Frequently Asked Questions
I’m curious about starting therapy, what’s my first step?
It’s perfectly normal to be confused, anxious, scared, or tentative about starting therapy, especially if you’ve never been before. All you have to do is reach out to one of the therapists directly or fill out the form on our home page to reach us. We will start a brief, simple conversation about what will work for you. You don’t have to share any personal information over text or e-mail. You can have an appointment in a few days. Visit the home page to fill in the contact form. It’s easy!
How do I find the therapist that’s right for me?
Just use the form on the home page and your message will go straight to the group e-mail. Someone will contact you soon, so keep an eye out and check your spam folder if you haven’t seen anything in 24 hours. You can also visit each therapist’s Psychology Today profile, read more about them, and contact them via that method. If you aren’t sure what sort of therapy or therapist you need, don’t worry. Just use the contact form on the home page and we will help you.
How long does it take to get set up?
Once you’ve found your therapist they will likely set up a short consultation call to make sure they’re the right fit for you. Then they will send you an email with a link to sign the paperwork in Simple Practice. This is a secure and private network made for storing healthcare data. All forms are electronic. You’ll sign policies and consent and fill out a demographic form, add your insurance information and a payment card for copays. We suggest you also upload a photo of your insurance card. This can be completed in a very short time.
What should I expect once we start?
This first session is full of questions and answers, double-checking your provided info and insurance information, discussing our policies, and assessing your needs so a plan can be developed. You may come to therapy weekly or every other week. Therapy is a clinical service, meaning you are being diagnosed and treated by a licensed clinician. Your therapist will make your appointments recurring to make things easier on everyone and you’ll get a reminder text the day before your appointment.
What are your policies?
Check out our Policies page to see more about this.
What about insurance? It’s so confusing.
All of the therapists at Sirona Counseling are in-network with Optum, United Healthcare, Connecticare, Oxford, UMR and other insurances that fall under the Optum umbrella. We all accept Aetna, as well. Some of us take Anthem and Husky Medicaid. You can see more about this on the Therapists page. Some therapists are also in network with Medicare versions of United and Aetna. None of us are able to accept Husky Medicare. We are not in-network with Cigna.
It’s in your best interest to contact your insurance and find out what your plan will cover before you start any services so you will know what your costs might look like. There is a number on the back of your insurance ID card you can call to get these answers. Tell them you’re about to start Out-patient Psychotherapy with a clinical psychotherapist and want to know what will be covered and what your out of pocket cost is.
What if my insurance isn’t accepted by the therapist I want to see?
All the therapists at Sirona Counseling are willing to negotiate rates (sliding scale) and scheduling to make the cost affordable. For example, a therapist may say their rate is $150 an hour (the national average), but may charge you $125 and book you every other week. This makes your monthly therapy cost $250 instead of $600.
Keep in mind that therapy is temporary and an investment in yourself. Depending on what you bring to therapy, you may be in treatment for 3 to 6 months rather than a year or more. That could be as little as 12 to 24 sessions.
If a provider does not take your insurance you can pay cash and receive Superbills once per month. You submit these to your insurance if you have out of network benefits on your plan. You may get back a percentage of the cost. Call your insurance to find out if you have out of network benefits.
A little more about insurance and paying for therapy:
It makes sense to worry about costs. Each of us here at Sirona Counseling is willing to charge on a sliding scale, which is a fancy way of saying we can negotiate a rate that works for you if we don’t take your insurance. If you’re paying out of pocket we will provide you with a Good Faith Estimate so you can see what your costs might look like.
Most people have a high deductible insurance plan nowadays and wind up paying out of pocket for many services even though they have insurance coverage. Paying for therapy would be similar, except your payments may or may not count toward your deductible depending on whether the therapist is in network with your insurance. However, you can pay with an HSA account card or an FSA account card and many of these are employer funded or matched.
Why are some therapists not in network with some insurance payers?
There are a few reasons.
As insurance companies continue to pay low rates for therapy and fail to increase rates with cost of living, clinicians have to decide which insurance they want to be in-network with. Often times the only way to get a raise is to stop taking insurance. Imagine taking a job where you never get a raise, no matter how skilled you are at your job.
Insurance companies can ask for your records. They may ask for these simply so they can determine whether they want to force a clinician to paying back some money. However that time was already spent and the service provided, so this turns past paid work into free services.
Some therapists do not want the focus of treatment to be diagnosis and extensive paperwork. There are many, many diagnoses that insurance will not cover, therefor it can be difficult to treat people who do not have a significant mental health diagnosis while utilizing their insurance benefits.
What are the different types of therapy?
We have methods and approaches and theories we utilize to work on different issues with different clients. Here’s a brief list of some types of therapy you may hear about. Most therapists today use CBT and a mix of skills derived from learning different types of therapy. Your therapist may or may not utilize some or any of these methods and theories. Here are some over-simplified definitions that might help.
CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which combines Cognitive Therapy and Behavior Therapy and is considered by many to be the standard and probably most widely used therapy approach. TFCBT is Trauma Focused CBT.
Cognitive Therapy, or Brief Cognitive Therapy, is an approach where your therapist helps you see things from a different perspective by asking you to challenge your old beliefs and hopefully take on a more healthy and productive view of your life and others.
Behavior Therapy is rooted in Conditioning, which is the idea that our behavior is influenced by rewards and consequences. This can be helpful with breaking bad habits and stopping the use of ineffective coping styles that create problems for us. Also related is ABA (applied behavior analysis) which was developed originally to create behavior plans for people with Autism and is utilized by BCBA’s (board certified behavior analysts).
DBT or Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a form of therapy for folks having a hard time managing emotions and relationships. This can be helpful with trauma and with personality disorders among other things. Dialectics is the idea that opposites can exist together. The focus is emotional regulation. DBT is usually done “by the book”, and includes specific tactics, worksheets, and some intensive processes.
Humanistic is the style of therapy where the focus is on growth and change. It is rooted in the old Existentialism philosophy. Some key pieces to this type of therapy are acceptance and growth. This style is typically incorporated with other approaches and theories and acts more as a guideline for how the therapist interacts with the client.
EMDR is a method of trauma-focused therapy and stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing - it’s complicated and very effective for people dealing with old, deep trauma. This is a type of therapy that a clinician must train extensively to be able to provide effectively.
ACT is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps us build resilience and reduce anxiety. This therapy method was designed for people mainly with anxiety issues but can be used for other situations. It is also used often with people who have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There is an emphasis on mindfulness. ERP is Exposure and Repetition/Ritual Prevention therapy. EPR is related to ACT and is specialized for OCD treatment.
Strength’s Based - this is an approach where the client’s strengths are focused on and utilized for solution-seeking strategies and positive coping skills rather than the old psychoanalytical style of focusing on problems, short-comings, and diagnoses.
Psychoanalysis / Psychodynamic / Ego - these are old and somewhat outdated styles of therapy and theories that originated in the late 1800’s. These methods are not seen often nowadays but are still taught. Ego theories are still somewhat relevant today and make a good analogy for the psychological forces at work within us.