FAQ
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Q. Should you work as my coach or my therapist?
In general, a coach is someone who doesn’t necessarily even have a Bachelor’s degree. They should be an expert in their field but this is not always the case nowadays.
Coach work tends to be very focused in the present and future with specific steps to get you there.
Coaches hold you accountable and you are expected to be motivate to fully participate. They have different specialties (career, transformational, life purpose, etc). Since they don’t dive too deep into your backstory, they tend to work on personal blocks and provide lots of education. Work is short-term and super-focused with high expectations and obligations.
If you are getting along pretty well and just need some help in certain areas, a coach might be for you. There might not be a need for a full-on therapeutic approach.
It’s kind of like getting an oil change as opposed to diagnostic work and a new engine.
A therapist is someone who has gone to graduate school and obtained their Master’s degree in fields like Marriage and Family Therapy or Clinical Social Work, then worked in their field as an unpaid intern (practicum) and then if they are lucky, as a paid intern.
Before a person even graduates with their degree, they have to accrue a certain number of volunteer hours in face-to-face therapy (usually 300-750, that’s about 3-6 months of seeing 10-20 clients a week). After graduation and before licensure, a therapist needs to accrue an additional 2000-3000 hours of face-to face-therapy. That’s about two to three years of seeing 10-25 clients a week. Then they have to pass a very long, very hard, exam to obtain licensure.
Therapeutic work tends to focus on the present and the past to rewrite the future.
Therapists also have different specialties (depression, family counseling, addiction work, personality disorders, etc). This is deep-diving to fix what is wrong, to rewrite old codes in thinking, to alleviate life-altering symptoms. This is when things are fundamentally wrong and intervention is imperative. Therapists offer a safe, non-judgmental environment for clients to gain awareness about their issues and heal in the client's timing.
This is diagnostic work and a new engine. If your personal blocks exist because of an underlying mental health issue, an oil change is just a band aid.
Q. Can you bill my insurance?
Coaching is not covered through insurance. Teletherapy is may be covered by your insurance if you have out-of-network benefits. You can check with your insurance company to make sure. I can provide you with a superbill each month that you may choose to submit to your insurance for reimbursement. It's very possible that your insurance may not reimburse the full amount that you paid me so this is another question to ask them.
Q. Should you bill my insurance?
This is perhaps the better question. Some clients choose not to use their insurance for therapy for several reasons:
1) Mental Health Diagnosis - In order to bill your insurance, I have to label you with a mental health diagnosis. Unfortunately, there is still a stigma attached to mental health and since most of my clients are high profile, they do not want a diagnosis attached to them.
2) Pre-approvals and visit limits - mental health insurance coverage has come a long way in recent years but it still has a ways to go. Some companies still limit the number of visits you can receive in a set time period or require pre-approval for services. What a hassle!
3) Limits to privacy - Your insurance company has the right to audit your file to access whether you are making satisfactory progress in therapy. This means that they have access to more than just your diagnosis. Progress notes frequently have direct quotes from you and situational information that you may want to keep private.
4) Unforeseen Repercussions - Your mental health diagnosis may keep you from enjoying certain privileges in the future depending on future laws and restrictions. For example: Gun ownership, sensitive careers like law enforcement, obtaining government security clearance, or holding political office.
Q. What payments do you accept?
I accept debit or credit cards at the time of booking your appointment and prior to each successive session. Zelle and Stripe are preferred transaction services. You may pay for coaching sessions online, before sessions or according to one of the selected payment plans.
Q. Is coaching confidential?
Absolutely! In a therapeutic setting, I am bound by certain ethical and legal confidentiality clauses. In coaching, though there are no laws surrounding ethics, your sessions are still confidential on my end – what you choose (if anything) to share outside of session is up to you.
I still have a question you haven't covered here. What can I do?
That’s an easy one. Click this button and you can shoot me an email or schedule a 15-minute phone call to chat. Talk soon!