FAQs
What does liminal mean?
What is the meaning of liminal solutions?
How can psychotherapy assist me?
What is psychotherapy like?
How long are psychotherapy sessions?
How will I know if psychotherapy is right for me?
Psychiatrist and Psychologist: What’s the difference?
What about psychotherapy versus medication?
What are payment options?
Do you take insurance?
Are the discussions that take place in psychotherapy sessions confidential?
Answers to FAQs
What does liminal mean?
Like the transitional times in-between the seasons, you and I can find ourselves facing a time of transition, a time of needed change in ourselves—like facing a difficult threshold and the challenges of negotiating how we might cross it. Nature teaches us that this in-between-ness provides us valuable time and resources for preparing to cross the threshold. Think of, for example, how spring readies itself during winter, before it emerges.
The word, liminal, well describes these valuable, transitional, and in-between moments. Its root is limen which has its origins in Latin, meaning, threshold, cross-piece, or sill. Rather than a boundary line to step across, I find it helpful to think of a threshold in human experience more expansively. It’s like uncharted territory that invites us to enter fully, to stay awhile and explore. In this liminal space and time, we can safely discover enough about ourselves to feel ready and get ready to cross, and make the move forward to what is next.
What is the meaning of liminal solutions?
Liminal times and spaces in human experience can feel unfamiliar, sometimes requiring of us courage and strategies to make the best use of them in our preparations for transformation and transition. It is helpful to have a guide–someone who has earned our trust–to support our efforts to heal and transform ourselves.
The primary goal of Liminal Solutions Psychotherapy and Consulting, LLC is to partner with clients and help them get equipped with the resources they need to ready themselves and successfully cross their thresholds to improved health and wellness.
How can psychotherapy assist me?
One can benefit from participating in psychotherapy in a number of ways. A psychotherapist can provide the client with needed support, skills in problem solving, and healthy approaches for coping with depression, anxiety, body image concerns, unresolved problems stemming from childhood, relationship challenges, stress and anger management, unresolved grief and loss, and lack of self-confidence and self-esteem.
People also experience their psychotherapist as an effective asset for enhancing personal growth, managing the challenges of daily life, and navigating paths to successfully attain one’s goals in relationships and careers. A refreshing perspective on new or enduring difficulties can be provided by your psychotherapist.
The benefits obtained from psychotherapy depend on clients’ motivation to utilize the healing process and intentionally apply and practice what is learned in their daily living.
Here are a few examples of the benefits of psychotherapy:
- Gaining a better understanding of yourself and clarity about your goals and values.
- Developing skills for improved communication, listening, and relationships.
- Resolving specific problems or concerns that motivated you to seek psychotherapy.
- Discovering healthy strategies for managing the challenges of life’s transitions and the struggles associated with depression, grief, anxiety, and stress.
- Developing skills to improve management of strong emotions, such as sadness, depression, and anger.
What is psychotherapy like?
Each person is a unique individual. Each person comes to psychotherapy with different concerns, challenges, and goals. It makes sense, then, that what occurs in psychotherapy sessions will be different for each person.
Usually during the first two sessions, your psychotherapist will be highly focused on getting to know you and your history and this is done with the help of an intake interview. During the interview, your psychotherapist will be very interested in learning what brought you to psychotherapy and what you would like to accomplish in psychotherapy.
It is important that you and your psychotherapist agree on the goals for psychotherapy and how you will work together on meeting those goals. You will be invited to discuss the current events in your life and your personal history that is relevant to your therapy goals. As you continue to meet in additional sessions, you will be invited to share with your psychotherapist the progress that you have made towards your goals since your prior session.
Your relationship with your psychotherapist is a priority because, as many decades of research has shown, the nature of this relationship is the primary determining factor of success in psychotherapy (success = reaching your therapy goals). Your psychotherapist is committed to earning your trust—through professionalism and consistent engagement–in order to build a strong therapeutic relationship.
Psychotherapy should not be a band-aid, but rather lead to enduring change that enables you to feel better and accomplish more. Your psychotherapist will help you get to the root of whatever is preventing you from achieving your goals, make the needed changes, and be equipped to apply those changes in daily life.
Psychotherapy can be conducted one-on-one, that is, in sessions with one client, or it can be conducted with many clients at the same time in group sessions.
Click here to learn more about individual psychotherapy at the American Psychological Association’s website.
Click here to learn more about group psychotherapy at the American Psychological Association’s website.
How long are psychotherapy sessions?
Depending on the nature of your goals and specific needs, psychotherapy can be short-term and focused on solving a particular concern, or it can be long-term to support and guide you through resolution of difficult experiences. In both cases, you can expect to schedule sessions on a regular basis.
Typically, individual adult psychotherapy sessions are scheduled once a week and last 50 minutes. Group psychotherapy sessions with adults are typically scheduled once a week and last longer than one hour. You will be notified about the amount of time you can expect for individual or group psychotherapy sessions before your first appointment.
How will I know if psychotherapy is right for me?
People who decide to engage in psychotherapy are prepared to take responsibility for themselves, their behaviors, and their relationships. They are ready to learn skills with which to make the positive changes necessary for taking charge of their lives.
It is helpful to note that clients gain the most benefit from psychotherapy when they fully and actively engage in the healing process. The beneficial effects of psychotherapy can develop in-between sessions as clients put into practice what they learned in the session. To help you apply what you’ve learned to your daily life, I may suggest to you some activities outside of the psychotherapy session, such as reading a provided article, journaling or engaging in other creative expressions of your thoughts and feelings, or noting any changes in your behaviors and your progress towards your goals.
Psychiatrist and Psychologist: What’s the difference?
Psychiatrists are graduates of medical school and are doctors specialized in psychiatry. They can prescribe medications for psychiatric problems. Psychologists are graduates of a school of psychology and have earned a PhD or PsyD degree, meaning they spent approximately 6 to 8 years in training to provide psychotherapy and other psychological services.
What about psychotherapy versus medication?
It is well established that medication alone cannot provide the long-term solution to mental and emotional difficulties and the pain associated with them. Psychotherapy at Liminal Solutions Psychotherapy and Consulting, LLC focuses on the whole person, not just the symptoms or the disorder. Attention will be given to your general health and well being and, more specifically, to the cause of your distress and patterns of behavior that interfere with your progress.
An integrative approach to clients’ health and wellness contributes to their attainment of sustainable growth and enhanced sense of wellness. By working with their psychotherapist and primary care physician, clients can determine what’s best for them. For some clients, a combination of psychotherapy and medication is the most beneficial approach.
What are payment options?
Psychotherapy is an investment in your health and well-being, your relationships, and your ability to live a creative and productive life. Payment for psychotherapy should not become its own source of stress, so I endeavor to keep my fees within my clients’ budgets. I believe you will find my fees reasonable. Payment is due at the time of service. Cash or check is accepted.
Do you take insurance?
I have chosen not to join or participate in any health insurance plans or panels, including HMOs, Medicare, and Medicaid, which means that I am an “out-of-network provider.” Health insurance plans (other than HMOs, Medicare, and Medicaid) may reimburse you for psychotherapy and other services I offer. Because health insurance is written by many different companies, I cannot tell you what your plan covers. Please read your plan’s booklet or call your employer’s benefits office to find out what you need to know.
If you choose to use your health insurance (other than HMO policies, Medicare, or Medicaid): Instead of filing claims for you, I will give you—at your request–a receipt/statement for my services at the end of each month or at the start of following month with the information the insurers need in order to reimburse you, if allowed by your insurance policy. This information will include standard diagnostic and procedure codes, the times we met, my charges, and your payments.
It is a good idea to call your health insurance carrier and find out—in case you do not already know–if you have mental health coverage included in your policy. It is suggested that you review your coverage with your health insurance agent/representative.
Here are some helpful questions to ask your health insurance agent/representative:
- What are my mental health benefits?
- With an out-of-network provider: How much will my insurance policy reimburse me for each of my psychotherapy sessions and for how many psychotherapy sessions in total?
- Is approval for mental health coverage first required from my primary care physician?
An Important Note to Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries:
I am not enrolled as a Medicare or Medicaid provider. If you are a Medicare or Medicaid beneficiary and you would like to receive my psychological services, you and I will not be permitted to submit claims to Medicare or Medicaid and we will not receive reimbursement from Medicare or Medicaid for my psychological services. Recognizing this status, should you agree to receive my psychological services and agree to pay for them out-of-pocket, you and I will complete and sign an agreement to that effect which I will provide for you.
An Important Note to Individuals with HMO Policies:
I do not participate in any Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). If you are enrolled in an HMO, you are typically required to see health providers who participate in that HMO. However, there are situations in which you may be able to see a health provider who does not participate in an HMO. These situations may complicate billing and reimbursement between HMO-enrolled clients and health providers, such as myself, who do not participate in HMOs. To minimize these complications, clients and I will discuss and make informed decisions about the issues during our first session.
Are the discussions that take place in psychotherapy sessions confidential?
Confidentiality is of critical importance in the professional relationship between you and your psychotherapist. Psychological services are confidential, meaning that most of the information you share with your psychotherapist will be kept private. Effective psychotherapy requires the client’s trust that what is discussed in psychotherapy sessions, usually involving highly personal and sensitive topics, will not be shared outside of the psychotherapist’s office.
In order that you can feel free to talk frankly with me with your right to privacy protected, the law makes it my duty as a psychologist to keep your client information confidential. In general, this means that I cannot discuss your personal information and other information that you share with me in your psychotherapy sessions with anyone or convey to others information about you without your permission.
The law protects the relationship between a client and a psychotherapist, and information cannot be disclosed to others without the client’s written permission. However, if you ever want me to share information with someone else (such as your primary care physician), I will ask that you sign a written authorization form (Authorization to Release Confidential Information and Records) that meets certain legal requirements imposed by HIPAA and by Maryland law. You and I will review and discuss these forms before you sign them and give your consent.
There are other activities and situations related to your psychotherapy that require your provision of written consent in advance. With your signature on our Starting our Work Together Booklet: Psychotherapy Services Information and Contract (which I will provide to you), also known as a document of informed consent, you provide consent for those activities and situations, which include exceptions to confidentiality. These exceptions are as follows:
- When I believe that you are in immediate danger of harming or killing yourself, I am permitted to disclose information to others as necessary to prevent the danger or threat of danger.
- When I believe that you are going to harm or kill another person/s, I am required by law to take action to inform the intended victim/s and appropriate law enforcement authorities.
- When you reveal to me or when I have reasonable cause to suspect that any child has been abused or neglected—either currently or in the past—I am required by law to report this to the appropriate county agency and state authorities.
- When you reveal to me or when I have reasonable cause to suspect abuse, neglect, exploitation, or self-neglect of a vulnerable adult or legally incompetent person, I am required by law to report this to the appropriate county agency.
Other times/situations which are exceptions to confidentiality include the following:
- When I am ordered by a court of law to release information, I am required to provide that specific information to the court.
- When a court of law refers you to me for psychotherapy, the results of the treatment ordered may have to be revealed to the court.
- If you are or become involved in any kind of lawsuit or administrative procedure (for example, worker’s compensation), that includes consideration or investigation of your mental health, you may not be able to keep your records or psychotherapy private in court.
- If you participate in group psychotherapy which I facilitate, I ask that each member of the group to make a promise to keep confidential whatever occurs or is said in the group’s psychotherapy sessions. However, I cannot guarantee that other members of the group will keep their promise.
- With my intention to provide you the best treatment that I can, there will be occasions when I may request consultation with another licensed mental health professional. During such consultations, I will refrain from revealing your identity. The consultant is likewise bound by law to keep the information about you confidential, although the exceptions to confidentiality are also applicable to the consultant.
- During those times when I am away or unavailable to you, my psychotherapy practice will be covered for emergency situations by an appropriate, qualified professional. With your consent, I may inform the on-call professional who is providing this coverage about your situation to facilitate your attainment of appropriate support should you need it.