Starting a mental health private practice has been a very challenging yet thoroughly rewarding experience. In my heart, I feel that it has always been my calling to work in the field of mental health. While in graduate school, I struggled with using the medical model to “help” people with mental health challenges. This medical model relied heavily on quick fixes, medications and branding clients with life long mental health diagnosis. This was troubling and frankly, it caused me to think about leaving the field. What if a person was simply having difficult life experiences and just needed someone to talk to about it. Typical life events such as school pressure, work issues, relationship anxieties can all cause stress that everyone needs to learn how to adjust to and cope with. I did not feel comfortable diagnosing a person I just met – a diagnosis that would follow them throughout their entire life. For example, the diagnosis will always be on the client’s permanent health record. This diagnosis will brand the person in school, their military career, may influence whether they have the ability to land federal jobs, affect their security clearances and even determine their success in applications for life insurance. Unfortunately, if you use health insurance, like most Americans, this is your reality. Insurance companies can legally request session notes and further decide what type of treatment can be provided and for how long. Sadly, people feel stuck financially and forced to use this insurance, forgoing their privacy rights just to receive help. What many of these people don’t realize is that other affordable options do exist. You can receive optimal mental health care by trained and licensed professionals without the stigma of forced diagnosis.
Treatment without forced diagnosis is a large part of our mission in this practice. We are here to provide services to people that usually don’t seek therapy. We have moved out of the medical model and into a recovery model of treatment. We intentionally do not take insurance and instead provide sliding scale services. We purposefully reach out to people that may not be able to afford services (even with insurance), those with heavy time constraints, and people who want to improve their overall well being and mental health. We do this all without being stigmatized with a diagnosis. Mental health treatment and practice is an ever flowing sea of change and we are always looking to improve. We welcome suggestions and donations to meet the needs of those that require pro bono or significantly reduced services. Learn more about our passion in providing mental health help to ALL members of our beautiful community. You are worth it, we know it, and want you to see it too.
