Fees and Insurance

How much does counseling cost?

When you start looking around, you’ll find a wide range of counseling fees in the area. We try to keep our fees mid-range for average fees for the area (typically around $100-$150 per session for a pre-licensed clinician). Typically, highly specialized and very experienced therapists are going to charge more. Newer clinicians who don’t have as much time under their belt or as extensive advanced training will have lower rates than more seasoned clinicians.

What are Pivotal Counseling’s rates?

Pivotal Counseling is a fee-for-service (“cash-pay” or “self-pay”) clinic. We accept cash, check, or debit/credit cards (including FSA/HSA cards).

Session fees vary from clinician to clinician depending on their level of experience and their credentials.

All of our clinicians offer a free, 20-minute consultation. Consultations are a chance to meet the clinician, ask questions, make sure you feel confident, and ensure that the clinician will be a good fit for you all before having to pay for any services.

Our current rates are as follows:

  • Clinical Intern Therapists

    • Joseph Noelliste (beginning January 13th, 2025)

      90 Minute Assessment and Intake: $80
      50 Minute Session: $80

  • Therapists with Advanced Credentials

A good faith estimate noting these charges will be made available to you upon scheduling a paid service or upon request.

Can I use my insurance?

While we are out-of-network, we are absolutely an insurance-friendly practice! We offer two great options for clients to leverage their insurance benefits with us. We find that 70-90% of our clients are eligible for some level of reimbursement!

Option 1: Mentaya

We’ve partnered with Mentaya to make submitting out-of-network claims as simple and easy as possible to get reimbursed under your out-of-network benefits. Simply create an account and let us know. We cover the monthly membership fee with Mentaya. You cover the fee for Mentaya to submit your fee to your insurance (5% of the session fee for each session submitted). If your insurance rejects the claim, Mentaya reimburses the fee.

To check your out-of-network benefits, just use the benefits check widget included here.

Option 2: Superbills

You can also request we issue you a superbill which will include all of the information you need to directly submit your request for reimbursement to your insurance yourself. Just let your provider know you’d like to receive superbills and we’ll get it all set up for you.

To find out if your insurance offers out-of-network benefits without using Mentaya, you’ll need to give them a call. We walk you through what to ask them here: how to ask your insurance about out-of-network coverage.

Why are we out-of-network?

Of all the questions we get asked about fees and insurance, this is the most common. And for good reason!

There are a number of reasons. They range from the requirement to place a diagnosis on your permanent medical record to privacy of records to insurance companies deciding whether you can receive treatment or not or how much treatment. For more information on this, read through our page on Why Pivotal Counseling Isn’t “In-Network”.

Frequently Asked Questions about
Fees and Insurance

  • In short, because we treat our intake sessions as intakes while many other places treat those more consultation and paperwork time. You might spend 15 minutes of your free 50 minute intake session filling out paperwork which the therapist then takes time to review. You end up with perhaps 20 minutes of talking before scheduling your next session.

    Our intakes are different. We’ve already met you in the consult. Our secure client portal means you're able to fill those items out at your convenience rather than rushing because your appointment time is ticking away. It also means your therapist reviews your paperwork ahead of time instead of burning your appointment reading your questionnaire for the first time.

    All of this means we can sit down, touch on just the legal and ethical points we’re required to review in person, and then spend the bulk of your 90 minute intake actually getting the process started.

  • All of our clinicians offer a limited number of sliding fee slots in their caseload. These are available on a first-come, first-served basis. We also frequently have clinical interns on staff who are able to offer lower fee services than our other clinicians. They are also able to take on more sliding scale clients than our regular clinicians.

    To inquire about these sliding scale slots, contact us directly.

  • Counseling is expensive because you are working with highly trained professionals, the mental health equivalent of a nurse practitioner. We are here to help you to heal from the issues you are experiencing and become the best you that you can be. Don’t let the cost of counseling or therapy services scare you away. This is an investment in your and/or your relationship’s immediate health and long-term well-being.

  • This is a really common question and one that doesn’t have an easy answer. Some people come in, dig deep on one specific thing, and wrap up their work in six or 8 sessions. Others come in with a number of challenges that have been going on for years or decades and that takes time to address.

    Our goal isn’t to keep you in therapy forever. Our job is to work ourselves out of a job by helping you meet your goals, make the changes you are wanting, and help you move forward in your life.

  • Most people have more questions before starting this process, especially if it is their first time seeing a counselor. You can check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for many common questions. You can also just give us a call or send us a message. We return all messages and strive to do that within one business day and we’re always happy to answer any questions.

  • Yes, absolutely. We have quite a few clients who do this.

 
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