Do you accept insurance?

Whole Health Counseling no longer accepts insurance other than one employee assistance program benefit called LYRA. Please mention LYRA in your inquiry, and we can confirm your eligibility for these benefits. You are responsible for ensuring you are covered before starting therapy. Any sessions that are denied by LYRA will fall onto you to cover payment to Whole Health Counseling. Commercial, private, and Medicaid/Medicare are no longer accepted. FSA/HSA are accepted, and superbills are provided for you to submit to your insurance company. If you have out-of-network coverage for mental health treatment, this can cover up to 60-80% of the cost of therapy after you meet your deductible. Inquire with your insurer to find out more information by calling the number on the back of your card or checking your insurance company’s online portal. The process generally works that you will pay upfront for the cost of the session. After uploading a copy of the monthly superbill to your insurer’s online portal, they typically will mail you a check reimbursing you for their covered portion.

Why do you not accept insurance?

At Whole Health Counseling, we believe in offering you the best care possible without constraints or control by people who are not trained to be experts in your care and well-being. Working with insurance companies creates a variety of hurdles to overcome throughout your treatment. A few of these can include delays in payment for sessions, denial of coverage, audits that can result in treatment being terminated prematurely, having to share your mental health record with insurance companies (an infringement upon your confidentiality), limiting the type of treatment (if a better modality works for you, they may not cover it) and much more. In addition, some clients have later found themselves to be denied life insurance policies due to having a mental health diagnosis in their medical chart. Working outside of the confines of the medical model allows your mental health treatment to be private and prevent any future discrimination that could occur in rare job situations (pilots, firefighters, police, etc.) or when applying for life insurance because there will be no diagnosis in your medical record.

Another important consideration is that psychotherapists often need to see up to twice the number of clients per week in order to run their business when accepting insurance versus private pay. Choosing a provider who does not accept insurance means you are working with a psychotherapist who has prioritized their well-being, attentiveness to you and your care, and has taken measures to ensure they do not burn out while working with you. This is especially important if you are seeking out a therapist with expertise in trauma. This work is very complex and one of the most important acts of self-care you can engage in, so seeing a well-rested and highly invested therapist is crucial.

As a psychotherapist and trauma specialist of 13 years, Alli realized the only option for staying in the counseling field and providing care at the level of excellence she requires of herself, was to move away from insurance panels that were making the work unsustainable. Alli has found that many clients come to her for deeper and more impactful work after already trying CBT therapy with an insurance-based provider. Working directly with your provider and paying out of pocket for IFS, EMDR, or intensives allows you to get the highest level and efficiency of help possible without any barriers or interference. Internal Family Systems parts work is sometimes not accepted or reimbursed by insurance and intensives are not covered by insurance. By paying out of pocket, you are allowing a provider with 13 years of expertise to provide you with the best and most efficient care possible without any limitations or interference.

Do you fill out FMLA or disability paperwork?

NO. The Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners (who oversee all psychotherapy licensees) has stated that we are not to fill out FMLA or disability paperwork, and that clients must seek out a medical provider (a primary care doctor or psychiatrist) to fill out any medical forms. Given the nature of FMLA, it makes sense that a client should be under the care of a medical provider if symptoms are severe enough that a person is not capable of working for an extended period of time. As a psychotherapist, Alli can help you clarify which symptoms of your mental health struggle are affecting your physical health and well-being, and can provide you with tools to communicate this to your medical provider if needed. Please plan ahead to speak with your PCP or a psychiatrist about paperwork requests for FMLA or disability.

Do you provide ESA/emotional support animal letters?

NO. ESAs have also been addressed by the state board. As a psychotherapist, Alli is required to operate within the scope of practice based on her license as a professional counselor. She is able to assess your current mental health symptoms based on your self-report in session. She is not a medical prescriber with training to prescribe a pet as a medical necessity or an expert in assessing animals or pets of any kind. These requests are outside of the scope of competency of a licensed psychotherapist/counselor. Thus, for a multitude of reasons, prescribing a pet as support is not something Alli is trained to do or believes is ethical for her to do. Writing or not writing an ESA letter can create a dual relationship with a client, in which the decision about the letter can influence the professional counseling relationship in potentially negative ways. It is for the protection of both parties that Alli refrains from writing ESA letters. Please seek out a medical provider for this.

What is the frequency of therapy sessions?

In most cases, clients are expected to commit to weekly psychotherapy sessions and then drop down to biweekly therapy as progress is shown. The reason for this is that therapy requires time and connection to build momentum in the beginning of treatment. Client and therapist are building the relationship, and weekly sessions allow for this connection to grow at an appropriate rate. Biweekly sessions at the beginning create such a wide gap in between sessions that momentum is harder to gain and progress can take much longer, creating more likelihood of frustration or feeling that therapy is ineffective.

Starting with biweekly sessions is only appropriate in certain cases (individuals who have been in therapy before, certain couples who may need more time between sessions) which can be discussed on a free consult call. Please note that a minimum of two sessions per month is required in order to work with Alli for ongoing therapy and have a consistent slot in the schedule. If this frequency is not maintained due to multiple session cancellations, Alli will discuss termination and options to return to therapy when your schedule allows. Monthly sessions are only allowed temporarily once a client has decided they are close to terminating treatment and would like a few maintenance sessions prior to a full discharge. For those interested in less frequent sessions, you may find that scheduling a one-time therapy intensive is a better option for you if ongoing therapy does not fit your schedule or treatment goals.

What are therapy intensives?

Therapy intensives are a separate offering in which clients elect for a one-time therapy intensive (length can vary from 1 half day up to 2 days in a row) of EMDR or IFS parts work on a specific topic or trauma, or for couples who want immediate and effective assistance around urgent relationship issues. Difficulty with scheduling ongoing therapy is another reason many people are seeking out individual or couples therapy intensives. Clients who choose to do an intensive are paying for a one-time service and will be discharged after the intensive and not considered ongoing therapy clients. The approach is similar to a retreat or other one-time offering in that the intensive requires a deposit of 50% upfront, then 50% the day of and is nonrefundable. The payment is for the fast and powerful transformation that occurs within this uniquely condensed timeframe. There is no ongoing communication after the intensive ends.

This can also be a helpful service for individuals who already have an ongoing therapist but want adjunct services such as EMDR for a specific target situation, or couples who may want tools one time. Some of the benefits of intensives are that progress is much faster than traditional therapy and that they don’t create ongoing scheduling challenges. Intensives are offered at premium times, including evenings and weekend openings. These times are not available for weekly/biweekly therapy.

For encouraging research on the effectiveness of intensives when compared to weekly therapy, please see the following article on using EMDR intensives vs. weekly therapy to treat PTSD: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01458/full