One of the first questions our front office hears when someone reaches out is:
“Do you take insurance?”…And our answer? No, we don’t.

That might sound surprising—maybe even disappointing at first. But have you ever stopped to wonder why some therapists don’t accept your insurance? This blog will review 3 reasons you don’t want your therapist to accept your insurance.

Believe it or not, insurance companies have a lot more control over your therapeutic experience than you may realize. Here are three major reasons why we’ve chosen to keep them out of the therapy room—and why that might actually be a better decision for you.

1. You’re Required to Be Diagnosed—Immediately

Most people don’t realize that insurance companies require a mental health diagnosis after the very first session—100% of the time.

That means even after just one meeting, your therapist must assign a formal diagnosis that becomes part of your permanent medical record. While that might not seem like a big deal for someone who has long-term mental health struggles, it’s not that simple for everyone.

For example, many of our clients come to us with symptoms related to trauma. Trauma doesn’t always show up in obvious ways—it can look like depression, anxiety, anger, sleep issues, or mood swings. One session isn’t always enough to distinguish between, say, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress. We believe in getting the diagnosis right, and that often requires more time and a deeper understanding of your full story.

When insurance dictates that a diagnosis be made right away, it can put unnecessary pressure on both client and therapist to rush a process that should be thoughtful and individualized.

2. Kids Can Be Labeled for Life

Now imagine that same pressure—only with a child.

We work with many children and teens who are simply going through life transitions: starting school, adjusting to changes at home, or learning to cope with big feelings. Sometimes, what they’re feeling doesn’t require a clinical diagnosis—it just needs time, support, and guidance.

But when insurance is involved, even a 5-year-old might receive a diagnosis like Generalized Anxiety Disorder just to justify treatment coverage. That label goes into their medical record and could follow them long after they’ve grown out of the struggle. We don’t take that lightly.

Mental health isn’t always a lifelong condition—especially in children. Sometimes, it’s just a moment in time. And we believe that moment deserves care without unnecessary labels.

3. Insurance Can Disrupt or Control Your Progress

When you use insurance, your care is subject to coverage limitations, billing errors, and approval processes. It’s not uncommon for claims to be denied over the smallest technical mistake—leaving you stuck with a bill or an interrupted therapy schedule.

Worse, when someone loses insurance or changes providers, therapy may have to stop altogether. Imagine finally gaining momentum in your healing, only to lose access to your therapist because your plan changed.

When therapists don’t accept insurance, none of that happens.
There’s no need to switch therapists if your coverage changes.
There’s no waiting on approvals.
And you and your therapist can decide together how often you meet, how long you meet, and what direction your sessions take—without a third party getting in the way.

Final Thoughts: Empowering You to Make the Best Choice

At the end of the day, your mental health care should feel safe, consistent, and personal. So the next time you hear that a therapist doesn’t accept your insurance consider wisely your next move. Whether you choose a therapist who accepts insurance or not, the most important thing is that you’re making an informed decision—knowing exactly what to expect.

For us, not accepting insurance is one way we protect your privacy, prioritize accurate care, and ensure nothing gets in the way of your progress. If that sounds like the kind of experience you want, we’d be honored to support your journey.

Anxiety attacks are scary and confusing. Your mind races, your body reacts negatively and you fear something is wrong. Many go to emergency rooms, urgent care clinics or hospitals to see what’s going on. This article will talk about common symptoms of an anxiety attack and how to calm down before getting some extra help from a mental health professional.

What is an Anxiety Attack?

An anxiety attack is a problem that begins in your thoughts. I know, strange right? The thoughts you create in your mind can come out through your emotions, which then comes out through your body. If you think anxious thoughts, you feel anxious feelings, which then leads to anxious actions or in this case, an anxiety attack. An anxiety attack is felt in the body, but starts with the racing thoughts. 

Common Symptoms of an Anxiety Attack.

The following are symptoms of anxiety attack:

• increased heart rate,
• increased temperature,
• heart racing,
• feeling on edge or fearful,
• racing thoughts,
• shortness of breath, and/or
• feeling as though you can’t breathe.

What does an Anxiety Attack Feel Like?

An anxiety attack will make you feel you can’t breathe and like there is something pressing firmly on your chest. Anxiety attacks are described by many as a stroke or small heart attack. It feels like your chest is in pain and something is wrong with your heart or lungs. You can’t catch you breath and begin to hyperventilate. Others times you feel you can’t breathe and worry you will pass out. Worse yet, is the fear of dying. These are the reasons many often go to a medical place first.

It’s usually with loads of medical testing and negative results doctors find it was likely an emotional or mental issue. It’s easy to understand when you take a step back. Look at the list of anxiety attack symptoms above- much of it involves your heart rate and breathing. Key word, heart and lungs. While we don’t have direct control over our heart and lungs, we do have control over something that controls those things.

How to Calm an Anxiety Attack

Breathing. Seems so simple right? Breathing is a quick way to control your heart rate. Deep belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing is really helpful, especially on the front end of an anxiety attack. While it’s helpful to use deep breathing during an anxiety attack, for better results, use it before hand.

Essentially, when taking a deep breath in you make your belly go out, but keep your chest the same. When letting the breath out, you deflate your belly (like an empty balloon) while keeping your chest the same. Belly breathing is only one of many coping strategies to control an anxiety attack. Your counselor can help you find more ways.

Remember the mind is where the anxiety is beginning. The body is just the innocent bystander who got dragged along. If you want to learn how to control your anxiety, reach out to us today. It can be very difficult to manage anxiety all by yourself. It doesn’t have to be an anxiety attack every day or nearly every day before you get extra help. There are ways you can control your anxiety without anxiety controlling you.

Thinking of your first session with your counselor can be scary. But rest assured, it’s not as scary as you think. This blog below will go over some expectations you can have for your first meeting with your new counselor.

How a Counselor is Different than a Doctor

To begin, a counseling appointment is very different than meeting with a doctor. A counseling session is a talk therapy session. You and your counselor will be conversating with the intent to go over as much information about you as possible. You will talk about what brings you to counseling and what you hope to get from it. Counselors do not prescribe medication, nor are we able to, so don’t count on us for that. We can, however, diagnose you with a mental health condition like generalized anxiety or post traumatic stress disorder. *If you are looking for medication for psyhological issues, you need a psychiatric appointment.

Counseling Paperwork

The first counseling appointment is about an hour or a little more. You will also have to complete loads of documents and forms (insurance info, informed consent, credit card authorization form, etc). Any good counselor will REQUIRE you to complete these before your session. 

Your counselor will spend some time reviewing the informed consent with you. This form goes through fees, what to expect from counseling, how to get a hold of your counselor, your rights, and limits to confidentiality. One of the most important things is that you know all of what you share in counseling is private and confidential—with the exception of a few things, mainly related to safety of yourself and others.

The Beginning of the Counseling Session 

Your counselor will ask you questions about things sticking out from your intake. Your counselor will get more information about how you grew up, your family and who is part of your family now. We want to know things that give you joy and things that really bother you. Most important, we want to know what brings you into counseling to begin with. Your counselor will talk with you and process different things to get a better understanding of your situation.

The End of the Counseling Session 

By the end of session, you and your counselor will be working to identify goals based on the reason you’re getting counseling. For example, the reason you are seeking counseling might be because of marriage problems and stress. The goal is geared towards what you hope to gain from your experience in counseling. An example of a goal for marriage problems might be to better control your emotions and temper with your spouse and work on stress relieving skills.

Counseling is Your Choice

Going to counseling is a voluntary decision meaning no one can force you to come. Your counselor will make recommendations about how often you should be seen or when to come back. But ultimately it is your choice to continue counseling or not. While others around may want you to come to counseling, it is your decision. If you’re under the age of 18, you and your guardian are in control of this choice.

Remember your counselor is a person, just like you. Your counselor does not have all of the answers, a magic wand, or a special pill to make all your problems go away. The goal is to change you: how you think, how you act, and how take control of your emotions. The focus will not be on changing your situation as much as it will be on changing you.

Ever hear people throwing around the word “trauma” or “traumatic” and wonder what that is. This article will give you a better understanding of what trauma is and how it impacts people in the long and short run.

There are some who have gone through traumatic experiences and assume everyone goes through things like that. So for many years, they don’t realize they have gone through trauma at all. 

Trauma is the exposure to seriously stressful and often life threatening situations. Many people who have experienced trauma have an overwhelming thought that something is very, very, wrong but have no ability, capacity, or understanding of how to stop it.

During the traumatic experience, the body’s internal response kicks off (sympathetic nervous system). Their brain becomes hyper focused to sensory level things like sights, sounds, smells, or sensations. Some who have gone through trauma remember fine details like the color of clothes they were wearing, the sounds that were around, and the smell of where they were. On the other hand, some completely shut down these experiences and have a hard time remembering anything at all.

Symptoms of trauma can leave a person feeling disconnected from others, easily irritable, emotional, hot tempered, withdrawn, distrusting, hopeless and even shameful. Some experience behavior like having a hard time sleeping, increased or decreased appetite, nightmares, avoiding certain places, situations or people.

While none of the above is helpful, these reactions are completely NORMAL to an abnormal experience. If anything in this article sounds like you, you’re not alone.

La Luz Counseling specializes in helping people who have gone through traumatic experiences in a slow and gentle way. It can be scary to look back to these moments when you’re alone and left to your own thoughts. Remember, the mind can be a dangerous neighborhood to be in alone– so at La Luz we promise to go with you back to and through these tough times. 

So you’ve decided it’s time to get counseling, but you’re not sure where to start?

Here are the 4 questions you must answer before choosing a counselor:

1. Will I use my insurance or go the private pay route?
2. What is the problem I’m facing?
3. What are their office hours?
4. How quickly do I want to start?

INSURANCE OR PRIVATE PAY?

 If you want to use your insurance, call the member services line on the back of your insurance card and ask them to send you a list of “MENTAL HEALTH/BEHAVIORAL HEALTH providers” in your network. From this list, do your research online and see if you can find a good match.

Contrary to what some may think, not every counselor takes your insurance. 

Be sure to call your insurance to see if they will cover counseling sessions [like phone or virtual counseling, couples counseling or group counseling]. 

If you are using the private pay, take a look at your finances. Many private pay counseling sessions can run you anywhere between $90-$160 per one-hour session. There are, however, other options such as sliding scale fees, hardship options, or lowered rates with clinicians. 

PRESENTING PROBLEM

If you had to sum up the problem you’re facing in 1 to 3 words, what would it be? Anxiety? Family problems? Marital issues? Child’s behavior? Whatever it is, try to narrow it down. Don’t diagnose yourself, but gain an idea so you can explain it to the person on the other end of the line. It’s important your counselor has experience with your issue. Counselors have specialties or niches; so again, contrary to what you may think, not every counselor has experience or works with your presenting problem. 

Also VERY important, if the person needing counseling is a child (under 18), specifically ask if the counselor has experience working with their age group (preschoolers/elementary aged/tweens/teens).

OFFICE HOURS

Counseling can be hard enough, don’t make things more complicated by having someone whose office location or hours are inconvenient for your life situation. If you live in a large city, there are actually more counselors than you may think. Check into different office locations, hours and days open during the week and make sure it compliments your life schedule. If needed, ask about virtual counseling as this could also help take the hassle out of a weekly drive to an appointment.

WAIT TIME?

Lastly, and perhaps most important, how quick is their turnaround time? How long will it take to set up an initial appointment? Some counselors have availability to see a new client asap, others have a wait list and some aren’t taking new clients at all. This is a tough trade off because some counselors are worth the wait. However, if you’re issue is urgent and pressing, the sooner the better.

We hope this list helps! Honestly, finding a counselor who matches with you might take some time. It is often one of the reasons most choose NOT to begin counseling because the process can be tough to start. Don’t lost heart. Now is the time to get help. Don’t interpret any potential obstacles in getting a counselor as some type of sign from the cosmos because it’s not!! Get help now.

Happy hunting!