Services
A Straightforward & Honest Approach To Therapy
The Approach
My approach is straightforward and honest. I will tell you the truth and bring to you, your children, and your family the very best I have to offer. Using a blend of evidence-based practices and individualized techniques drawn from over 30 years of experience, we will aim to do what all good therapy should do: Help people make difficult changes.
I work with individuals, couples, and families seeking to make changes with respect to anxiety, depression, substance abuse, anger/aggression, habit change, legal system involvement, Internet/video game addiction, technology issues, sexually problematic behavior, fallout from divorce, parent-child relational conflict, failure to thrive, intimacy blockages, and social skills training.
Areas Of Practice
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY AND EVALUATIONS
I work with individuals seeking to make a variety of personal changes. Anxiety, depression, anger, addiction, problematic technology behavior (i.e. video game, pornography, excessive social media use, etc), problematic sexual behavior, habit development and trauma are the most common issues I treat. The bottom line is that I work with people who are trying to make difficult changes of all kinds. I utilize an approach called motivational interviewing to provide cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). I also provide an array of mental health and substance abuse assessment and evaluations as well as evaluations for juveniles that are compliant with SOMB standards.
ADOLESCENTS & YOUNG ADULTS
I specialize in work with adolescents, young adults and parents facing a variety of complex challenges including:
Adjusting to divorce
Aggressive behavior
Anger/rage
Anxiety
Bullying (being bullied or being a bully)
Concerning sexual behavior
Failure to launch
Internet, social media, and technology behavior
Marital conflict
Pornography
Sexually abusive behavior
Social anxiety
Step-parent conflict and integration
Strategic parenting coaching
Substance use and addiction
Trauma
Technology issues
Video game addiction
PARENTAL COACHING
If you’re a parent with a child who is behaving in a disrespectful, obnoxious, dangerous and/or self-destructive manner, then you will need some specialized parental coaching while your child is in treatment. This is especially true if part of what we’re dealing with includes substance abuse, aggressive behavior, or sexually problematic/abusive issues.
No matter the perceived severity of the issue your child is facing, the days when parents send their children off to treatment to be “fixed” while they themselves make no changes are long gone. We parents play a pivotal role in the behavior and overall health of our children and accepting where we do and don’t have responsibility is a vital step in this process.
COUPLES COUNSELING
I work with couples facing a variety of challenges. Infidelity, betrayal, overcoming intimacy and communication deficits, conflicit resolution, and perpetual gridlock over key subjects on are all common issues facing couples in my practice. Every couple needs a set of skills for effective connection, communication, and conflict-resolution (the “3-C’s”) and we will utilize techniques drawn from an evidence-base to assure you’re equipped. I’ve completed Level 2 Gottman Training and primarily operate with couples using this approach.
Husband Training
I don’t know what else to call it, so I call it “husband training” and it’s something every husband, including myself, needs. I work with a number of husbands learning how to listen better, refine their “fix it” instinct so it’s actually effective and not just a source of conflict, and develop tools that improve their ability to connect with the people they love more than words can describe.
FAMILY THERAPY
As a one-person practice, making sure I can meet your family’s therapeutic needs is a crucial first step. I work with families on a case-by-case basis. In some situations, the needs of families are better served by using a treatment team approach while other times those needs can be met with a one-therapist approach.
Please get in contact with me so we can carefully assess whether I’m the right fit for your family.
SEXUALLY PROBLEMATIC & ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR
It’s nearly a reflex when I meet my clients for the first time that I ask “How are you doing?” In most instances, it’s a social nicety, just a polite prelude to the seemingly more important conversations. But when I meet the youth and their families who come to me for offense specific treatment, I’m careful to avoid asking this question because I already know the two-word answer:Not good. By the time they reach me, the lives of the youth and that of their families have been turned upside down. They are not happy or excited about starting offense specific treatment and for many, the beginning of this journey represents some of the darkest days they’ve ever experienced.
COMPETITIVE AMATEUR & PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES
In the world of athletic competition, the stigma associated with “getting help” remains a significant barrier. I have a treatment protocol designed to meet the needs of competitive high school, collegiate and professional athletes that allows them to maintain focus on their life pursuit while receiving the care they need. Athletes are human beings first, so our priority is always to preserve, restore, and protect their quality of life beyond the field. But it’s an inescapable fact that the life of the competitive amateur or professional athlete can also be very different from the life of a “civilian”(non-athlete).
It’s also undeniable that for an athlete, failing to receive proper treatment can carry significant consequences in the form of lost scholarships, impaired earning potential, and damaged reputation. I understand the critical necessity of protecting an athlete’s confidentiality and how to constructively communicate with coaches, agents, athletic departments and sports management when it becomes necessary to do so.
Assuring the individual receives the right treatment to maintain scholarship requirements
Dealing with the stress of a high public profile
Coordinating treatment with athletic departments, coaches, and agents
Performance anxiety
Generalized anxiety
Managing phobias over travel (i.e. flying)
Overcoming the trauma of failure in competition
Substance abuse
MARIJUANA-SPECIFIC TREATMENT
These are fascinating times for marijuana. America is in the middle of a grand social experiment unfolding in front of our eyes and here in Colorado, we have a front row seat. Unfortunately, the addictions treatment industry has lagged behind when it comes to recognizing how the treatment needs of primary cannabis abusers differ from individuals who abuse other classes of drugs. Primary cannabis abusers need many of the same things offered in traditional substance abuse treatment, but a failure to respond to the unique aspects of this drug and the people who are abusing it results in substandard treatment. In response to these unique treatment needs, I’ve developed Sensible Treatment for Marijuana Issues (STMI). STMI is a comprehensive treatment program based on the idea that people seeking treatment for marijuana-related problems need a specific course of care that differs from other forms of drug treatment. If your child’s primary drug is marijuana or another cannabis-based product (i.e. wax, shatter, etc.),you’ve probably already discovered the limitations of traditional drug treatment. STMI begins with a thorough assessment, after which the client is assigned to one of three treatment levels that vary in length from 10 to 20 weeks.
VIRTUAL REALITY THERAPY
One of the most powerful treatments for anxiety, trauma, and phobias is exposure therapy. Exposure therapy involves “exposing” a person to cues for their anxiety and fears and allowing the brain to learn and adapt. Repeated exposure to the cues allows the brain to adapt (change) results in reduced anxiety and fear about the trigger. Until now, we only had two choices for exposing a person to their triggers: use our imagination or actually put ourselves in a real-life triggering situation. Virtual reality exposure therapy now offers a powerful third choice. Using a VRT headset filled with images and scenes created by a team of clinicians and behavioral scientists, we can expose our brains to powerful triggers inside the safety of my office.
Rates
Therapy is an investment. My rate is based on the costs of maintaining my practice and are set at the median range for the Denver area.
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I offer a range of therapeutic services on a per session basis (session length: 50 minutes).
My session rate is $150.00.
Evaluation and assessments: $150.00 her hour plus the cost of testing materials and scoring. Flat fee evaluations for $2500.00 are also available.
Testimony in court: $275.00 per hour. Billable time includes travel to and from the venue as well as time spent at the venue.
I have office hours Tuesday - Friday from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Saturdays from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM (only double sessions available on Saturdays)
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For some time most of the major insurance companies have closed their panels to therapists working in the Denver Metro area. In this sense, I couldn’t accept insurance even if I wanted to. But the primary reason I choose not to work with insurance companies has nothing to do with their panels or their ridiculously onerous paperwork requirements and everything to do with the quality of your care. Your mental health care should be determined in partnership between you and your therapist. In order to use your insurance for mental health benefits, I would have to disclose to your carrier information about your care that I believe is best kept confidential. In addition to assigning you a diagnosis for billing purposes, I often have to also disclose information about your treatment progress and provide periodic updates regarding your care. And while it’s true that protection exists for how this information is supposed to be used (i.e. HIPPA), exactly how this information “follows” a person around once it’s been disclosed has not been made sufficiently clear. In order to use insurance for mental health benefits, the carrier not only requires me to disclose this sensitive and deeply personal information, the insurance company also sets the number of sessions you receive. Therapy should not be a game of “name that tune '' where a person who knows nothing about who you and what you’re dealing with uses an actuarial table to determine how many sessions you need. I will protect your privacy and do not want your mental health information to follow you around.
If you have insurance with out-of-network benefits, I am happy to provide you with a superbill or 3rd party-billing sheet (a more detailed receipt with the basic information required for you to submit to your insurance company). However, I encourage everyone to educate themselves about exactly how your carrier utilizes your clinical information and then decide for yourself whether or not to proceed.
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You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical care will cost.
Under the law, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the bill for medical items and services.
You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.
You will receive your Good Faith Estimate in writing at least 1 business day before your session. You can also ask your healthcare provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.
Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate. For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call the Colorado Division of Insurance at 303-894-7490 or 1-800-930-3745.
