Fee. My current fee for a 50-minute hour of therapy with an individual or a couple is $140. This normally covers additional time spent reviewing your case, preparing for your sessions, helping with insurance billing, consulting with your other providers (as needed and with your written permission), and providing brief telephone check-ins.
48 hour notice. If you need to cancel, or change the day, time, or length of your appointment, please call at least 48 hours in advance, or you will need to pay your usual fee for the hour. For example, to cancel a 3:00 pm Monday appointment, leave me a voice mail message absolutely no later than 2:59 pm on Saturday. To change a 3:00 pm Monday appointment to a different time on the same day, or to a different day, call by 2:59 pm on Saturday, or plan to pay for the new appointment PLUS the hour reserved for the original appointment. Please use voice mail (anytime, 24/7), NOT e-mail, to make, change, or cancel appointments. Please keep my telephone number handy; Directory Assistance can be unreliable. This business policy is based on the overall costs involved in reserving appointment times, so there are absolutely no exceptions, and it applies regardless of your reason for canceling, even if an emergency entirely beyond your control keeps you from coming to the appointment, or from calling the full 48 hours in advance. If you are unable to get to my office but will be available by phone, one way to make use of the hour you are paying to reserve, is to call me as far in advance as you can and request that it be a phone session. If you are unable to call until your appointment time has already passed (no-show), please do let me hear from you as soon as possible, to let me know you are okay, and to confirm your next appointment.
Payments. Payment is due at the time of your appointment. If an insurance policy or other third party reimburses you for all or part of my services, you are still responsible for making a full payment to me at each session. A late fee of $10 will be added to any fee that is not paid or postmarked within 7 days of the appointment. (For example, if you have an unplanned phone session, or a late cancellation, you might prefer to pay me at your next weekly appointment. However, should you miss that second appointment, you would then need to get the payment postmarked, or sent via PayPal, that very same day to avoid a late charge. A more reliable method would be to mail or PayPal the fee as soon after the original appointment as possible. Delivering a payment in person is never an option, unless I have offered to meet you at the office to receive it at a specific time; for the privacy of my office-mate, my neighbors, and my other clients / visitors, please never drop by the office unannounced.) Another late fee will be applied for every additional 30 days that a fee is unpaid. Returned check fees are $20. Making payments via PayPal.com to my email address BJCourtney@earthlink.net is always an option if you wish to pre-pay (for example, for a planned phone session), or if you need to get a payment to me in time to avoid a late fee; add $5 to your payment as a convenience fee.
Fee reductions and discounts. A partial fee reduction (sliding scale) may be available if you qualify based on your income. You are responsible for letting me know about any changes in your financial situation, and they may result in a change to your fee reduction. All fees, on the sliding scale or not, will be raised by a nominal amount approximately once a year. I will give you at least 30 days' notice of any fee raise. Occasionally, I offer an additional discount to clients who commit to regular weekly appointments during certain specific, non-peak, daytime hours. If you are receiving such a discount, and need to stop attending every week, or need to change your appointment time, the discount will no longer apply. There is no fee reduction or discount for any sessions for which you receive full or partial insurance reimbursement (including sessions applied toward your deductible).
Telephone contact. There is normally no additional fee for brief, occasional telephone check-ins between sessions. I do my best to return all calls within 24 hours (usually much sooner) after they are received on my confidential voice mail, unless I am out of town (I will try to notify you of those times). The fee for a 50-minute telephone appointment is the same as an in-person appointment. Planned phone sessions are to be paid in advance; unplanned phone sessions must be paid within 7 days.
El Cerrito office. The house in front of this cottage-style office is a private residence. Please help maintain good relations with the neighbors in front and allow them their privacy by taking care to be quiet when walking by their house, and by not parking in their driveway, knocking on their door, or otherwise disturbing them. Please do not drop by at times when you do not have an appointment. To send me a payment, or any other mail, please use my mailing address: PO Box 453, El Cerrito CA 94530-0453. The El Cerrito office is a scent-free environment. Due to multiple chemical sensitivities on the part of some clients and practitioners who share this space, please refrain from wearing perfume, cologne, or other scented personal care products on the day you attend therapy, and please do not smoke anywhere on the property, indoors or out.
Drugs. Please attend therapy sessions with a minimum of 24 hours free from drugs and alcohol, except for medications prescribed by a physician. If you are in recovery, think you might be having problems with drugs or alcohol, or are taking any mood-altering medications, please let me know so that we can discuss how this might affect your therapy.
Confidentiality. Identifying information about you will not be given to anyone, with these exceptions:
- If you sign a written consent form allowing me to discuss your case with a specific person.
- If I must make a legally required report about abuse of children or dependent or elderly adults.
- If there is imminent danger of your doing serious physical harm to yourself or others.
- If I receive a valid subpoena from a judge (not an attorney).
- If you have a medical emergency at my office.- If you see me for couple or family therapy, confidentiality does not include my keeping secrets from those who attend conjoint sessions. If you share information with me privately, please be prepared to discuss it in our next session.
Limitations of therapy. Psychotherapy has helped many people and has a high satisfaction rating among consumers overall. However, it is unethical and unrealistic for a therapist to guarantee results. Given the number of factors involved in mental health and the health of relationships, there is a possibility that you will not meet all the goals you set out to achieve in therapy. As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I cannot legally advise you on medical or legal matters, but I can refer you to other professionals who can. Marriage and Family Therapists consider it unethical to advise clients on whether to remain in their marriages or relationships.
Informed consent. When you consent to be a psychotherapy client, you do so voluntarily. Some of your rights include (1) asking my opinion about your progress, (2) making your own decisions about your life, and (3) having a relationship that is exclusively therapeutic.
Termination. You have a right to terminate therapy at any time. The ending can be one of the most enriching and important stages of a therapeutic relationship. To get the most out of the whole process, please talk with me in advance when you are thinking of stopping. That way, we can 1) explore any mixed feelings you may have about continuing, or any dissatisfaction you may have with the way your therapy is going, or 2) make a plan together to review the progress you’ve made and celebrate the completion of this stage of your growth and self-care.
