Therapy is just so expensive

[Anonymous]

What about TMS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, OP, it’s a big problem in the dc area. I hear friends in other parts of the country don’t have this issue. The therapists there take insurance.

Insurance companies are assaulting therapists and here even if a therapist sees 40 clients a week —which isn’t possible to do well in my opinion—they are not making enough to live off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, OP, it’s a big problem in the dc area. I hear friends in other parts of the country don’t have this issue. The therapists there take insurance.

Insurance companies are assaulting therapists and here even if a therapist sees 40 clients a week —which isn’t possible to do well in my opinion—they are not making enough to live off.

Assaulting financially.

I charge more than $250 so that I can be fully present to my clients who mostly have ptsd and not be frustrated by trying to get insurance reimbursements and filing papers. I also charge this so that I am not so burnt out and I can live fairly comfortably. My caseload is smaller and my clients get better. My focus is trauma and my certification and 18 years of experience is DBT.

I have a client who was being treated for bipolar by their psychiatrist for a decade. Because I’m fully present and listening to what clients are saying and not saying and because I have the space to reflect on them and to consider what makes sense and what doesn’t —I saw that this person doesn’t have a mood disorder but they are having emotional issues, past suicide attempts and troubled work performance bc they have/had untreated ADD.

I and the client reached out to the psychiatrist and they are doing remarkably better on a stimulant —than ever. If I were taking insurance and seeing more individuals this person likely would never have determined the issue and been able to address it. Her self esteem and confidence and reduced anxiety is a joy to witness

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think therapy is mostly useless. Medication at least for sure helps symptoms and its usually covered by insurance.

Therapy does help people who are self-aware enough that they need therapy, but not self-aware enough to deal with their problems, or who have such severe problems that they are unable to help themselves. I do agree with you that I think a majority of the population in therapy could do the work entirely by themselves - except they don't want to and prefer to pay to feel accompanied, and why not, if they can afford it?

I also think that many people default to therapy when in reality they or their loves ones should be in psychiatric care, getting their diagnoses and pharmaceuticals. So many parents I know prefer to think their kids needs "talk therapy" when in reality they need meds for ADHD and behavioral training for autism (which is not the same thing as therapy).

Sometimes therapy can help with increase self awareness and insight.

[Anonymous]

OP i completely sympathize. I have also been through some terrible therapists (one even no showed multiple times.). My most recent one spent a lot of time telling me about their own family. Not great.
It's a struggle on top of the capital I "issues". You are not alone.

[Anonymous]

Yeah it's the kind of thing you have to just carve out of your budget if you really need it. You can go every other week, though that's still $500 a month. You do that for two years, that's easily $10,000. But you have to think of like a non-negotiable necessity, like buying a new car or getting a new roof or paying the deductibles for cancer treatment. Even just a year will be helpful, and two should be enough to get you over the hump. Therapy saved my life and made me a much better parent and spouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP i completely sympathize. I have also been through some terrible therapists (one even no showed multiple times.). My most recent one spent a lot of time telling me about their own family. Not great.
It's a struggle on top of the capital I "issues". You are not alone.

Yeah, I was looking for one about a scary disease I was being tested for.

In the introductory apt, one therapist told me how horrible it was because her sister had it! 😳

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, OP, it’s a big problem in the dc area. I hear friends in other parts of the country don’t have this issue. The therapists there take insurance.

Insurance companies are assaulting therapists and here even if a therapist sees 40 clients a week —which isn’t possible to do well in my opinion—they are not making enough to live off.

Assaulting financially.

I charge more than $250 so that I can be fully present to my clients who mostly have ptsd and not be frustrated by trying to get insurance reimbursements and filing papers. I also charge this so that I am not so burnt out and I can live fairly comfortably. My caseload is smaller and my clients get better. My focus is trauma and my certification and 18 years of experience is DBT.

I have a client who was being treated for bipolar by their psychiatrist for a decade. Because I’m fully present and listening to what clients are saying and not saying and because I have the space to reflect on them and to consider what makes sense and what doesn’t —I saw that this person doesn’t have a mood disorder but they are having emotional issues, past suicide attempts and troubled work performance bc they have/had untreated ADD.

I and the client reached out to the psychiatrist and they are doing remarkably better on a stimulant —than ever. If I were taking insurance and seeing more individuals this person likely would never have determined the issue and been able to address it. Her self esteem and confidence and reduced anxiety is a joy to witness

It’s unfortunate that you have to be rich in the dc area to get mental health care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, OP, it’s a big problem in the dc area. I hear friends in other parts of the country don’t have this issue. The therapists there take insurance.

Insurance companies are assaulting therapists and here even if a therapist sees 40 clients a week —which isn’t possible to do well in my opinion—they are not making enough to live off.

Assaulting financially.

I charge more than $250 so that I can be fully present to my clients who mostly have ptsd and not be frustrated by trying to get insurance reimbursements and filing papers. I also charge this so that I am not so burnt out and I can live fairly comfortably. My caseload is smaller and my clients get better. My focus is trauma and my certification and 18 years of experience is DBT.

I have a client who was being treated for bipolar by their psychiatrist for a decade. Because I’m fully present and listening to what clients are saying and not saying and because I have the space to reflect on them and to consider what makes sense and what doesn’t —I saw that this person doesn’t have a mood disorder but they are having emotional issues, past suicide attempts and troubled work performance bc they have/had untreated ADD.

I and the client reached out to the psychiatrist and they are doing remarkably better on a stimulant —than ever. If I were taking insurance and seeing more individuals this person likely would never have determined the issue and been able to address it. Her self esteem and confidence and reduced anxiety is a joy to witness

It’s unfortunate that you have to be rich in the dc area to get mental health care.

You don't. You can also be poor. But middle class, that's problematic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, OP, it’s a big problem in the dc area. I hear friends in other parts of the country don’t have this issue. The therapists there take insurance.

Insurance companies are assaulting therapists and here even if a therapist sees 40 clients a week —which isn’t possible to do well in my opinion—they are not making enough to live off.

Assaulting financially.

I charge more than $250 so that I can be fully present to my clients who mostly have ptsd and not be frustrated by trying to get insurance reimbursements and filing papers. I also charge this so that I am not so burnt out and I can live fairly comfortably. My caseload is smaller and my clients get better. My focus is trauma and my certification and 18 years of experience is DBT.

I have a client who was being treated for bipolar by their psychiatrist for a decade. Because I’m fully present and listening to what clients are saying and not saying and because I have the space to reflect on them and to consider what makes sense and what doesn’t —I saw that this person doesn’t have a mood disorder but they are having emotional issues, past suicide attempts and troubled work performance bc they have/had untreated ADD.

I and the client reached out to the psychiatrist and they are doing remarkably better on a stimulant —than ever. If I were taking insurance and seeing more individuals this person likely would never have determined the issue and been able to address it. Her self esteem and confidence and reduced anxiety is a joy to witness

It’s unfortunate that you have to be rich in the dc area to get mental health care.

You don't. You can also be poor. But middle class, that's problematic.

That goes for good colleges too. Poor people get free tuition, rich people can afford it so don’t care about the cost, and the middle class gets screwed.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone worked through good books or programs themselves to deal with childhood trauma?

[Anonymous]

Try Gemini.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah it's the kind of thing you have to just carve out of your budget if you really need it. You can go every other week, though that's still $500 a month. You do that for two years, that's easily $10,000. But you have to think of like a non-negotiable necessity, like buying a new car or getting a new roof or paying the deductibles for cancer treatment. Even just a year will be helpful, and two should be enough to get you over the hump. Therapy saved my life and made me a much better parent and spouse.

+1

Do you have an option of switching insurance during open enrollment to one that has some reimbursement for out of network? If so, do thorough research before switching because it can be tricky going from something like Kaiser’s HMO to insurance like Cigna’s Open Access Plus (retired MCPS teacher here).

My daughter had in-network therapy with therapists who were not a good fit and there was no other choice using the HMO. We paid out of pocket for the remainder of that year for private therapists for both of us weekly and I remember it being a staggering $25k. However, the following January we switched to a plan that allows for both in-network and out-of-network options and at least we get something back after we hit the OON deductible. We still have to pay a good chunk of it out of pocket, but at least I’m down to sessions twice a month.

Fit is so important — I cannot stress that enough. I read books and watch YouTube as well (great resources out there), but it sounds like you could potentially benefit from therapy. I consider it a necessity for my mental and physical health.

Good luck, and I hope you can swing it somehow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try Gemini.

Not like it encouraged someone to commit suicide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try Gemini.

Hell no.