FOR THERAPISTS
Psychotherapy Insurance Panels: The Good and Bad of Being In-Network
After seven years, I’ve decided to call it quits with insurance. I’ve had the thought many times over the years, but until now haven’t actually taken action. This time I’ve alerted clients and written my termination letter to Aetna and Blue Shield, but not without some hesitation and nervousness. You see, when I was first…
Resolutions for the New Year: Can They Actually Help Your Private Practice?
The new year is rolling around again, and people are talking about resolutions. Remember how you resolved to lose that weight last year…but nothing changed without concrete action? The same goes for your therapy practice. If you’re hoping to begin bringing in additional revenue from insurance billing, then you have to learn how to apply new…
Is It Good for Psychotherapists To Go Paperless?
Is there a benefit for therapists to go paperless?
Working While Outraged
It’s only been two weeks, y’all. For me, at this point, the intensity of my own outrage is in conflict with my rationalization that we’re in a very long game. To be honest, it’s draining. Even though I’m talking about the Trumpocalypse (and yes, assuming that most readers here share my political leanings), “outrage” may…
How do White Female Therapists Address Racism?
“I won’t be able to make it today,” my colleague texted last month, referring to our planned lunch. “My client load is 80% people of color and each one has been coming in with heavy, weary, and angry souls due to state of the world. It’s been a lot of processing for me, while understanding…
In Search of Someone Who Will Understand: How to be a Culturally Sensitive Therapist
Two years ago, I saw a posting on a listserv I am a member of requesting a “mid-40’s, transgender female, Taiwanese-American Therapist.” This request was so specific that I had a hard time envisioning how many people could actually respond as an appropriate fit. Requests that are exceedingly demographically specific seem increasingly common to me.…
How Therapists Avoid Becoming Depressed, Embittered Burn-Outs
I have been practicing psychotherapy for about 15 years now. I’ve worked with abandoned children, abandoning mothers, schizophrenics, a few sociopaths, folks who want to kill themselves more often than not, and deep, chronic depression and anxiety (which is the center of my private practice). In these years, I’m asked by patients, with some regularity,…
Therapy as a “Creative Storm”
“So do you have experience with this?” Quite a few people who want to begin therapy ask me this. Of course, this is a perfectly reasonable question, but I still usually find myself searching for a good response. The answer should be easy. My specialization as a therapist is the treatment of anxiety and my…
Connecting the Dots: On Ladybugs, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and the Universe
Today in my own therapy, I noticed a ladybug crawling up the window. “There’s a ladybug on the window,” I said. The session continued. I kept associating, thinking, talking, and feeling. I noticed the ladybug fly away. “The ladybug flew away,” I said. “What is your association with ladybugs?” asked my therapist. “Well… they’re cute.…
White Fragility, Guilt, and Unvirtuous Virtue: The Damaging Effects of Power and Privilege, Part III
It is a privilege to get to feel so sensitively about privilege. Facing the music of racism is confronting oneself skillfully – not compensatory sentimentalism.
Why Silence in Therapy is Good
If you were to meet me at a party, you might describe me as rambunctious, animated and a little irreverent. I like my coffee black and I like my humor crass. So, it may surprise you to know that once I don my therapist scarf (or fingerless gloves, as may be the case), I tend…