Frequently Asked Questions

Years of outpatient has taught me not everyone can achieve control over their OCD or anxiety meeting just once per week; or gains made at too slow of a pace.

IOP allows us to hit the ground running, complete the same work that would have been done at once per week, but more intensely.  Upon program completion, many step down to outpatient sessions of 1x/week to complete the original treatment plan and prepare for discharge.

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).   ERP focuses on the principle of habituation by gradually exposing a person to a feared thought or situation, while simultaneously challenging them not to perform the learned ritual or response.  As treatment progresses, we look for an overall reduction in both frequency and intensity of anxiety.

During this time, a person is focusing their attention on completing exposures that you and I agree on.  My role is to ensure exposures are being done correctly, and at the appropriate level of challenge - not too easy, not too difficult.  As exposures become less challenging, we cross them off and add another in its place.

The first step is a careful review of specific symptoms interfering with a person's life.

Next, we develop very specific and individualized list of exposures to address the interfering symptoms.  This individualized list of exposures is known as the exposure hierarchy, and serves as the treatment plan throughout the course of therapy.

Exposures are specific situations or experiences designed to provoke anxiety at a challenging but manageable level, and observe anxiety reduce by the passage of time.  From this, a person learns to be less fearful or avoidant.  Exposures come from an exposure hierarchy.  A hierarchy is a very individualized list of exposures rated on a difficulty scale of 0-7.   We use this hierarchy as the treatment plan.  When the last exposure is crossed off, we consider the ERP process to be complete.

The answer is two-fold.  One, to get over the hump of what brought a person into therapy.  Two, to become their own therapist.  More specifically, once therapy is complete, the goal would be a person knows what to do, what not to do, and why in order to keep their symptoms managed.

I am not contracted with any insurance plans.   This allows flexibility to do a program such as this, without interference or restrictions.  Your information is also kept with me, and not shared with anyone without your written permission.

A Super Bill is a document that itemizes dates of services, billing codes and charges that you can provide to your insurance company.  Since I am not contracted with any insurance companies, you would be submitting to possibly get out-of-network benefits. This could result in reimbursement for a portion of what you paid, however, this is not a guarantee.  Insurance companies and individual plans vary, so please call your respective plan provider to get more information on both superbills and your out of network benefits.  

24-hour cancellation to any session once beginning the program.  Cancellations made within  24 hours are billed at the normal session rate.