What's it like to go to therapy?

For some, going to see a therapist can be really intimidating. It's not easy to talk about your most personal feelings, events, and choices. Like most relationships, your first meeting will say a lot about how you feel about the process and whether you are comfortable with the person you're talking with. The process is less like ‘ask the doctor,’ and more like an intentional fireside chat. Intentional in that it's with someone who listens really well and can help you name things for which you may not have had words—helping you navigate the direction you want to go. It's also like a fireside chat in that it is in a place where (hopefully) you feel safe and comfortable. It can be draining as well as invigorating as all deep work is really both. 

How often do people do this?

For most, meeting once per week is a good rhythm. Sometimes, in a crisis, it makes sense to meet more often.

What do you charge?

My fee is $200.00 per 60 minute session.

Insurance?

I do not contract with insurance companies to be an “in network” provider. If you wish to seek reimbursement from your insurance coverage for my services, please let me know and I will be happy to provide you with a statement detailing the information that the insurance company requires for reimbursement. 

What about confidentiality?

I hold your engagement in the counseling process with the utmost care and privacy. Part of the success of counseling depends upon the assurance that ours is a sacred space - that what we talk about, including the fact that we talk at all, is kept absolutely confidential. I will not speak with anyone else about you without your permission. There are a few situations where I am required by law to break confidentiality: if there is any indication of harm to yourself (suicidality) or harm to another (homicidality), or any indication that a minor or elder is currently being abused. And finally, I must surrender records or testify if I receive a specific court order to do so.

Why "Rivendell"?

In Tolkien's classic work, The Hobbit, there is a place, a house called Rivendell, where travelers and friends come for respite, to heal, to think, and to gather strength for the journey. He describes it this way,

"And so at last they all came to the Last Homely House, and found its doors flung wide. . . His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or storytelling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley. I wish I had time to tell you even a few of the tales or one or two of the songs that they heard in that house. All of them, the ponies as well, grew refreshed and strong in a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes. Their bags were filled with food and provisions light to carry but strong to bring them over the mountain passes. Their plans were improved with the best advice."

A lovely picture, isn't it? My hope is to provide some small semblance of such a place—a place to slow down, to talk, to wonder, to question, so that you can move out into your own world of "mountain passes".

"No man can estimate what is really happening at the present. All we do know, and that to a large extent by direct experience, is that evil labours with vast power and perpetual success-in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in."

- J. R. R. Tolkien