Therapy
Currently Accepting New (starting March 11th 2024)
Info on No Surpises Act, Good Faith Estimate at bottom of this page.
Image Description: Illustration of two people with their arms around each other’s shoulders, with text above their heads saying “It’s Ok To Ask For Help”. Art by @frizzkidart on IG.
What therapy is: confidential, collaborative, listening, help finding resources, help building self-insight, help identifying next steps, and making space for your feelings and needs. It can be goal oriented, self-exploration oriented, and/or self-acceptance oriented.
What therapy is not: telling you what to do, judging your choices or actions as right/wrong, policing your feelings, me knowing you better than you know yourself.
What you can get out of therapy: self-knowledge, guidance, hope, clarity, problem solving skills, healing old wounds, relationship skills, self-compassion, identifying and working through emotional road blocks, identifying feelings/needs/resources, support, an opportunity to be heard, self-advocacy skills, boundary setting and holding skills, coping with dysphoria, help staying sober, building a better relationship with food and your body, coping with/reducing suicidal thoughts, and more
Primary Approaches I Use
ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), IFS (internal family systems), DBT (dialectical behavior therapy), somatic therapy, mindfulness, and general experiential approaches.
About ACT: how to take the serenity prayer and put it into action (accepting the things we cannot change, changing the things we can). How to live a life according to our values and challenge the idea that uncomfortable thoughts or feelings and barriers to living the life we want. (This approach is not inherently spiritual or religious, I just find the serenity prayer to be a useful way to explain it).
About IFS: using an example to explain IFS- have you ever found that part of you wants to watch tv and part of you wants to finish that big project? Or part of you want to get out of a relationship and part of you wants to stay in it? IFS is about understanding our conflicting desires, feelings, and motivations as different parts (e.g. an analytical part, an eating disorder part, an checked out part). It’s about building a relationship with ourselves from a place of curiosity.
About DBT: specific tools to cope with emotional overwhelm, distress tolerance, understanding behavior patterns, and identifying specific alternate actions to take in times of distress.
About somatic therapy: getting in touch with your body’s cues, needs, sensations, embodied emotions, body memories, and automatic reactions to develop a greater sense of self knowledge.
About experiential techniques: This just means anything where we actually get you up and moving and in the feeling/situation- not just talking about it. This can mean borrowing from improv and psychodrama or drawing your feelings or popping balloons to release tension.
About Mindfulness: Increased awareness of the present moment, your wants, your needs, your surroundings, etc. Does not HAVE to mean traditional meditation approaches, but can include traditional meditation.
Therapy As Social Justice Work
Sam’s goal as a therapist is to empower you to be your own best advocate- to see your own power and strength. They want to help you notice and challenge the ways in which growing up in systems of oppression has shaped your internal biases. Therapy can be an opportunity to challenge existing narratives about how you are “supposed” to be, look, think, and act. Therapy can be an opportunity to help you reclaim your own narrative.
Sam strives to work from a fat positive, anti-racist, anti-ableist, queer affirming, trans affirming, feminist, sex positive, kink positive, non-monogamous inclusive and intersectional lens. They believe that this is an ongoing and active process that involves actively practicing and modeling accountability. They are always open to feedback on ways to improve themself and their work.
Image description: “If we want to address mental health, we need to dig deeper”. Below these words is an image of a shovel penetrating the ground- the shovel says “intersectional” and “social justice” and it digs through things like “pathologization” and “individualism” to address things like “trauma” “racism” and “inequality”. Credit: Alyse Ruriani (@alyseruriani)
Image Description: Mask with hand-drawn red/blue/yellow markings
People I see: Individual adults (18+)
License number: Sam is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist-LMFT 125303.
Insurance: They are currently cash/credit card pay only, but offer superbills (receipts for sessions you can submit to insurance for possible out of network reimbursement).
Fees: Sessions start at $215 per 50 min session. All sliding scale spots are full at this time.
In person/Virtual: Sam is currently seeing all clients virtually OR offering limited in person park sessions in or near the Los Angeles, Echo Park area with masks or rapid tests or both as precautions.
Accessibility: Sam can offer virtual sessions on HIPPA compliant versions of the following platforms: Doxy, Zoom, and Google Meet. Can offer voice or text only sessions, captioning, screensharing, and other modifications on request. Do not currently have access to any on staff interpreter, but open to working with interpreters.
Logistical limitations: can only work with clients in the state of California.
Accepting new clients right now: Yes
Good Faith Estimate (new law, new information, will likely be updated as I get a better understanding of this new law)
As of January 1, 2022, under Section 2799B-6 of the Public Health Service Act, health care providers and health care facilities are required to inform individuals who are not enrolled in a plan or coverage or a Federal health care program, or not seeking to file a claim with their plan or coverage both orally and in writing of their ability, upon request or at the time of scheduling health care items and services, to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” of expected charges.
You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical care will cost.
Under the law, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the bill for medical items and services.
You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.
Make sure your health care provider gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing at least 1 business day before your medical service or item. You can also ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.
Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate. For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises.
Additional notes: You may request a superbill to submit to your insurance company. I can help you with that process. The superbill is provided at no additional cost to you and I can help you find and navigate the process of submitting a superbill to request partial reimbursement from your insurance company if you have one. A superbill, if you aren’t familiar, is simply a list of the codes and information needed (a formal receipt) for therapy sessions. This unfortunately not a guarantee that your insurance company will provide that partial reimbursement.
Good Faith Estimate Info about My Practice:
If you are not using insurance to see me (which will be the case since I am not currently taking insurance) it is important for you to know as a client that you are entitled to a good faith estimate for costs of health care services including mental health care (sessions and other services).
Here is a breakdown of what to expect for cost of services:
session fees: $180/50 min session UNLESS we have met together and agreed on a sliding scale rate less than that amount. I also offer varied session lengths - I see some clients for 30 min sessions, and some for 90 min sessions depending on what works best for each client.
gender-related surgeries letters (e.g. facial feminization, top surgery, etc): these are and always will be free. if you are meeting with me ONLY to get a letter, your session will also be free.
providing superbills: free
other letters/documentation (e.g. accessibility documentation): I never want these services to be inaccessible to anyone and I want to get paid for my time, so I do these on a donation only basis. suggested donation $50 (you can absolutely donate more, you will not in any way be penalized for donating less- I anticipate that folks with different income levels will donate differently).