Why Private Pay

When therapy is filtered through insurance, a number of things change — often in ways that work against the client. Insurance companies typically require a formal mental health diagnosis before they’ll cover treatment. They may limit the number of sessions you can have, dictate what kinds of treatment are “approved,” and require your therapist to share clinical information with third parties. For the kind of depth-oriented, specialized work I do, these constraints create real problems.

Working outside of insurance allows me to offer something different.

Real privacy. Nothing about your therapy — not even the fact that you’re in it — goes to an insurance company. For people working through issues involving sexuality, relationships, compulsive behavior, or personality patterns, this level of confidentiality matters.

No diagnosis requirement. Insurance requires a formal diagnosis before it will pay for treatment. Many of the concerns people bring to me — relationship dissatisfaction, sexual disconnection, a desire for deeper self-understanding — don’t fit neatly into a diagnostic category, nor should they have to. Private pay means we work on what matters to you, not what qualifies for reimbursement.

Flexibility in how we work. Insurance often dictates session length, frequency, and even the type of therapy you can receive. Working privately means I can tailor the length and pace of our sessions to what’s actually useful — including extended couples sessions when the work calls for it.

Depth over speed. Insurance-based practice incentivizes brief, symptom-focused treatment. The work I do — in sex therapy, couples counseling, compulsive sexual behavior, and individual therapy — often asks us to go beneath the surface. That takes time, and it takes a clinical relationship built on trust rather than a predetermined number of sessions.

Full attention. Therapists who work within insurance panels often carry larger caseloads to make the economics work, which can reduce the quality of attention any one client receives. My private-pay model allows me to maintain a smaller, more focused practice — which means more thoughtful preparation, more availability between sessions when needed, and a higher standard of care overall.

While I don’t bill insurance directly, many insurance plans include out-of-network benefits that can reimburse a significant portion of the session fee. The process is simpler than most people expect.

After each session, I provide you with a superbill — a detailed receipt that includes everything your insurance company needs to process a reimbursement claim. You submit that to your insurer, and they reimburse you according to your plan’s out-of-network coverage.

To find out what your plan covers, you can call the member services number on the back of your insurance card and ask about your out-of-network mental health benefits, including your deductible, reimbursement rate, and any session limits. I’m happy to help you think through this during our initial consultation.