The basic task of therapy is to make you aware of that which is beyond your awareness that may be causing damaging patterns in your life that you don’t know how to change. When we have unaddressed issues, they tend to rule our lives in ways we don’t understand and often can’t even see. When the unconscious is running our lives it can wreak havoc on our lives and mental health, causing everything from work and relationship problems, to anxiety, depression, and addiction issues. Healing our unconscious wounds allows us to make peace with our relationship to our past, to others, and to ourselves. In short, we face our fears so they no longer rule us. As we bring the unconscious into conscious awareness, we become more empowered, awake, and alive.

Therapy can help you become more peaceful, grounded, and confident as you work through the underlying issues that may be contributing to your anxiety, depression, relationship issues and other mental health struggles. Therapy allows you to explore who you are without judgment: to be totally uncensored and unfiltered so you can explore and integrate aspects of yourself that you might not feel comfortable sharing with others. Therapy can help create a greater sense of vitality as you reconnect with the parts of yourself that may have become numb and disconnected. Through therapy, you can learn more empowered ways to communicate, develop practices to cultivate self-love and confidence, and learn practical skills to help you overcome and heal your trauma and mental health problems.

The benefits of therapy are also specific to your situation and goals and we tailor our interventions to your unique needs and desired outcomes. The list could go on for days, but a few examples of the benefits of therapy are: to free yourself from depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues, to gain greater clarity and direction, to discover potential blindspots that are preventing you from evolving into who you want to be, to identify and transform unhealthy patterns that keep popping up, to create more meaningful relationships (romantic and beyond), heal your trauma, and to enhance your quality of life overall by developing new ways of relating to yourself and your life.

Everyone discusses their relationships with their friends, so many wonder what a stranger, in the form of a therapist, could tell them that their supportive friends could not. Well, in a nut shell, therapists communicate from a lens of experience and skill. Therapists have worked with hundreds of different people, all of them unique, but often with some strikingly similar challenges to face. This gives them an insight and wisdom that no friend, who really only has knowledge of a few relationships, can match.

That is certainly a valid question. However couples who have been together for some time tend to have begun to operate along certain patterns, often without even realizing it. Having a neutral third party can help you understand what is really happening in your relationship.

Here’s an example. In the case of one couple the female partner felt that her voice was not being heard in the relationship. However, her partner felt put down. After simply observing them talk for a minutes certain patterns became obvious. When the woman spoke to her partner she looked at him but he looked at the floor. She also did most of the talking, he said very little.By simply suggesting that her husband looked at her while she spoke, the woman said she finally felt as if he was listening to her. One small change made a huge difference. This sounds so simple, but often our anger and frustration complicates things.

Like anything else in life, the chances that you’ll succeed are directly related to your commitment, desire, and efforts. If you follow the steps above to find the right therapist, create clear goals, and stay open to feedback, you’ll have the best shot of getting the help you need. The more committed you are to showing up and making changes to your life, the more likely you will be to create the transformation and healing you seek. While there are no guarantees, there is a large body of research that shows specific therapeutic modalities are proven to help with specific mental health conditions and relationship problems. But your personal experience will depend on how committed you are to bettering yourself and your life.

While therapists learn various types of therapies (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, etc.), therapy is also an art. Every client is different, with different needs for the amount of time they will be seeing a therapist.

We operate from the perspective of ‘this is your therapy’ and you get to choose. If a client is in crisis, then we may suggest meeting weekly until things become more stable. Once the crisis is past, we move to bi-weekly or even monthly. It depends on what the client chooses as well as what is in their best interest therapeutically. Ethically, a therapist shouldn’t want a client to have to come forever. The overall goal is that people feel better and go back to their lives.

Once clients ‘graduate’ from seeing their therapist, many treat their therapist as one more tool in their health toolbox–checking in when necessary.The beauty is you now have a "go to" person to help you navigate should a crisis or mental health issue occur.

It all comes down to finding the right therapist. Just because you had a less-than-stellar experience before, doesn’t mean your next one won’t be amazing! It’s a lot like dating. You can’t write off dating as a whole because of one bad date. Just like any other profession, there are skilled therapists and unskilled therapists. Finding the right one is really what will determine what will make your experience different. Our therapists are heavily vetted and highly experienced, which will make your chances of finding the right fit a lot easier. We will meet you wherever you are in your healing journey and customize your therapy to address your unique needs because we realize there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach.

It is important to not pressure your child or teen to talk about their sessions. We will talk with parents about anything that takes place in the session relating to the child’s safety (you will be given specific info regarding confideentiality) or any other important information. Remember that your child is given privacy during his or her sessions in order to allow for self-expression. It is important to remember that progress takes time and they must be allowed to work at their own pace in order to build a trusting therapeutic relationship.

The logistics of therapy are referred to as the “timeframe.” While this may vary from therapist to therapist depending on their approach, the standard timeframe is a 50-minute session once per week or twice per month to start. You and your therapist might decide together that you need more or less frequent sessions based on a variety of factors such as the severity of what you’re going through, cost, and availability. After your first session, your therapist will get a better sense of your cadence and treatment frame.Our goal is to "teach you how to fish" so you can have the needed tools to navigate the stressors of life on your own no matter your cadence. If we merely "give you fish" once a week we would not be serving your higher self.

We are proud to partner with Headway and Alma which allows us to offer our clients the benefit of using their medical insurance to cover their sessions. We are currently in network with Aetna, United Healthcare, and Cigna. We are also finalizing the credentialing process to be able to accept BCBS of Ga.

If you have an HMO type plan your insurance company will not reimburse you for our fees. To use benefits associated with HMO plans you have to use an in-network provider.

If you have questions about your mental health coverage, we strongly urge you to contact your insurance provider for clarification. They will not share any information about your policy with us.

Therapy fees vary from provider to provider.Your copay can range from $0-$50 depending on your medical insurance. To give you a ballpark idea, our current self pay rates vary from $87-150.

The initial session is the time for you to start to share your story, talk about your goals and what you would like to change. Another important aspect of the first session is deciding if we are a good fit. Does your therapist seem like someone you can trust? We are establishing a relationship that will become the foundation for working together. You will begin to figure out some goals; your therapist will begin to figure out how to help you get there.Typically, therapists will use your first session to gather your history, and explore your struggles, and establish your treatment goals. Your therapist will meet you wherever you are on your journey (novice or expert), and will respect your level of comfort in sharing personal issues right off the bat.

Therapists assess, diagnose, and treat emotional issues or mental illness. As such, therapists often focus their work on identifying and reducing symptoms.

Coaches motivate and encourage people to achieve specific goals. Because it does not involve identifying and reducing symptoms, coaches often describe their work as being more positive in nature.

Of course, there is overlap -; many therapists focus attention on client strengths and resources, and many coaches aim to reduce and resolve the problems that stand in the way of clients achieving their goals.

All counseling sessions are conducted via a secure and easy-to-use telehealth platform. We are not providing any in-person counseling at this time. All you need is a secure internet connection, a tablet/phone/laptop or computer and a safe space to speak authentically.

Basically, whatever you say in therapy, stays in therapy. However, there are times when a therapist is legally obligated to break confidentiality:

Harm to self or others. If a therapist believes that you are in imminent danger of hurting yourself or someone else, a family member, police or ambulance will be called to ensure safety.if a client experiences a health emergency during a session, medical staff would be provided only with necessary information. No information about why a client is in therapy will be shared.

Seeing a therapist is an investement and not everyone is able to afford the sessions. We provide a sliding scale or see different groups of clients at a discounted rate. There are also sites like Open Path Collective who offer therapy at a lower rate based on financial need. https://openpathcollective.org. Making the decision to talk to a therapist takes courage…and studies show that therapy works!