Frequent Asked Questions
When is the right time to go to therapy?
When you want to make sense of your life story. When you want to remove blockages that are not allowing you to live an authentic life. When you are tired of feeling misunderstood. When you know life can be better. When you want to commit to yourself for the first time or maybe when you want to commit to yourself again. When your needs start to come first. When you want to find your own voice.
What is therapy?
Therapy is a dialogue, an encounter, a supportive space in which your story an situation will take precedent in the discussion. I will serve as a catalyst while you commit to your own healing process. The dialogue will help you reconnect with your inner world, understand what is happening in your life as well as identifying obstacles and feelings difficult to manage. This therapeutic process will help you make decisions, modify thoughts, find answer to challenging questions, heal painful experiences and develop self confidence.
What happens during a therapy session?
During a therapy session, you will explain how you see the problem and your life circumstances which will provide me with an understanding of what is happening in your life. As the therapy continues, I will ask questions to understand you and your life circumstances. I will highlight aspects that might be a roadblock for you as well as reflecting with you about the different ways to address them by identifying relational aspects, thoughts, and feelings and how they have serve you or not in your healing process. I will expect you to come prepared to each session and engage in active reflection about your emotional experience as I understand psychotherapy as a a collaborative effort between therapist and client.
Is therapy for me?
Generally, someone comes to therapy because they would like something in their lives to change or because the common coping mechanisms they have used to handle their problems have not worked. They have acknowledged they need some support and look for someone who can listen and help them understand themselves. However, I think that everyone can benefit from therapy at some point in their lives.
How someone who has suffered a traumatic experience can benefit from therapy?
Therapy offers opportunities to confront traumatic experiences and explore emotions in order to avoid your past trauma continues to be an obstacle in life and relationships. If you have suffered trauma, you may feel isolated since people might not understand the impact this experience has in your life. Therapy helps reduce this feeling of isolation through the relationship with a therapist. One of the main tasks in therapy is to help you re-establish a sense of trust on themselves and others. This will help you relate to the world with more confidence since, in many instances, the world has become and unsafe place for those who have suffered trauma.
How do I know therapy is working?
You might start feeling better gradually and you might see either changes on your mood, behavior and/or in your capacity to self reflect about your own life independently. There will be days you might not feel well after a session but that does not mean changes are not happening. This means you are working hard through difficult aspects of your life. On the other hand, you should feel respected, heard and not taken advantage of in any way for the benefit of the therapist. You should also feel pleased with the therapist you choose since you will need to open up to difficult aspects of your life and this is easier when done with someone you like.
How do I know you are the right therapist for me?
The answer to this question depends on your interests, preferences and objectives when looking for therapy. Get familiar with my background, my areas of expertise and if these are relevant to the problems you are facing. Get familiar with my philosophy and my approach to the problem. Even if the issue you are dealing with is not listed in my website, we can discuss if this is an area we can work together. You can interview me on the phone before initiating a professional relationship with me.
How long should I stay in therapy?
This depends on many factors such as the issues that you want to work in therapy. You can do therapy for short or long term. Some people go to therapy for a particular reason and once this is resolved, they discontinue therapy; others continue therapy because they want to work on other aspects of their lives they have discovered through the therapeutic process.
How often should I come to therapy?
Every therapist has a different approach and preference in terms of how to work with clients. However, if you want to do in depth psychotherapeutic work weekly or twice a week sessions are necessary. This is even more important if the issues you want to work on in psychotherapy are related to difficulties getting close to others such as avoidance, unsuccessful dating or never finding the right match and symptomatic behaviors that keep you away from others. It is difficult enough to build trust and share the most intimate parts of yourself to someone you barely know. Therefore, the frequency will allow for you to develop the necessary closeness, attachment, trust, and seeing long lasting relationship changes in your life.
What are the cost of therapy? Do you accept medicaid, medicare or health insurance?
An issue of concern to many people looking for psychotherapy is how much the cost is. The time spent in psychotherapy is an investment and an opportunity for self growth. Something to consider when looking for psychotherapy is not only if they accept your insurance but if they have the expertise in the issue you are looking to address in psychotherapy and their level of training. If you are interested in working with me, we can talk on the phone about costs and how it can fit your current budget. I am on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Blue Choice, Multiplan and Medicare. I am not on Medicaid nor other insurance panels. Before getting discourage, go to the "fees" page to find out more about how your insurance can still cover cost for psychotherapy even if I am not on their insurance panels. I can give you a monthly bill so that you can send it to your health insurance for out of network services.
Why paying for psychotherapy?
Our culture glorifies material possessions. Anything that moves away from this perspective is not deemed worth our money. The reality is that we set our priorities in how we spend our money. We spend on expensive and costly services, activities, trips, and material things but we do not believe it is worth to pay someone to listen and help us figure ourselves out. In any case, our insurance should pay, and if not, there is no budget for it. Also, we think, this sounds like a job a family or friend can do for free at the expense of their emotional exhaustion and lack of skills to understand our problem. This resistance is even truer if we come from cultural groups in which prioritizing on paying for basic needs (such as housing and food) was the norm for ourselves, our ancestors or close family members. Once having a good job with a decent salary, paying for psychotherapy does not seem a wise way of spending of our money according to our suffering ancestors. However, I encourage you to look at paying for psychotherapy differently. It is not a material but an emotional gain. This emotional gain will require effort in building a relationship and looking at your patterns and feelings. No one likes to do this except for the ones who are willing to change and who can see a gain out of this close look at their own lives. If you want to increase self-knowledge and understanding, if you are willing to look at your life differently or expand your perception and emotional capacities to handle your current situation, I encourage you pay for psychotherapy and see the results of your own emotional and economic investment in the long term.
When you want to make sense of your life story. When you want to remove blockages that are not allowing you to live an authentic life. When you are tired of feeling misunderstood. When you know life can be better. When you want to commit to yourself for the first time or maybe when you want to commit to yourself again. When your needs start to come first. When you want to find your own voice.
What is therapy?
Therapy is a dialogue, an encounter, a supportive space in which your story an situation will take precedent in the discussion. I will serve as a catalyst while you commit to your own healing process. The dialogue will help you reconnect with your inner world, understand what is happening in your life as well as identifying obstacles and feelings difficult to manage. This therapeutic process will help you make decisions, modify thoughts, find answer to challenging questions, heal painful experiences and develop self confidence.
What happens during a therapy session?
During a therapy session, you will explain how you see the problem and your life circumstances which will provide me with an understanding of what is happening in your life. As the therapy continues, I will ask questions to understand you and your life circumstances. I will highlight aspects that might be a roadblock for you as well as reflecting with you about the different ways to address them by identifying relational aspects, thoughts, and feelings and how they have serve you or not in your healing process. I will expect you to come prepared to each session and engage in active reflection about your emotional experience as I understand psychotherapy as a a collaborative effort between therapist and client.
Is therapy for me?
Generally, someone comes to therapy because they would like something in their lives to change or because the common coping mechanisms they have used to handle their problems have not worked. They have acknowledged they need some support and look for someone who can listen and help them understand themselves. However, I think that everyone can benefit from therapy at some point in their lives.
How someone who has suffered a traumatic experience can benefit from therapy?
Therapy offers opportunities to confront traumatic experiences and explore emotions in order to avoid your past trauma continues to be an obstacle in life and relationships. If you have suffered trauma, you may feel isolated since people might not understand the impact this experience has in your life. Therapy helps reduce this feeling of isolation through the relationship with a therapist. One of the main tasks in therapy is to help you re-establish a sense of trust on themselves and others. This will help you relate to the world with more confidence since, in many instances, the world has become and unsafe place for those who have suffered trauma.
How do I know therapy is working?
You might start feeling better gradually and you might see either changes on your mood, behavior and/or in your capacity to self reflect about your own life independently. There will be days you might not feel well after a session but that does not mean changes are not happening. This means you are working hard through difficult aspects of your life. On the other hand, you should feel respected, heard and not taken advantage of in any way for the benefit of the therapist. You should also feel pleased with the therapist you choose since you will need to open up to difficult aspects of your life and this is easier when done with someone you like.
How do I know you are the right therapist for me?
The answer to this question depends on your interests, preferences and objectives when looking for therapy. Get familiar with my background, my areas of expertise and if these are relevant to the problems you are facing. Get familiar with my philosophy and my approach to the problem. Even if the issue you are dealing with is not listed in my website, we can discuss if this is an area we can work together. You can interview me on the phone before initiating a professional relationship with me.
How long should I stay in therapy?
This depends on many factors such as the issues that you want to work in therapy. You can do therapy for short or long term. Some people go to therapy for a particular reason and once this is resolved, they discontinue therapy; others continue therapy because they want to work on other aspects of their lives they have discovered through the therapeutic process.
How often should I come to therapy?
Every therapist has a different approach and preference in terms of how to work with clients. However, if you want to do in depth psychotherapeutic work weekly or twice a week sessions are necessary. This is even more important if the issues you want to work on in psychotherapy are related to difficulties getting close to others such as avoidance, unsuccessful dating or never finding the right match and symptomatic behaviors that keep you away from others. It is difficult enough to build trust and share the most intimate parts of yourself to someone you barely know. Therefore, the frequency will allow for you to develop the necessary closeness, attachment, trust, and seeing long lasting relationship changes in your life.
What are the cost of therapy? Do you accept medicaid, medicare or health insurance?
An issue of concern to many people looking for psychotherapy is how much the cost is. The time spent in psychotherapy is an investment and an opportunity for self growth. Something to consider when looking for psychotherapy is not only if they accept your insurance but if they have the expertise in the issue you are looking to address in psychotherapy and their level of training. If you are interested in working with me, we can talk on the phone about costs and how it can fit your current budget. I am on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Blue Choice, Multiplan and Medicare. I am not on Medicaid nor other insurance panels. Before getting discourage, go to the "fees" page to find out more about how your insurance can still cover cost for psychotherapy even if I am not on their insurance panels. I can give you a monthly bill so that you can send it to your health insurance for out of network services.
Why paying for psychotherapy?
Our culture glorifies material possessions. Anything that moves away from this perspective is not deemed worth our money. The reality is that we set our priorities in how we spend our money. We spend on expensive and costly services, activities, trips, and material things but we do not believe it is worth to pay someone to listen and help us figure ourselves out. In any case, our insurance should pay, and if not, there is no budget for it. Also, we think, this sounds like a job a family or friend can do for free at the expense of their emotional exhaustion and lack of skills to understand our problem. This resistance is even truer if we come from cultural groups in which prioritizing on paying for basic needs (such as housing and food) was the norm for ourselves, our ancestors or close family members. Once having a good job with a decent salary, paying for psychotherapy does not seem a wise way of spending of our money according to our suffering ancestors. However, I encourage you to look at paying for psychotherapy differently. It is not a material but an emotional gain. This emotional gain will require effort in building a relationship and looking at your patterns and feelings. No one likes to do this except for the ones who are willing to change and who can see a gain out of this close look at their own lives. If you want to increase self-knowledge and understanding, if you are willing to look at your life differently or expand your perception and emotional capacities to handle your current situation, I encourage you pay for psychotherapy and see the results of your own emotional and economic investment in the long term.