FAQ & Policies

I am "out-of-network" for all insurance plans. Being an "out-of-network" provider means that my clients pay me a fee, and I supply them with a bill which may be presented by the client to their insurance company for reimbursement to the client directly. Every plan has different out-of-network benefits, and it is the responsibility of my clients to contact their insurance provider for more information on out-of-network deductibles, reimbursement rates and co-insurance.

I have Opted-Out of Medicare. This means that I can serve Medicare beneficiaries, but they cannot submit for reimbursement by Medicare, nor will I bill Medicare for services rendered.

To use out-of-network insurance benefits for reimbursement, the insurance companies usually require a diagnosis of a "qualifying condition." If you qualify for a diagnosis, I will discuss this with you, and it will be your choice as to if you wish for me to document this for insurance purposes. If you opt for no diagnosis, insurance will likely not pay for services, and you will be responsible for the full cost of your treatment and will not be reimbursed by your insurance company. There is also no guarantee that your insurance company will reimburse you for out-of-network services, and it is clients' responsibility to confirm and pre-authorize with their insurance provider.
 

Call or email me to set up your intake appointment. I will send you all the information we need to get started.

All clients are required to give 48 hours notification by email, text, or voice mail for cancellations, or are otherwise considered “late cancellations.” For late cancellations, clients are responsible for payment of full session fee at the clinician’s discretion.

A fee is never charged if the clinician is unable to attend sessions (i.e. injury or illness, or practitioner time off). Clients are never held responsible to pay for a cancelled appointment when the clinician/practitioner is unavailable to meet for any reason.
 

It is common for one or more parties to enter couples and family therapy withholding a secret they believe will hurt the other and are afraid to share. If during the course of treatment an individual client communicates to me that they have a secret (e.g. a current or past affair, infidelity, or breach of marital contract), I will not share your secrets with your partner without your consent, but I will insist you share them in order to continue with me as your couples or family therapist. Some secrets need to be shared quickly (such as affairs and concealed addictions), and others can wait with the intention of sharing later (such as the history of a trauma). If sharing a secret could trigger a safety problem, then this is a case-by-case matter we will need to discuss, including if the relationship can be safe enough to be appropriate for treatment in couples therapy.

Why this policy?
In essence, improving your relationship requires increasing trust and intimacy, and secrets inherently block trust and intimacy by leaving the secret keeper disconnected from and anxious about at some level about their partner, usually because they are left alone with the fear of the consequences of sharing. If you have a secret, I would ask you, what kind of relationship... what kind of intimacy... do you want to have? One where you live apart from your partner/family with a secret in fear, unable to build and keep trust with the person you want connection and acceptance with? My view of couples and family therapy is to cultivate your intimacy, trust, and openness to each other and reduce fear and undo aloneness. Keeping secrets for one or more partners can make it impossible for me hold the trust of both partners.

What about disclosure?
Tensions and pain can erupt when secrets are revealed and disclosed. I encourage initial disclosures (e.g. that there is a secret, and essentially what kind of secret) to be made in private, at-home, and not in session. For secrets such as affairs or pornography use, where there are many details that can trigger explosive emotions, I recommend that details be discussed in session. For affairs where sex was involved, I recommend against discussing ANY sexual details except that sexual contact happened, if STD protection was used, and any follow up with medical care as needed. Knowing the details of acts are ultimately not necessary for recovery, and can be harmful to the betrayed person.

As Licensed Clinical Social Workers, we are bound by the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics to dutifully keep all information you tell us as a client confidential unless you authorize, in writing, our release of your information to specified parties for specified reasons. There are exceptions to this, where we have a duty to report as specified by North Carolina law:

• Cases where a client poses an imminent threat to their own safety

• Cases where a client poses an imminent threat to the safety of others

• Cases where a minor client or client's minor child is suspected of being neglected and/or abused by a parent, guardian, custodian, or caretaker

• Cases where a disabled or elder adult client or ward of a client is suspected of being abused, neglected, and/or exploited by their caretaker.

This practice is not a crisis services provider. This means that clients experiencing a psychiatric, mental health, or behavioral emergency need to contact one of the following:

• 911

• Nearest emergency department

• Local Managed Care Organization (e.g. Alliance Behavioral Health Care, Cardinal Innovations)
  

Clients and their families and providers are encouraged to contact us about any crisis that has occurred, but know that our phones are turned off after business hours, and email is not routinely checked after business hours.