FAQ

Contact me through the contact form or email lindsay@wellbeingstherapy.com to set up a free 20-minute phone consultation to see if we would be a good fit.

I’m only offering video telehealth sessions to California residents. Telehealth provides convenience and flexibility, making it easier to prioritize therapy in a busy world. I do not conduct phone sessions unless you are experiencing technical difficulties.

Note: I can only offer telehealth to those physically within California during our session, and I will always need to know your address in case of an emergency. If you are traveling outside of California, we must cancel our session.

I do not accept insurance; however, I can provide you with the documentation needed for out-of-network benefits (i.e., superbill).

Most of my clients choose not to involve their insurance providers. Here are some advantages: You won’t have a diagnostic label permanently attached to your health record. Your records are protected, so the insurance company cannot get all your personal information. Lastly, the insurance company does not dictate your care, which is often short-term solution-focused care. Instead, our work will be decided between you and me.

Sessions are usually 50 minutes long, but I will extend them to 55 minutes if necessary to wrap things up.

The standard practice for therapy is a weekly meeting. I highly recommend this until you’ve made some progress. Once that happens, we can discuss reducing it to biweekly. At a bare minimum, I require 4-6 weekly sessions to get started.

It is my ethical duty to ensure I can help you. Just like doctors, therapists can choose to become specialists on specific issues. If I am not the right therapist for you, I will refer you to another clinician.

The following is a list of specialties that I may refer to another clinician: addiction counselors or programs (if you are early in your recovery journey and need extra support), eating disorder specialists if your disordered eating is considered severe (I do work with mild to moderate levels of disordered eating); neurodivergent specialists including ADHD and Autism Spectrum clients that want to make that their primary focus of treatment and psychiatrists for medication management since I do not prescribe medication.

Medication has its place and can be an excellent tool for certain circumstances. Most of my clients want to work toward getting off or not having to start medication. In those cases, we want to give therapy a solid chance to work (about six months), and if little progress occurs, we may revisit the conversation about medication as an option for you.

However, I have worked with several clients who were once on medication and now are no longer in need of it.

Yes! I often work with people who have a history of being hospitalized or in treatment facilities. In these medically focused settings, people frequently leave with diagnoses they disagree with. As a trauma-focused therapist, my top priority is to treat your trauma. We have so much knowledge now about how trauma impacts the brain and nervous system – how it can manifest as different diagnoses when left untreated.

My philosophy is – let’s treat the trauma and see what’s left after that. Some people do have more sensitive systems and were born with a propensity toward experiencing certain emotional states outside of the stress or trauma they endured. We will be mindful of that as we work together.

In short, no. Especially if we are doing EMDR and reprocessing particularly vivid and challenging memories, you do not have to share every detail if you don’t want to.

Nothing will shock me at this point in my career, so it should be because you would rather keep it to yourself and not because you fear I will judge you or not be able to handle it.

Honesty is essential in our work together because if I don’t know the truth about your history, thoughts, feelings, etc., it will be hard for me to help you and could prevent you from the kind of transformative story you seek. However, I know it takes time to earn your trust, so I am patient. You may decide to wait to share something important with me until you feel comfortable, and that’s okay!

Yes. I like to keep track of essential details. In session, I have a separate screen where I type short notes. I try to do this discreetly, but please let me know if you find it distracting!

I have two separate places where I keep my notes. In your actual chart, I keep straightforward, vague notes that, by law, I must release if subpoenaed. On the side, I keep more detailed notes to keep track of things you want to work on, names of people you mention, and what happened in your sessions so I can remind you the following session of some things that came up and what action steps we are taking to meet your goals.

My therapeutic approach involves a holistic perspective that integrates traditional evidence-based methods with elements drawn from various wellness and spiritual practices. I specialize in trauma-focused attachment-based therapies, which allows me to work on in-utero and pre-verbal traumas.

I am an EMDRIA-Certified EMDR Therapist and Approved Consultant. Additionally, I am a Certified Integrative Body Psychotherapist and focus on inviting the connection between mind and body into my work using this somatic therapy approach.

I have received training in using Ego State Therapies such as Internal Family Systems, some referred to as Inner Child Work or Parts Work. Additionally, I have training in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Reflective Parenting, and Solution-Focused Coaching. Other orientations I pull from include Psychodynamic, Gestalt, Transpersonal, and Existential therapy.

You can expect that I will focus on understanding the complex and nuanced effects of trauma on anyone I work with.

During sessions, I will help you identify any beliefs, emotions, and body sensations directly related to the traumatic or adverse life events and relationships you have experienced. I will help you uproot what keeps you stuck from moving forward in your healing journey. Working through your past is a step toward a better future, and my goal is to help you understand and work through your life trauma.

Many people feel what they went through wasn’t that bad or couldn’t be considered trauma, but trauma is part of the human experience, and I believe that everyone has experienced trauma in some way.

For example, trauma can be an adverse life event such as bullying, natural disasters, domestic violence, serious accidents/illnesses/medical conditions, or losing a loved one or pet. It can also be a history of neglect or physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological abuse.

I often work with people who had caregivers who struggled with addiction, personality disorders, and mental illness and had a trauma history that was unresolved and untreated. Caregivers who provided conditions to their love, withdrew affection, or simply could not stay regulated and present when you were upset can also be considered an attachment trauma.

Online EMDR therapy has become routine for many EMDR therapists and clients. Research is beginning to support what EMDR therapists are seeing in their practice: good clinical outcomes. Research to prove the effectiveness of EMDR therapy online is still coming out. Initial studies suggest that yes, EMDR therapy is not only a viable option for in-person therapy but has resulted in substantial mental health improvements when used online. Feel free to check out the research here.

Yes! It has been a vital part of my healing and given me great insight into what I liked and did not like in my experiences as a client. I genuinely believe I can only take you as far as I have taken myself.

I am a huge animal lover! Although I love dogs, I now have two cats, Prince and Levi. Growing up, we had pet dogs, cats, mice, rats, lizards, and hamsters. It was indeed an animal house, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way!