FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
My pricing is by the quarter hour, $40 per 15 minutes (so 45 min =$120, 90 min couples session = $240). I am flexible with rates as needed. Couples come twice a month with in between session practice to do at home.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
After we get everyone in the room and start the process, the first session is built around getting all the details on the table and teaching the foundational concepts and habits at the same time. Couples don't wish to prolong their problems any longer than they have to so this combination approach meets that need. The couple decides if they want to go forward and do their online relationship check up, and does that outside of the session on the internet. The results are discussed in the follow up session and a plan of action proposed which involves assigned daily 20 min conversations the couple has at home with all the topics and structure set up in advance, as well as specific habits to put in use right away and as needed. We work on an every other week schedule which has better outcomes for couples in counseling. While everyone is still new, there are also 1 to 1 times set aside to get more individualized coaching for one partner or the other. This option is something that is available as the counseling continues often not more than 3 months total. Couples stretch out the time between session as they graduate so that they can wind down at once a month then every couple or few, to 6 months or annual check ins. The added check ins are for fine tuning, boosting long term success, and for relapse prevention, and are optional but encouraged.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I have a Master's degree in Counseling with a Marriage and Family Therapy emphasis, 3 thousand hours of supervised internship, mostly at a county children's services working with entire families who had drug use, trauma, and more, and licensing in 1996. My first license is the Marriage and Family Therapy license for California, and the second is an Oregon Licensed Professional Counselor License- both kept up to date. My clients include individuals, not just couples, but since I am a specialist in couples, people are drawn to me for that expertise. I also spent years in my youth and young adult years doing theatre and a few radio/tv sketch comedy appearances. My sense of humor and extraversion comes in handy sometimes in session and often for public presentations to make learning more fun and amusing. My post Master's training includes advanced workshops at a cognitive therapy center, and multiple trainings by the Gottman Institute, aka the Relationship Research Institute-the leaders in studying real couples over the decades. The Gottman Institute elevated the world's standard of research and process for helping couples since before 2000. If your counselor doesn't know this-they are not keeping up with their own profession. My Gottman trainings include level 1 when it was a combined 1 and 2 over 15 years ago, and updating it more recently with the Level 2 now described as Assessment, Interventions and Co-Morbidities. I have two other topics of special Gottman training on couples-one surrounding Affairs and Trust (porn, sex-addiction, etc), the other a new training in 2015: Couples in Recovery (addiction). EFT/Tapping and Donna Eden Energy Medicine approaches are additional tools in my belt that I acquired through self-study and practice.