stories of pain and suffering. I stay present with people in their hardest of times. And yet, I do feel it is my calling…my privilege and my purpose.
The other side is that I get to teach people how to be healthy, how to have closer relationships, how to understand themselves and their partner better. The relief and joy that clients feel as they start to get better lets me know we are doing something profound together. Something meaningful and rich with value.
We all exist in relationships. It is what society is made up of…family units that create neighborhoods and communities. We have varying degrees of relationships with everyone: Friends, co-workers, wives, husbands, children, pets, neighbors, teachers, parents, acquaintances, employers, employees, etc.
When choosing a therapeutic specialty I thought, “Why not become an expert in the thing that everyone is in, everyone has, and everyone struggles to maintain: relationships.” The biggest challenge that I’ve seen is that so few of us are actually equipped with the tools and resources to make relationships work well. Incorporating nature therapy into my practice has been a personal and professional mission to connect people more with themselves and their partners with the healing qualities of the natural world. What better place than the foothills of Colorado?!
Growing up, we weren’t taught how to solve major marriage crises. How to confront a friend that hurt our feelings. How to keep romance with our partner. How to show empathy and validation to our children.
So how are we expected to do that well?! Hence my calling. I have learned these skills and can share them with you.
You CAN become more fulfilled in your relationships and my therapy practice is here to teach you how.
Do you take insurance?
In general, I am considered an out-of-network provider. I am not in-network with any private insurance company. There are numerous advantages to working with an out-of-network therapist. Such an arrangement offers increased privacy to your health record, freedom of choice in selecting the therapist you wish, and freedom from insurance-related restrictions (more on that below).
If your insurance plan includes out-of-network coverage, my services may be partially reimbursed by your insurer. I provide super bill invoicing with all the necessary information to clients wishing to seek this reimbursement on their own.
I previously accepted many of the major insurance plans and found that these companies treated my clients as diagnoses attached to case numbers instead of healthy individuals and couples experiencing the new “human condition” of living in our modern world.
The clients that I work with in my practice are often experiencing stress, overwhelm, and relationship problems, all of which are not mental health disorders. The majority of clients I work with in my practice seek treatment before their issues would meet criteria for diagnosis as a mental health disorder, which is exactly what I encourage prospective clients to do!
While accepting insurance I learned that therapy covered through insurance benefits must be deemed “medically necessary.” This means that you must be diagnosed with a mental health disorder AND then it must be proven that it is impacting your health on a day-to-day basis. Unfortunately, if assigned a psychiatric diagnosis, it may become part of your permanent health record.
If you’d like to read about this issue further, please read the following article.
http://psychcentral.com/lib/why-managed-care-hurts-you/
Why am I hesitating to call you?
We are creatures of habit. That makes all changes and transitions difficult. Plus, we have an evolutionary fear of the unknown and unfamiliar. I hope my website can answer many of the “unknowns” for you. But if you still have concerns or fears, just use the contact page to write me and we can keep exploring it together.
Therapy is for everyone and anyone wanting to understand themselves better and get relief from any overwhelming emotion. In my experience, it’s not “screwed up” people that come to see me. Just the opposite really: it is the brave ones who are willing to be human and seek help for the things they don’t know about.
Therapy offers a choice. We can unconsciously keep playing out the same patterns, stuck in our own habits and prisoner to our upbringings. Or we can step back, use our higher brains, and gain insight and awareness into our actions. That is how we heal. That is how we change.
Are you LGBT+ friendly?
Most certainly! I was trained as a human rights and social work activist throughout my counseling career and masters experience in gay-affirming Denver, Colorado. I have always been passionate about social justice issues and I am personally proud to be part of the community.
I also love to treat alternative relationship agreements including monogamish, polyamory, open-relationships, and any other form of consensual non-monogamy out there.
You can trust you will be welcomed with open arms at my practice with affirmation and validation for any and all of your sexual, gender and relationship expressions.
What are you like?
My clients tell me I am laid back, accepting, confident, and highly informative. I love to laugh and am always 100% present to my clients when we work together.
My partner tells me I can be warm and energetic while colleagues share that I am articulate, passionate, and a great teacher.
Like many Coloradans, I love sunshine, being outside, rock climbing, cycling, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and generally playing in Colorado Open Spaces. I’m sure that we can always find something in common.
Feel free to visit the Testimonials page to get to know me better.
What makes you different than any other couples therapist?
There are many therapists that say they can do couples therapy but far less are actually trained specifically to do so. My whole life has been a rigorous training in healthy and unhealthy relationships with many personal and professional hard lessons learned.
I have been counseling and coaching children, youth, and adults for over ten years professionally and my masters program was solely focused on relationship dynamics within a Children, Youth, and Families concentration.
The trauma study that I completed post-masters trained me extensively as a relationship expert and coach and I also have a sex therapy focus, making virtually NO topic off limits in my office.
Add those years of specialized training to my natural intuition for how to help people connect with one another…and you have yourself a true Couples Therapist!
Get Help Today
Finding a therapist you trust and respect is important. I offer a free 20-minute online virtual consultation to determine a good fit without making a financial commitment. Click the button below to schedule your free no-obligation consultation.
Call me at 970-438-0870 or 720-340-3201 to talk about how I can help.
You can also easily send me a message using the form below.