FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

• Do you provide therapy to children, adults and couples?

  I welcome adults--individuals, couples/families--- and adolescents and preteen children. I am helpful to persons from diverse cultural backgrounds, lifestyles and professions.

• What is the cost of psychotherapy ?

My fee is typical and mid-range for seasoned therapists in Los Angeles who have been in practice for many years. Individual psychotherapy is $130.00 per session (fifty-five minutes). Extended sessions for couples/marital or family psychotherapy are $200.00 per session (ninety-minutes).

• When is payment due?

The fee is due at your first appointment and at every appointment thereafter. After two months, or approximately eight sessions, a monthly billing option is sometimes possible.

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• Do you provide a sliding scale?

I offer about six sliding scale appointments each week, only at certain times during the day, usually to students, mental health professionals in training and elderly and dependent persons who live on very limited budgets.

• Do you accept credit cards?

          My office is not equipped to take credit cards.

• Do you accept insurance?

I am contracted with some insurance companies--Aetna, Magellan, MHN, CHIPPA.* If you have one of these insurances, call your insurance company (there is a number on the back of your card) and obtain treatment authorization before your first session, find out if you have a deductible and whether it has been met this year or not and what the amount is. Also, ask how many sessions you are permitted per year, whether there is a co-pay amount, and if so what it is.

*If you do not have one of the insurances above but you do have a PPO plan, it is possible---I cannot guarantee this---that your insurance will pay for therapy if you pay me for your sessions and submit the properly coded "Paid" invoice I will prepare for you to your insurance company.  In any case, it will always be your responsibility to pay for your psychotherapy.

Note that insurance companies provide only a limited number of sessions and authorize therapy on narrow criteria (work dysfunction, suicidal behavior, psychiatric symptoms) that you may not meet or, even if you do, may not be among your reasons for seeking therapy. Also, keep in mind that when you use your insurance, you create a record that includes a mental health diagnosis.

My involvement with your insurance is necessarily limited because, in order to preserve the therapeutic relationship and maintain an intimate, client-centered, high quality private practice, it's best for you that I do not act as your billing and claims agent. Beyond ordinary tasks, such as submitting claims and providing you and/or your insurance company with needed treatment information (dates of service, diagnostic codes, etc.) which is what an ethical psychotherapist does, I do not go further and call or mail insurance companies about your coverage benefits or troubleshoot claim problems or negotiate reimbursements. Instead, I write invoices for you to submit and I prepare and submit claims if I bill your plan directly. And that is all I do about insurance matters. Put simply, whether you have an HMO or PPO plan, you are always responsible for negotiating and troubleshooting coverage and claims and reimbursement problems and making sure that the psychotherapy you receive is paid for.

• Are you available evenings or Saturdays? 

I hold appointments six days per week as early as 8:00 AM. I offer some evening appointments and some Saturday afternoon appointments.

• How often should I come to therapy?

          At the beginning of therapy you will need to come weekly. As you

benefit from therapy, become able to use new skills and insights, we can discuss a stepdown plan to biweekly therapy. Meanwhile, plan on weekly appointments.

• Do you believe that medication is helpful?

Some clients benefit from medication intervention and some do not. I am happy to talk with you and your psychiatrist (M.D.) about combining therapy with medication intervention.

• Will a meditative or a spiritual approach to therapy conflict with my religious beliefs and practices?

The mindfulness-based therapy that I offer is psychotherapy and not spirituality or religion. I do not become involved in your religious beliefs or practices.

Mindfulness-based therapy is a clinically valid and scientifically verified method of treatment for depression and anxiety, not a religious practice or "spiritual therapy". Mindfulness-based therapy can be used in harmony with whatever tradition or beliefs you hold, observe or practice.

• What is an "alternative healing approach"?

Mindfulness-based psychotherapy, especially when combined with actual mindfulness meditation practice in therapy sessions, is out of the ordinary though well documented and valid in the field of psychology. It is different from thinking/feeling and talking therapies. Also, I employ interpersonal and sociological perspectives in this kind of therapy, not just the usual individualistic and psychological frames of reference. I invite into the work not just a person's thoughts and feelings and complaints, but also his or her mental images, attention to the five senses, thinking, and creative imagination, including sometimes the use of drawing and music media.

• Are you a monk or a spiritual teacher?

I am a mindfulness-based psychotherapist, a meditator, and by nature a contemplative individual. I offer meditative and mindfulness practices in psychotherapy that includes some philosophic principles that come from Zen and Vajrayana Buddhist teachings and the Madhyamika-Prasangika or "middle way" philosophy of Nagarjuna as revealed in Tibetan Buddhism. Please know that I am not a spiritual teacher or guide, not a monk or Zen master or Buddhism teacher. I am a California licensed psychotherapist (MFC # 38351).

• Is therapy confidential?

With a few important exceptions provided by law, therapy is strictly confidential. The mere fact that you see a therapist and everything you say in therapy are confidential unless you provide the therapist with written permission to disclose this information to someone else. Exceptions to confidentiality exist, however, in cases of suspected or actual child, elder or dependant adult abuse, or when there are threats to harm certain persons or property, or when serious possibilities or plans of self harm exist as related by client or his/her family.