FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What can I expect?I’m not going to heal you—you’re going to heal you! My job is to support and uncover your most authentic self with unconditional positive regard. I hold the container, I am your sacred witness. I am a regulated presence capable of holding what once felt unbearable. I’m not here to take away your pain, but to help it be held. I am not the expert of your life, but the witness to your wisdom. My approach is direct, warm, accountable, and tender. I am not your bestie, but I am rooting for you and will guide our sessions at your pace to process, release, and reach for true liberation from suffering. Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.
Warm, structured intake. We begin with a comprehensive assessment of strengths, stressors, and goals, including history of care, risk and safety needs, and preferences for the way we work together.
Collaborative plan. We co-create a plan that names outcomes that matter to you (e.g., sleep, mood, relationships, boundaries at work/home). We identify modalities that fit, always with informed consent.
Right pace, right size. Sessions typically run 50 minutes weekly or biweekly. We build skills for stabilization and regulation before moving into deeper processing.
Measuring what matters. We check in on what’s changing narratively, emotionally, cognitively, symptoms, functioning, relationships, and alignment with your values, so we can adjust as needed.
What is an LCSW?This stands for Licensed Clinical Social Worker. My clinical background is rooted in defense social work. Social Workers are not only trained clinically, but to also understand the inner workings of the systems and environments in which you exist.
What is your session fee?My hourly rate begins at $175 and I hold several spots at a discounted rate for marginalized communities and folks who have historically been harmed and oppressed in traditional therapeutic and healing spaces.
I use the economic justice model.
Paying up front for treatment is an investment that requires financial sacrifice for many people, and I recognize that my standard rate is not accessible to everyone. Those who have access to the resources to pay the standard rate help to support my business, and they also partially sponsor those who cannot afford to pay the standard rate.
The economic justice model creates space to facilitate a variety of lower cost offerings, including groups, workshops, trainings, and a virtual community. It also supports my ability to offer no cost gender surgery assessment and referral letters for trans adults. Finally, increasing my capacity and balance in my business allows me to provide more frequent personalized referral recommendations, whereas most providers do not respond to inquiries when they are at capacity.
What are your hours and how do I reach you?We will primarily communicate through email.
My business hours are 9am-6pm Monday-Thursday. I do not answer emails on Friday and Saturday and outside of clinical crises, I will respond to you within 2 business days.
Do you take insurance?No. Ultimately, I offer significantly higher quality care to my individual clients when operating within the above-mentioned economic Justice model.
Also, leaving Insurance panels is more in line with my values of ethical business practices, harm reduction within a capitalist system, and divesting from the harmful practices of managed care companies. For example, managed care companies chronically undervalue mental health services, as well contributing to systems of oppression that amplify the stigma, mistreatment, and health disparities that marginalized communities face.
What about mutual aid ?
To acknowledge the historical and ongoing harm of colonization, and the ways social work as a discipline is complicit or active in colonial violence, I redistribute the equivalent of my professional fees (membership to the NASW) to local Indigenous sovereignty, land defense, or mutual aid efforts. Largely these reparations are paid through individual relationships rather than organizations. This does not erase the harm of colonization, or my complicity in it, but is one mechanism (of many) which encourages me to be in an ongoing conversation with my values and my communities about how to do the work I do accountably.