Questions & Answers

  • I am a Licensed Professional Counselor providing online telehealth psychotherapy services in both Arizona and Pennsylvania.

    I received my Master of Arts in Professional Counseling from Ottawa University with specializations in Trauma, Abuse and Deprivation and Marriage and Family Therapy in 2009.

    Since then I’ve worked directly with families, couples, adults, young adults and adolescent populations in inpatient, collegiate, and outpatient environments, with clinical and/or leadership experience gained at facilities including Devereux, Remuda Ranch, the Meadows, Grand Canyon University, the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Doorways, and NOCD before moving exclusively to private practice.

    In clinical speak, I frequently find myself treating Life Transition Issues, Career Change/Dissatisfaction, Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Relationship Struggles, Problems with “opening up” to others, Struggles with Shame or Self Esteem, and/or a tendency to “stuff” uncomfortable emotions, although the above symptoms can translate in other clinical diagnoses as well.

    For those of you who want to be really thorough, I’ve attached my LinkedIn profile here.

  • I have contracted with the company Headway to handle billing, insurance credentialing, and clinical scheduling (the link of which is found below). If you wish to utilize insurance for counseling services, I would recommend that you click on the link in efforts to receive a specific explanation of.benefits.

    Even if you are seeking counseling and looking to pay out of pocket, I would still recommend you click the link for the purpose of scheduling the appointment, filling out documentation, and listing payment information for billing. Currently, my private pay rate for a 53+ minute session is $150.

    Headway Link

  • Our session together will first confirm that you have received and completed all of the necessary intake paperwork that’s required to be completed before we talk, followed by any questions you might have had about the documentation.

    I then have a bit of a schpiel about confidentiality, communication, and confirming your physical whereabouts that I’m legally obligated to tell you before we start our first session. Should take typically 5-10min.

    From there, my goal is to take a bit of a backseat and let you be the driver of the conversation - with my plan being to ask a whole bunch of questions and taking a whole bunch of notes. Some of these questions will likely have to do with what brought you to counseling, but others may not. My goal is to gain a bit of a big picture perspective of who you are and what is currently complicating your life.

    Finally, I’ll use the last 5-10min giving you a bit of a summary of what I’m seeing clinically, circle back around to answer any questions that you might have, discuss areas that I could see us working on moving forward, and what you could expect from me in the sessions to come. From there it will be up to you in deciding whether or not you believe we could be a good fit clinically - no pressure or aggressive sales tactics.

  • As far as the session itself - sessions with me typically last anywhere between 53-60 minutes in legnth.

    How many sessions will be enough? That’s a hard question to answer without knowing the specifics of what might have led you to counseling in the first place. However, I will say that momentum is big in counseling - the ability to clarify the problem, identify a solution, and apply what you learn in session will usually result in a conversation about whether or not you are ready to start tapering off sessions.

    I typically have clients that I see weekly, every other week, and even monthly based on need and client preference. I will say though that many favor meeting more frequently on the front end of therapy in efforts to establish momentum a bit more quickly.

  • I certainly hope not!

    Pursuing counseling can oftentimes be an initially stressful experience - sharing the sensitive details of your life to a complete stranger certainly takes courage - but my hope is that the first session will be just as much an opportunity for you to get to know me and what you can expect should you choose to continue counseling in the future.

    Past and current clients tend to describe me as warm, gregarious, and as someone who doesn’t do a whole lot of typical therapist “jedi mind trick” stuff.

    Honestly my goal is for the session to feel much more like a conversation you might have with a friend.