Fees & FAQs
Fees and FAQs
Fees
My fees are comparable to PhD Level Psychologists with 20+ years of experience in New York or California. I do not list my prices to discourage individuals who are picking a therapists based on price. The financial commitment to therapy is one of the largest barriers to people getting support they need. I appreciate this burden and don’t want financial concerns from our work together to add additional stress. If finances are a concern and you are looking for support to make lasting changes to your relationships and day to day life, I recommend considering your budget for at least 8-10 sessions. During our FREE Consult call I can discuss with you a treatment plan that can meet your goals within your budget.
I created my practice to be accessible, therefore I offer a sliding scale fee for a a few limited weekly sessions (based on financial hardship). My sliding scale slots are currently taken. Once one opens up I will update this section.
No, I do not take insurance. Payment is due at the time of our session. I am an Out-Of-Network provider for most insurance companies. I can provide you with a monthly SuperBill which you can submit for reimbursement with your insurance company.
Different states and insurance companies vary in how they cover online psychotherapy. Illinois and New York both have parity coverage for online psychotherapy, meaning that most insurance companies should have an option to elect for tele-health coverage. To determine if you have mental health coverage through your insurance carrier, the first thing you should do is call them. Check your coverage carefully and make sure you understand their answers. Some helpful questions you can ask them:
- What are my mental health benefits?
- Do my benefits cover i-health or tele-health psychotherapy?
- What is the coverage amount per therapy session?
- How many therapy sessions does my plan cover?
- How much does my insurance pay for an out-of-network provider?
- Is approval required from my primary care physician?
- Do my benefits cover couples therapy as well as individual therapy?
Payment is processed before each session automatically once you set-up your account.
Things come up in all of our busy lives. For therapy to be fully integrated into your life, it needs to fit into your schedule and lifestyle, providing you support whenever and wherever works best for you. If you have to change your appointment, you can do this easily through your online account, no worries. If you cancel within 48-hours (2 business days) of our scheduled appointment time, you will automatically be charged for our session.
What is online therapy with Catalina going to be like?
Once you set an appointment you will be asked to fill out payment information, a few forms and questionnaires. These forms will tell you your rights in psychotherapy and ask for your consent to work with me. Since I provide evidence-based psychotherapy, I ask you to complete objective measures of how you are feeling. I will ask you to complete these occasionally throughout our work together to provide both you and I objective feedback of how you are coping with your concerns. Our first session will be an opportunity for you to share what brings you to therapy and for us to get to know one another. It is important for you to have realistic goals and expectations about our work together, so we will discuss these right off the bat. Before the end of our first session, I will provide you a plan of how we can work together to meet goals.
Everyone comes with unique concerns and goals for therapy. Therefore, therapy will be different depending on the individual. In general, you can expect us to discuss the current events happening in your life, your personal history relevant to your issue, and report progress (or any new insights gained) from the previous therapy session. Depending on your specific needs, therapy can be short-term, for a specific issue, or longer-term, to deal with more difficult patterns or your desire for more personal development. I will be building on your existing strengths to teach you new skills to better cope. For therapy to most successful, it works best if we meet regularly, typically weekly, at the start of our work together. As you get better at applying new skills towards coping more effectively we will meet less regularly.
The speed of therapy depends on the concerns bringing you to therapy as well as how much you work on integrating new skills in your day-to-day life during therapy. I ask my patient’s to commit to seeing me weekly for the first 3-4 sessions, then we can assess how often we should regularly meet.
While therapy is an effective resource to promote growth, it is mere fraction of your life. The lessons learned in therapy must be practiced and integrated into your day-to-day life to see benefit. Therapy is a dynamic process and change does not come quick or easy. It’s important for you to manage your expectations and I’ll keep checking on these throughout our work together.
Impacted by cancer:
You can receive up to $2000 each year to pay for psychotherapy. To learn more and apply check out the Cancer-Related Behavioral Health Fund from the Healthwell Foundation providing patient’s financial support for psychotherapy.
Common questions:
Yes, Absolutely! We will be using a HIPPA compliant secure portal. Which basically is like Skype or Facetime, except lots of engineering and money has been put towards making it super secure. Check out our Privacy Page for more details.
People have many different motivations for coming to psychotherapy. Some may be going through a major life transition (unemployment, divorce, new job, etc.), or are not handling stressful circumstances well. Some people need assistance managing a range of other issues such as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, addictions, relationship problems, spiritual conflicts and creative blocks. Therapy can help provide some much needed encouragement and help with skills to get them through these periods. Others may be at a point where they are ready to learn more about themselves or want to be more effective with their goals in life. In short, people seeking psychotherapy are ready to meet the challenges in their lives and ready to make changes in their lives.
It is well established that the long-term solution to mental and emotional problems and the pain they cause cannot be solved solely by medication. Instead of just treating the symptom, therapy addresses the cause of our distress and the behavior patterns that curb our progress. You can best achieve sustainable growth and a greater sense of well-being with an integrative approach to wellness. Working with your medical doctor you can determine what’s best for you, and in some cases a combination of medication and therapy is the right course of action.
I specialize in supporting individuals improve their sexual wellbeing and relationships, as well as cope with chronic illnesses (e.g. cancer, pain, cardiac disease). I take a relational therapeutic approach grounded in evidence-based cognitive behavioral (CBT), mindfulness and existential theories. Our relationship will be the vehicle that will support you to experience their desires, fears and boundaries in a safe, holistic, and accepting way.
I’m committed to supporting you in reaching YOUR goals and in YOUR unique way.
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Don’t worry, I get it: relationships and intimacy can be hard to navigate. But it’s time for you to experience your absolute birthright—exponential bliss.
So let’s talk about it. Let me share with you my expertise.