Category: Blog

For clients looking to work with me, please know that I do not accept insurance.

I want to explain why here.

First and foremost, one of my favorite quotes sums up my feelings about therapy, “If you want to impress someone, make it complicated. If you want to help someone, make it simple.” said by an online business coach, James Wedmore, on his podcast . My goal in my work is to simply help my clients reach empowerment, connection and alignment in their lives. I believe that this takes an even energy exchange of money, time and dedication on both of our parts in this relationship. It is a simple relationship and an even energy exchange. As many clients may not know, insurance grossly complicates the relationship between client and practitioner.

Here are my reasons for not taking insurance below.

1. Time

In my experience, the world of insurance is complicated and limiting. The work required on the therapist’s end to meet the strict criteria of insurance demands hours and hours of the therapist’s time. I would need another employee dedicated to dealing with insurance alone, or to be backed by an agency to help with the added burden of managing insurance. I do not have the desire to work in that system.

2. Intervention approval

Another example of the limitations of insurance is the type of interventions they will approve, based on the notes written by the therapist. This means that I would not be able to serve my clients with many interventions that would not be covered by insurance that I find to be healing, such as Reiki, meditation and mindfulness practice, spirituality and more. I don’t want to be in a box professionally, and I want to offer the best of me and my clinical and intuitive healing skills in the therapeutic relationship.

3. Diagnosing after 1 session

Your insurance company will only approve a certain number of sessions, based on your diagnosis. There are strengths and limitations of new laws governing insurance companies and mental health diagnoses. I think it is important for people to be aware of mental health diagnoses and the strengths or stigma they can provide. For some, a diagnosis can be very freeing and give direction to treatment, and ultimately be healing. For others, a diagnosis is limiting and damaging. Did you know that your diagnosis code is in your insurance provider’s software, up near your name and DOB? Those codes follow you around everywhere. If you receive a diagnosis, you should be aware of its meaning and implications. The type of insurance-approved interventions are also dependent upon your mental health diagnosis. I don’t think any person fits in a box as determined by insurance, and I don’t want to have to pick my interventions based on your diagnosis and wonder if your insurance will reimburse for each intervention.

The way in which the diagnoses in the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition) have been considered is less than hopeful. In short, the diagnoses of DSM’s past have been reworked into a new model that attempt to make them easier to understand, but have in fact undermined much of the work done by generations before. And this is important, because insurance currently accepts these codes in their reimbursement for services.

All in all, insurance is a very difficult system for mental health professionals to navigate and manage. I want to be working with clients, helping you see your potential, working out issues that arise in your life. I want to be embodying my authentic self. I want to provide the best intervention for each individual. I do not operate in a box. I am free, and so are you. Insurance takes away the free flow of treatment for both therapist and client. For these reasons, I am deciding that I want to pursue my work without the hindrance of insurance. I hope that all of my clients are excited about the prospect of our work together, and understand and respect my decision.

I look forward to continuing on my path toward helping my clients feel more empowered, connected, and aligned every day.

Hey friends.

I have had QUITE the ride these last few weeks, and specifically, the last couple of days.

*Trigger warning: this post speaks about death and family dysfunction.

It has taken a few days for me to write this post, since I am still in the middle of processing all the events. This post really deals with the portal being open from 11/10/19-11/19/19, and a life lesson that I am learning throughout this important time.

The numbers “111” and “1111” have great significance to me. 1 is the first number. It stands on its own. It is empowerment embodied. When 111 or 1111 appears in sequence, the meaning to me is that of power amplified. It reminds me that while power can be painful, and hard to bear, it is also itself an amplifier. In order to achieve our dreams and move onward and upward in our life’s lessons, we have to be willing to receive the message of 1. With the pain comes the lesson and the ascension. We have to be willing to open our minds and hearts to learning the lessons that 1 presents to us. One can be solitary, but it also connects us all. We are all 1 part of a great whole. It’s lonely, but also connecting. It is up to us to find the lesson within so that we can continue to grow and walk our unique path. Remember, your path brings you into community with others who are walking their path. We are never really alone.

The 11/11 portal opened up on Monday, bringing clarity downloads, opportunities for aligning with your power and with your Spiritual Guides, and opening people to feel extremely empathic. For someone who is already extremely empathic, this week, and especially Monday, felt challenging for me. I needed rest, patience with myself, and gentleness. The power was at times too much for me to acknowledge with excitement, and rather, I needed to care for myself and withdraw.

Further, there was a full moon in Taurus on Tuesday 11/12. Taurus is ruled by Venus and deals with personal possessions, love, decadence and taking care of the self. My North Node is in Taurus, so this activates a desire to shift into my higher purpose, the lessons I am to learn in this lifetime. Since Scorpio season started, I have been feeling a tilt toward focusing on my money story and financial situation. It is also where my South Node resides, and so the push and pull tension has been super real this week! This is personal to me.

On Wednesday, 11/13, I found out through a 2nd cousin via Instagram DM, that my grandmother died. This is the type of dysfunction I deal with in my family. I did not have the opportunity to attend the wake, as it was held the following day. I could have dropped everything and attended, but it was clear to me that my immediate family did not want me there, because they did not inform me of my grandmother’s passing themselves. As a spiritual person, I am making my own meaning and saying goodbye on my own terms. I am okay with having my own healing time to process the event. It is hurtful, but I realized that it is better for me to be physically distant from members of my family for my own mental, emotional and spiritual health.

However, I found myself judging myself for not attending the wake. I told myself that “normal” families would drop everything when a member dies. They would move heaven and earth to be there. But, I had to remind myself, that 1. Normal doesn’t exist, and 2. I can process my life events in my own way. I asked myself, “Do I dwell in this event, or do I move on?” What I’ve done instead is I allow myself to sit in mindfulness and explore my emotions and bodily sensations. What I found was that I don’t really have a lot of feelings at this time. I haven’t spoken to my grandmother in many years due to a falling out. I mourn her death in my way, which is to be thankful that I have another ancestor on the other side, connecting with my other dead relatives and ancestors who are looking out for me. What she did as a human in this realm has little to do with her spiritual path. I know her soul is joined with other souls and is on my spiritual team, rooting for me and helping my blessings reach me from beyond.

Throughout the rest of this week, I have taken this time to explore what MY life means to me. What am I here to do. Who I am here to help. Why am I on this path. What is the meaning I am giving to my life and my existence. I realize that all of these questions are up to me to answer. And that is what is exciting to me about life.

The timing of all of this could not be more poignant for me. It seems that this is all unfolding in perfect order. I am challenged, I face the challenge, I move through, I come out on the other side. What does it all mean? I think it might mean: that I am capable of so much. I can endure a lot. I deserve the best. I am determined to live my best life, for myself, for members of my family who never acknowledged their power over their own lives. I heal for all of us when I heal. I heal for all of us when I decide I deserve more. I heal for all of us when I treat myself and others with respect.

Life challenges us when we are ready, and sometimes when we are not. There is always a lesson. Sometimes a triumph, sometimes a defeat, sometimes a heartbreak, sometimes a breakthrough. But always a lesson. I am so glad and lucky that I am able to see these lessons as they come. There are lessons that I don’t see or learn every time. And then I will repeat the lesson. But now, I have so much more grace for this process and understanding of its breadth and depth. I am no longer afraid. I am not afraid to “fail” because I know there is no such thing. There is only learning and experience.

Hello friends!

I’m not sure about you, but Mercury Retrograde has been handing me all the goodies over the last couple of weeks. I got the flu and was bed-ridden for a week. I am currently having car trouble, something to do with the oil in the car. I’ve also had issues with technology not working well. In fact, I wrote a beautiful blog post over the weekend about change and transition, and I accidentally deleted it! (But, if you are signed up for my newsletter, I re-wrote something similar and sent it out!).

I am sure you have had your share of hardships with this difficult astrological transition. But, I want to offer you some words of encouragement during this time. I have been reflecting on how I’ve been dealing with this round of Mercury Retrograde, and I was really glad to notice that, in my opinion, I have been handling it pretty well. When I took some time to think about what techniques have worked best for me, I found that I had 3 top tips. So, I want to share them with you, in the hopes that perhaps they can help you ride out this time with some more grace, confidence, alignment, and empowerment.

1. Mindfulness

A technique that I have been using to get through this time is to remember that I am a blip on the timeline of the world. While my life is important to me, all of the seemingly “huge” issues I am currently facing will not matter in the not-too-distant future. I can release any expectations I have about how things “should” be and just focus on how things are. One way to do this is to practice mindfulness. When something happens, instead of getting lost in thinking about ‘what if’s”, I find it helpful to stop, take a deep breath, and engage all 5 senses. I notice 5 things I can: see, smell, taste, touch, and hear in the moment. This helps by bringing the awareness into the direct experience you are having in the present moment, and leaving the overthinking behind. By enacting this skill, you are allowing your higher level brain waves to take a break, and letting the sensations of your body take your attention.

2. See the lesson

Another technique that helps me deal with Mercury Retrograde is to ask myself “What can I learn here?” Many times, when we are experiencing a hardship or difficulty, there is a lesson. We continue to receive lessons in order to put what we have already learned into practice. So, the next time you have a hard thing happen in your life, I invite you to pause, and ask yourself “What is this teaching me?” or “What is the lesson here?” and journal about it. There are lessons to be learned in every thing that happens. Use even the little things to try to learn more about your behavior and your reactions. When you do this, it can help prepare you for the next time a similar thing happens. You can start to understand your triggers and respond to the situation more skillfully than before.

3. Affirmations

While I was bedridden during the flu, I read A LOT of books. One of my all-time favorites is Louse Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life and I took the time while sick to flip through it again. In it, she describes a really powerful affirmation that can help. I have adopted it during Mercury Retrograde, and I think it is helping me feel a lot better about things happening in my life. During this section of the book, Louise talks about how we beat ourselves up in our mind constantly throughout the day. We don’t hesitate to reprimand ourselves, talk down to ourselves, and belittle ourselves. We spend so much time ruminating on all the problems in our lives. One thing she says in the book is, if we have enough time and energy to ruminate on the problem, then we have enough time to put that aside and do something nice for ourselves. Louise suggests that we interrupt the process of self-punishment with this simple affirmation: “I approve of myself.” When I have been having unkind thoughts about myself, or when I keep thinking about a problem over and over to seemingly no end, I have caught myself and replaced the thoughts by saying “I approve of myself. No matter what, I approve of myself.” I swear, this simple thought shift has made ALL the difference! I feel such compassion for myself in those moments. I remind myself that I am only human, and I am doing my best. And, I remind myself that I am worthy of care, gentleness and patience. A self-compassion practice has been shown to increase feelings of purpose and overall life satisfaction- all total plusses in my book!

Those are my top tips for dealing with this Mercury Retrograde. I hope you find them helpful now, or anytime of year that you are dealing with unpleasant situations. Don’t forget to reach out for help if you need it. It is ok to not be ok, and it is ok to ask for guidance during these times. I am here for you.

What are your tips for dealing with Mercury Retrograde? Comment with them below!

Love,

Elise