Tag Archives: Ask A Therapist

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Ask a Therapist: Why Is Therapy So Expensive? 

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And Is COVID Situated to Make That Scenario Even Worse?

by Liz Covey, LMHC

Nearly every day, therapists in private practice steel themselves for the inevitable: an email inbox that overflows with new patient requests from people who have been desperately looking for long weeks or months for an opening to begin to work on psychological issues or problems that are either long-standing or pandemic-related, or more commonly, both. Clients seeking to use their health insurance for therapy are likely to find themselves in a deadlock these days thanks to staffing shortages. If a potential client uses the state Medicaid program, Apple Health/Molina, the chance of finding an opening is even slimmer, since the amount of red tape plus lower pay mean even fewer therapists are available to these patients.

And if no one is available in-network, prospective clients will likely find themselves on the open market for therapy and can be startled by the price tag. Private pay therapy in Seattle in 2022 can cost between $100–$250 per session. Many therapists offer sliding fee scales, meaning that they reserve spots for lower-fee work, but these are limited so they can be even harder to find.

This has many today asking:  Why does therapy cost so much? Let’s consider some of the factors that contribute to this high fee:

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Ask a Therapist: Putting ‘Care’ and ‘Health’ at the Center of Mental Health Care

by Liz Covey, LMHC

Years ago, during a time in my career when I was working with children and families who had encountered abuse and who were involved with the foster care system, I made a new acquaintance who later became a good friend. When my occupation came up, she looked me squarely in the eyes, and asked, “Why on earth would anyone want to do that??”

My friend, no stranger to hardship herself, was asking me in a straightforward manner why I would elect to put myself in the face of abject misery. It’s a reasonable enough query, if the job was in fact full of misery, which it is not. But my friend’s question raises a fallacy about mental health work that I am here to dispel: That the work of mental health is drudgery and despair. That it is raking through the muck of degradation, tragedy, and sorrow. 

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Ask a Therapist: How to Live in a Turbulent New Normal

by Liz Covey, LMHC

Question: When I go back out into the world, I find myself exhausted, forgetful or even at times excessively irritable. I don’t understand what is going on. Is this normal after a long time in quarantine? Or should I be worried that something is really wrong with me and seek help?

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Ask a Therapist: Singing the Body Electric — Dismantling Pandemic Body Shame at the End of Covid

by Liz Covey, LMHC

If you have found yourself wondering if the “19” in COVID-19 stands for the number of pounds you’ve gained during the pandemic, you aren’t alone.

Alongside the mental health toll that this 15-month crisis has taken, our physical bodies have also been greatly impacted. The gyms were shuttered. The schools were closed, so caregivers of younger children were effectively tethered to the home. Sports and social activities that motivate movement were cancelled. Even the city parks had shame-inducing signs up until very recently warning that “crowded parks lead to closed parks,” encouraging the public-thirsty citizens back into their increasingly oppressive homes.

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Ask a Therapist: Finding ‘Flow’ Amid the Stressors of a Slow Re-Opening

by Liz Covey, LMHC

Question: I am going crazy trying to figure out what I am allowed to do right now, versus last month. And being recently fully vaccinated makes it all the harder to figure out. Especially with others who may or may not be, such as strangers in the park. How on earth am I supposed to cope with all this stress of not knowing??

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Ask a Therapist: How to Cope With Irritability From WFH and How It Manifests With Coworkers

by Roy Fisher

Question: How do I cope with an increased degree of irritability these days with people still working remotely and how that manifests in online interactions with work colleagues?

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Ask a Therapist: Alternatives to Therapy During Tough Times

by Liz Covey, LMHC

Question: I’ve been trying to get in to see a therapist for months now, and I can’t even get a call back much less find someone who takes my insurance. What else can I do if I can’t find a therapist with an opening soon? I’m afraid I will get more depressed as time goes on without some help. But I’m also wondering if I should think outside the box for other options right now, since nothing is working out. Any suggestions you have would be appreciated.

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Ask a Therapist: Taking Stock at the End of the Year of Everything

by Liz Covey, LMHC

I’m anything but a historian, but this whopper of a year has me thinking like one. I find myself pondering what it means to have lived through 2020, a year that was full of so much and also so little. A year so unique that it will be talked about for decades to come, if not forever, just as we swap stories about where we were when the Towers fell or when Kennedy was shot. But however alike in terms of before-and-after comparisons, those events were mere instances, specific moments in time. Questions to which there is a simple answer.

What about the momentous phenomena that occurs over a long period of time? The flash points of history that seem to unfold in slow-motion, or more accurately, in regular motion — that which occurs at the pace of day to day life? What do we make of events that happen amidst the laundry and the bill paying and which will span enough time for some to have two birthdays come and go? 

The kind of experience that allows one to answer the where were you question is distinctly different from the one that asks how. How were you the year that everything happened, beauty and terror, to loosely quote Rilke. 

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Ask a Therapist: Want to Help Your Frustrated Kids Survive This Hell Year? Try Encouraging Their Meltdowns

by Liz Covey, LMHC

Question: Help! Lazy monsters have taken over my house! In other words, my kids aren’t doing so good. All they ever want to do is play video games or watch YouTube. When I ask them to do something like a chore, or even their homework, they bite my head off. What can we do to make it through this long winter?

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Ask a Therapist: Letting Go of Self-Criticism During a Pandemic

by Roy Fisher, MA LMFT

Question: I’m having a really hard time believing that I’m successful at anything right now. As a parent, I feel like I’m dropping the ball. As an employee, working from home is difficult because I’m always distracted by something going on that takes me away from getting tasks accomplished. As a partner, I don’t think I have a lot to give to my relationship because I don’t feel good about myself. I have always seen myself as competent, so this is all new and I’m not handling it very well at all. I’m cranky and lash out but want to find a new way of dealing with everything — help! 

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