The first time we meet, we will address what brings you to counseling now. I encourage discussion about what you hope to achieve as well as questions you have for me about my professional background, licensure, training, therapeutic approach. If we think we can work together, we will set up additional sessions. I am careful to provide therapy only within my scope of practice, so if your needs may be better met by a specialist or another therapist, I will refer you. 

We will make decisions together on how often and when we will meet based on your needs and preferences. While some clients prefer to meet more frequently, others will want to wait a week or more between sessions. Talk therapy sessions in person or via telehealth will last between 50 and 55 minutes. 

As a licensed clinical social worker, I will work to get to know you through conversations about your life currently and in the past. Together we will make goals to help guide the direction our conversations take in therapy. 

I do not personally prescribe medication. However, I can with your permission, facilitate communication with your physician and/or psychiatrist about potential risks/benefits of medication in support of your wellbeing. 

The standard fee for each talk therapy session is $140, unless otherwise agreed upon. If you are interested in paying other than the standard fee, please let me know. 

Ketamine Assisted Therapy sessions are $380.

I also accept insurances for talk therapy and use Headway to manage my billing and payment collection. You'll be sent an email to set up an account with the Headway platform and payment will occur securely through their service.

I currently am accepting BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, Carelon Behavioral Health, Ascension Smart Health, Anthem EAP, United Healthcare Medicare Advantage, and OPTUM (with Oscar, United Healthcare, and Oxford).

Additional insurances are pending credentialing, so please ask if you do not see your inurance listed here.

When we decide to begin working together, I will collect your email address to register you with Headway online. You should receive an email prompting you to create a Headway account and provide your insurance and payment information for your copay or deductible. To verify your information and finish getting set up with them, please create and complete your account before we meet! 

If you have any questions about the process, you can reach Headway's team via their contact form.

As we work together, we will determine the goals for your course of therapy. I welcome ongoing discussion about the progress we are making. 

For talk therapy, we will meet in-person or online on a private, HIPAA-secure platform as often as we decide together that it is beneficial to you. This can range from regular, weekly appointments to once or twice a month. In deciding how often we meet, I will be supportive of what makes the most sense for your life and personal goals.

It can depend. Some need fairly brief therapy to understand their conflicts and reach the goals they set for themselves. However, others may require many months or even years of work to achieve the growth they desire. I will work with you as long as necessary to meet your individual therapy goals. I also work to safeguard against your becoming inappropriately dependent upon therapy. You will probably know when you are beginning to "feel finished" with therapy work. I encourage you to discuss this when it happens so we can close our relationship as carefully as we begin it.

Ketamine is a Schedule III medication that has long been used safely as an anesthetic in multiple medical and military settings. Now it is being effectively used to treat depression, alcoholism, substance dependencies, post

traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), and other mental health concerns. Therapeutic ketamine sessions are considered an “off-label” treatment for these and other health conditions. 

It’s in the brain! The medical and scientific community’s current understanding of ketamine’s mode of action in the mind and body is as an NMDA antagonist working through the glutamate neurotransmitter system in the brain. In comparison with other psychiatric drugs such as SSRIs, SNRIs, lamotrigine, antipsychotics, and 

benzodiazepines, it operates on a completely different neural pathway.  

At varying dosage levels, once can experience mild numbness, relief from anxiety, and antidepressant and potentially psycholytic or psychedelic effects. It is my view that experiences of being in “non-ordinary” mind states may be instrumental in providing a more robust positive mental health effect.  

Relaxation from ordinary concerns while maintaining conscious awareness of the influence of ketamine is key. It supports expanded perspectives on one’s habitual mindset. This disrupts the patterns of one’s typical negative feelings or narratives and entrenched patterns of worry. It is my view that this relief, and the exploration and 

experience of other possible states of consciousness, can have positive impact in thinking about and living in one’s own life. As a practitioner, I act as guide through the experience and support you in processing what you encounter before and after the sessions. 

It is essential that you receive careful attention during and after your treatment. Monitoring will include blood 

pressure and vital signs measurements as well as mental health assessments before each session. After a 

session, follow-up will be conducted electronically or in-person as needed.  

You are strongly encouraged to participate in psychotherapy that will prepare you for your ketamine session(s) 

and assist you in integrating your experiences(s) afterwards. For people participating in a ketamine medicine 

session, a therapeutic program outside of their ketamine experience provides support for the continuation of 

emotional healing and growth. I encourage you to access support from family, partners, close friends, safe 

environments, etc. I see how social and environmental supports can be integral in creating lasting positive 

change. 

The purpose of the intramuscular (IM) ketamine experience is to create a non-ordinary (“altered”) state of 

consciousness, which is why a structured supportive therapeutic relationship with a practitioner who has a view of your hopes, reported issues, desires and struggles is important. Many people also feel 

improvement in mood and reduced depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic symptoms. Your experience will be 

unique to you, and if you choose to have more than one session, each of your ketamine sessions will be a different experience.  

All non-ordinary state experiences are adventures that can’t be programmed. In therapeutic ketamine journeys, 

the adventures evolve from your own relationship to yourself in this state as well as your relationship to ketamine itself. You bring your expectations, fears, hopes, and desires, and these inform your experience.  

While I believe that it is best to form an intention for your journey, your intention may or may not evolve rapidly once in the ketamine experience. I have observed that the journey will flow whether you hold on to 

your intention and resist the flow, or whether you follow the path that unfolds and relax into it. I have noticed that holding on or trying to control the experience is a main source of anxiety in this and other non

ordinary state experiences.  

A ketamine session can be light and joyful, dark and challenging, or both together. There may be concepts that surface in your mind, or visions, or personal encounters, and you may face the ideas that are uncomfortable. Not everyone enjoys the journey, but everyone comes through it.  

Before participating in ketamine treatment, you will be carefully interviewed by a provider at Elevate Adult Psychiatry to determine if you are eligible. 

Pregnant people and nursing parents are not eligible because of potential effects on the fetus or nursing child. 

The effects of ketamine on pregnancy and the fetus are undetermined, and therefore, it is recommended that you protect yourself against pregnancy while exposing yourself to ketamine or in the immediate aftermath of its use.  

Untreated hypertension is a contraindication to ketamine use because ketamine causes a rise in blood pressure (BP). Ketamine should not be taken if you have untreated hyperthyroidism. Similarly, a history of heart disease may make you ineligible to participate. 

Information on ketamine’s interaction with other medicines will be assessed as to your eligibility for treatment through your psychiatric provider interiew(s).