Have Questions?

My private pay rate for an initial appointment is $250. Follow up sessions are $225.

I’m credentialed with Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Please call the customer service number on the back of your card to ensure I’m “in network” for your specific plan. 

The short answer: you would be responsible for paying my private pay rate. 

The long answer: some insurance plans have “out of network” reimbursement benefits. Please call your insurance company and ask if your specific plan partially reimburses for “behavioral health services” with an out of network provider and what the process is for submitting a “superbill” (which I can give you) to receive reimbursement. 

Sure do! I see Iowa-based clients in person and via telehealth. If you are interested in telehealth, please verify with your insurance plan that you have telehealth benefits for “behavioral health” appointments, otherwise my private pay rate ($250 for your first session and $225 for follow-up sessions) would apply. Telehealth comes in handy in these Midwest winters!

Before I schedule your initial appointment… 

We’ll have a (free!) 10-15 minute phone consultation so I can learn more about what’s going on with you and what you want to get out of therapy so I can gauge whether we’d be a good fit. Should we be a good fit for one another, I’ll schedule your initial appointment during that consultation call.

My style as a therapist…

I meet with clients for 53-55 minutes weekly or every other week. My interpersonal style is down to earth and direct with a healthy pinch of warm irreverence. I enjoy using humor in therapy. I’m a cancer sun and virgo rising, which translates to being a compassionate, goal- and change-oriented psychologist. That means I’m darn good at helping you process hard things, develop skills, identify patterns that aren’t helping you, and make the changes you desire for your life.

Therapy with me is active—we roll up our sleeves and dig in. We will work toward approaching experiences that you’ve probably been (intentionally or unintentionally) avoiding. We’ll explore thoughts and behaviors that get in the way of doing things that matter to you. I’ll ask questions that might feel hard to answer. I’ll kindly call you in on your shiz. I’ll encourage you to go beyond your comfort zone so you can stretch and grow. This means that things might feel uncomfortable or awkward at times for you, for me, for both of us. As certain feelings arise, you might cry. I might cry with you, and I’m ok with that. Because so many of us move through the day only from the neck up, I’ll remind you that you’re a feeling creature who happens to think and not the other way around. I’ll help you to drop into your body and so you can begin to notice how wise and intuitive your body is. I often use various mindfulness exercises to help slow the swirl of fast-paced, anxiety-filled days. 

It’s important you know that while I have expertise in human behavior and emotions, my Ph.D. is not in the psychic arts, so I don’t know everything and sometimes I’m wrong. You are expert on you and your experience. It’s not my place to say what’s true for you—only you can do that. I welcome feedback on what we’re doing in therapy. 

The hard part…

Full disclosure: this process of leaning in, stretching, growing, reflecting, and doing all the therapy things doesn’t mean progress toward your goals will be made at a steady pace. Progress often comes in fits and starts. You might take several steps forward, feel great about it, and then the universe knocks you down and you take a huge step backward. This can feel discouraging and frustrating. Progress also doesn’t always feel good in the moment. The expression “growing pains” exists for a reason. This is how it goes. We’re humans having human experiences. Changing takes time and often feels uncomfortable. 

My goal as your psychologist…

I want to make myself obsolete to you. I don’t want to be your forever therapist—I want you to get what you need from therapy and get back to your life! If you need to come back, that’s cool. We’ll do more work. If you achieve what you initially needed from therapy but identified something else that also needs to be addressed, that’s also cool. We’ll update the treatment plan and get down to it.

I am a good psychologist but I’m not a good psychologist for everyone. Therapy is most beneficial when there’s good fit between the therapist and client—it makes therapy more effective for the client and more sustainable for the therapist. Life is busy. I don’t want you to spend your time and money on a therapeutic relationship that isn’t serving you well.

Some reasons that we might be a good fit:

• If the content on my website has you thinking “she’s talking about me.” 

• If you are highly motivated to figure out what has been getting in the way of living a life that feels meaningful and purposeful.

• If you enjoy learning and are willing to rethink some of the assumptions that guide your life.

• If you’re ready to be challenged to pursue personal growth.

Some reasons that we might not be a good fit:

• If your primary objective for therapy is to have a place to vent about the stressors in your life, we probably won’t be a good fit because I’m not good at that kind of therapy. Don’t get me wrong: there is a lot of value to be gained from that approach, but it’s not where my strengths as a psychologist lie (and I’m ok with that). 

• If you’ve experienced a trauma (e.g., abuse, sexual assault, car accident) in your past and it’s showing up in your present in big, negative ways. While the work I do with clients is always trauma-informed, I refer clients to other therapists for trauma-focused therapy (i.e., where addressing the trauma is the main goal). 

• You don’t feel ready to make changes in your life. If you’re not ready, you’ll probably feel frustrated or annoyed by the types of interventions I use and the questions I ask in therapy. Why spend time and money feeling frustrated and annoyed? (I mean, there’s plenty to feel frustrated and annoyed with in life so why add more, right?) There’s no shame in not being ready. Please reach out when you are. You know where you find me.

It can be hard to know from bullet points on a website whether we’d be a good fit or not. To help assess this, before scheduling your initial appointment, we’ll have a free 10-15 minute phone call so I can get a sense of what’s going on for you and what you want out of therapy. This call is important because I want you to have a therapist who is a good fit for you, even if it’s not me. If I’m not the psychologist for you, I can give you the names of some therapists who might be a better fit for you.