FAQs

I charge $175 for a therapy session which typically lasts 50-55 minutes. I also offer an extended 80-minute appointment for $225. Extended sessions can be helpful for a first appointment, EMDR, complex trauma, or acute crisis situations. I accept HSA/FSA cards and debit/credit cards.

I reserve a block of time for your appointment and respect that both of our time is valuable. I have a 24-hour cancellation policy with the exception of illness or emergency. Forgetting about an appointment, running late, or being busy are not emergencies. If you cancel or miss your session with less than 24 hours and it’s not due to illness or emergency, you will be charged the full fee. If I cancel within 24 hours and it’s not due to illness or emergency, your next session fee is waived.

I am not contracted with insurance companies.

The benefit of not relying on insurance is we can prioritize your needs and goals versus the requirements of the mental health insurance system—a system I view as broken and oppressive.

However I also recognize that for many, utilizing insurance is a financial necessity. You may have "out-of-network" benefits as part of your insurance plan, which may reimburse you for part of my fee.

Learn more about the out-of-network insurance process.

In a few words, I work with individual adults. Many of the people I work with are first and second generation immigrants and LGBTQIA+ individuals. I have found tremendous healing and support working with providers who are fat and/or explicitly Health at Every Size® or fat-positive so I want to be clear that I am a mid-fat woman and work from a HAES and fat liberation perspective.

Many, but not all, of the people I work with are considering family building, pregnant, or parenting. I enjoy working with expectant and new parents of all genders. I welcome transgender individuals to my practice and am LGBTQIA+ affirming. I know that same sex, queer, and trans parents experience different challenges, discrimination and oppression and I'm ready to bring my humility and experience to support LGBTQIA+ families navigating those experiences with resilience.

I've also facilitated new fathers groups and enjoyed working with new dads individually around their own adjustment, mood, parenting challenges.

The best way to determine if we might be a good fit for you is to schedule a free, brief consultation.

I work with individuals experiencing

• problems with mood, including depression and bipolar

• anxiety, intrusive / scary thoughts, obsessive compulsive “disorder” (OCD)

• perinatal mood and anxiety “disorders” (PMADs) including prenatal depression and anxiety, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum psychosis

• trauma and complex Post-Traumatic Stress “Disorder” (PTSD)

• identity transitions, roles and losses

• challenges with body image and disordered eating (from a Health at Every Size® framework)

• parenting and bonding difficulties

I value my training in relational psychodynamic therapy; attachment therapy; behavioral therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT); and somatic therapies including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). I also draw from my personal mindfulness practices and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training.

I am also working on unlearning and recognizing the limitations of traditional psychodynamic and behavioral therapy practices, particularly for historically marginalized groups. Pursuing Body Trust® training with the Center for Body Trust and learning from anti-racism, decolonization, disability justice and fat liberation leaders, scholars, and practitioners has been important in how I approach therapy, supervision and consultation.

Sometimes I share information, sometimes I sit in silence with you. Sometimes we practice a skill, sometimes I encourage you to do less. I'm a warm, calm presence in the therapy room, but I admit I have no poker face. I hold space for the ways in which larger systems affect us and seek to understand your experiences, strengths, values and challenges knowing that you are the expert on your life. I believe that we find healing, strength and resilience in connection — therapy might be one part of that, and healing also often happens in formal and informal groups, in our families, and in our communities.

There’s also laughter, tea, tissues, fidgets, and fun, textured pillows. You’re welcome to take your shoes off in my office. If you’re at home, I’m happy to be introduced to your houseplants, cats and dogs!

You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical care will cost

Under the law, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the bill for medical items and services.

• You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.

• Make sure your health care provider gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing at least 1 business day before your medical service or item. You can also ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.

• If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.

Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.

For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call 1-877-696-6775.

The Fiddlehead Therapy Good Faith Estimate can also be downloaded.