Our Approach

This decision has been carefully considered and reflects our deep commitment to trauma-informed, systemic care that honors your healing journey.

The Problem with Insurance-Based

Mental Health Care

Insurance companies operate within a medical model that fundamentally misunderstands trauma and systemic healing. They require diagnoses that pathologize your experiences, impose arbitrary session limits that contradict what we know about meaningful change, and demand treatment plans that prioritize efficiency over depth. This system was not designed with your wellbeing at the center—it was designed to minimize costs.

When insurance companies are involved in your care, they become a third party in our therapeutic relationship. They dictate how many sessions you "should" need, what constitutes "medical necessity," and what kinds of work are considered legitimate. They reduce complex human experiences to diagnostic codes and predetermined treatment protocols.

Why This Matters for Trauma Work

Trauma lives in the body and in systems. It's relational, intergenerational, and deeply contextual. Healing from trauma is not a linear process that fits neatly into six or twelve sessions. It requires safety, consistency, and the freedom to move at a pace that honors your nervous system and your life circumstances.

Systemic work—understanding how family patterns, cultural forces, and social structures have shaped your experiences—takes time. It requires us to look beyond individual symptoms to the larger contexts that create and maintain distress. Insurance companies are not interested in this depth. They want quick symptom reduction, measurable outcomes, and cost containment.

Your Privacy Matters

When you use insurance, your mental health information becomes part of a permanent medical record accessible to insurance companies. This includes your diagnosis, treatment notes, and session details. This information can potentially impact future insurance coverage, employment in certain fields, and other aspects of your life.

By remaining outside the insurance system, we can offer you true confidentiality. What we discuss stays between us, protected by ethical and legal standards of practice, but not documented in ways that could follow you beyond our work together.

A Values-Based Approach

We believe mental health care should be:

• Client-directed: You know your needs better than any insurance algorithm

• Relational and contextual: Your experiences exist within systems and relationships that matter

• Unhurried: Healing happens in its own time, not according to external mandates

• Private: Your story belongs to you, not to corporations

• Non-pathologizing: You're not broken; you're responding to what you've experienced

This is not a decision that has been made lightly. We understand the financial burden this places on many people seeking care, and we’re committed to discussing fees openly and finding ways to make our work sustainable for you. Some clients use HSA/FSA funds, others access sliding scale options, and some seek reimbursement through out-of-network benefits while maintaining more control over their information.

What This Means for Our Work Together

By staying outside the insurance system, we have freedom. Freedom to work at the pace that's right for you. Freedom to explore what matters most without justifying it to a third party. Freedom to honor the complexity of your experience without reducing it to a diagnosis. Freedom to protect your privacy and your future.

We believe you deserve care that sees you as whole, that respects the wisdom of your responses to difficult circumstances, and that allows healing to unfold without artificial constraints. That's why we've chosen to practice this way—time and time again.