General therapy questions
What even are feelings, and how do I make them go away?
So, feelings or emotions (or feels, or feefees) are how we know how we’re doing in the world. The bad news is, the more we work to make them go away, the harder it is to feel the ones we WANT to feel. The good news is, helping people figure out how the hell to feel feelings and deal with them, is what I love doing most. I, possibly like you, hate it when I feel pissed or hurt. It’s not comfortable!!! But I have some skills I can tell you about, and we can try some of them out together, and many of them you’ll try out on your own, and see what fits. As an added bonus, we can brainstorm ways to help you decide when to let yourself work with big feelings, and when it’s more helpful to shift your attention if the heavy feels seem to be sucking you into a black hole. Just remember, feelings aren’t facts, and emotions always pass.
Are you just going to tell me to take a deep breath and count to ten?
I will most likely help you work on finding ways to work with your breathing as a sort of reverse psychology way of working with your emotions. Our “feelings” (emotions) are directly, physically, biologically, literally connected to the different organs in our bodies, and that definitely includes our lungs. Most of the time we breathe on autopilot, without a second thought, and we only pay attention to our breathing when we’re panicking or livid or so excited it feels like panicking. I can help you learn as much or as little as you want about how all this works, and help brainstorm ways to start using your breathing as just one of various tools to manage emotions in a way that feels better to you.
Do you do EMDR therapy?
Yep! I finished EMDR training in early 2018 and currently in ongoing consultation to work toward certification.
Wait. What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s less talky than talk therapy usually is. Long story short, it involves thinking of different elements of a really challenging event or experience, and noticing how your thoughts or emotions about it shift as your eyes move back and forth. We can chat more about it during a consultation call if you’d like.
Services & Fees
Do you accept insurance?
As of 2026, I no longer accept insurance. If your insurance has out of network coverage, you may be able to have your insurance reimburse you for services. Contact your insurance provider for details.
Why don’t you accept insurance?
There are a number of reasons; here are two big ones:
- I don’t want insurance deciding for my clients and me how therapy will go, how long we spend in sessions, or whether the clients even ‘need’ therapy.
- Insurance companies have been implementing more records requests and insisting that therapists and clients participate in “member success” programs designed to “help members reach their goals” but which involve asking the therapist more and more detailed questions about their client’s personal life and therapy treatment in order to do this. While insurance companies technically have the right to request records, I find it incredibly inappropriate and violating of clients’ privacy and dignity to coerce a client’s therapist into disclosing more personal details than are kept in notes.
What is your fee for weekly sessions?
My fee for weekly 50-minute sessions is $250.
What is the fee for longer sessions?
Extended sessions from 90-110 minutes are pro-rated: hour and a half sessions are $375, and 110-minute sessions are $500.