Why Private Pay Therapy Benefits Your Mental Health!
Welcome! You’ve decided to start online therapy in California, or perhaps you’re thinking about it. For many people, trying to find a therapist that you connect with can be a nerve-wracking process. It’s hard to know where to start and what kinds of questions to ask. The purpose of this blog is to help you navigate the process so you feel empowered in finding a therapist that is a good fit for you.
There are several important things to remember when looking for a private pay therapist. Below is an outline of the topics covered so that you can jump to a specific issue or scroll through:
Insurance vs. private pay
Questions to ask
Do they have expertise in the area you are looking for?
Listen to your intuition
Are you in their geographical range?
Check Out the Website
This is a good place to start. You can find out a lot of information about the therapist or the group practice on the website, such as the client population they work with, payment methods, and the type of therapy they offer. Checking out the FAQ page usually covers the main questions that come up in the initial consultation. This way, if you decide you want to have a consultation, you can use that time more effectively to ask more specific questions.
Paying attention to the language and aesthetic of the website can also give you a lot of information on the type of practice and practitioners that work there.
Some questions to sit with:
How does my body feel as I read through the website?
Does it address and talk about issues that I want to discuss in online therapy in California? And does it do so in a way that I both understand and connect with?
How do I respond to the energy of the website?
Does it keep me interested?
Do I get excited, hopeful, curious?
Insurance vs. Private Pay Therapy
Are you looking to pay through your insurance? Or do you have the flexibility and resources to do private pay or self-pay therapy out of pocket? The website should include information about whether the private or group practice accepts insurance or is private pay.
Whole Mother Therapy is a private pay therapy group practice. We’ve made this decision for several reasons:
When you use your insurance, your privacy is compromised.
Our Pasadena therapists have to provide a diagnosis, which then goes on your permanent medical record. Insurance also often limits the frequency and duration of therapy. Periodically, your online therapist has to speak to an insurance representative to justify the sessions, which also compromises your privacy.
Insurance pays therapists a very low payout.
At Whole Mother Therapy, we strive to provide our therapists with a thriving wage. We recognize and honor the importance of their work, the substantial investments they’ve made—and continue to make—in their training, the emotional space they hold, and the energy they give. By accepting private pay therapy in California, we ensure that our therapists aren’t just surviving, they’re actually thriving in their lives and work.
There are barriers and Obstacles to Insurance Companies
Insurance companies often manufacture obstacles and problems that require a significant amount of therapy practice staff resources to investigate and (not always successfully) resolve. In the broken and wasteful American health insurance system, it’s literally part of their business model to exhaust people so they’ll give up on seeking reimbursements. Whole Mother Therapy insists on devoting that valuable energy to the well-being of clients and expanding the practice’s healing offerings.
Questions to Ask about Private Pay Therapy
After checking out the website of a prospective therapist or group practice, think of some questions that you want to ask and important factors that you want to address in your initial consultation. Here are a few examples:
“Do you have experience working with clients who struggle with X?”
“What are your primary therapeutic modalities? Do you think they’re a good fit for working with my challenges?”
“I’ve been in therapy before. This is what worked for me, and this is what didn’t work for me. How does that fit with your approach?”
Do They Have Expertise in the Area You Are Looking for?
When reading through the website and the FAQ, does the private or group practice have expertise in the area you’re looking to explore, whether that’s anxiety, postpartum depression, addiction, or trauma? Do the practitioners on staff look as if they have the representation to be able to provide culturally competent therapy? Do they speak to your experience, your concerns, your history, your culture?
Listen to Your Intuition
Your intuition is your best friend. Listen to your body. How does it feel to read through the website? How does it feel during your initial consultation? Do you feel seen and heard? Do you feel as if your life experience is represented in the conversation?
Remember, even after starting private pay therapy with your therapist you can always decide that it doesn’t feel like a good fit. That said, it takes time and space to establish a trusting, safe, and fruitful relationship with your Pasadena therapist. Often, the dynamics we experience in the larger world show up in the therapy space. Being open and honest about your experience is vital to shifting patterns and building trust with your therapist.
Are You in Their Geographical Range?
Does the private or group practice service the state that you live in?
Online therapy has made it much easier to find and connect with a wider range of therapists and to receive therapy from the comfort of your own space. However, legal restrictions require a therapist to work only with clients who live in the state in which they are licensed.
Begin Self-Pay Therapy in California for the Best Mental Health Support!
It can be challenging to find a therapist, but it can be exceptionally rewarding to connect with someone who is a strong fit. Hopefully, this blog has given you some tools to guide you in starting your search and making a choice. You can always connect with Whole Mother Therapy’s care coordinator and schedule a 15-minute consultation to help you take those next necessary steps.
OTHER SERVICES OFFERED AT WHOLE MOTHER THERAPY
We offer a wide range of mental health services at our Pasadena office. We provide individual therapy for new parents, postpartum anxiety treatment, postpartum depression, online therapy, infant loss and therapy for pregnancy loss, birth trauma, therapy for life transitions and parental overwhelm, marriage counseling, and couples therapy. Additionally, we offer an online postpartum support group and an online pregnancy support group in California.