Frequently Asked Questions

How does telehealth work?

We meet by secure video from wherever you are. You will get a link before each session and you join from a phone, tablet, or computer. I use SimplePractice, which is secure and built for healthcare, and there is nothing for you to install.

All you really need is a private space, a decent connection, and headphones if other people are home. Plenty of clients take sessions from a parked car, and that is completely fine.

I am licensed in Maine, which means I can work with you when you are physically located in Maine at the time of our session. If you travel or move, let me know and we will sort out what is possible before we schedule.

I am also licensed in New Hampshire and can see clients located there.

Do you take insurance?

I am an out of network provider and I do not bill insurance directly. Many clients are reimbursed by their plan for a meaningful portion of the fee.

Thrizer, my payment platform, can check your out of network benefits, estimate your real cost per session, file eligible claims for you automatically, and in some cases only pay your deductible. You can check your benefits on the Pricing page.

Reimbursement is ultimately between you and your plan, and I cannot guarantee what any insurer will pay. Checking your benefits before you start, using the tool on the Pricing page, is the best way to know what to expect.

There is a fuller explanation of why I work this way, and what it means for your privacy and your care, on the Pricing page.

What should I expect in a first session?

Less than you are probably bracing for. The first session is mostly me getting to know you and you getting a feel for what it is like to talk to me.

I will ask what brought you in now, what you have already tried, and what you are hoping is different six months from now. I will ask some background questions about your history, your health, and the people around you. You are allowed to skip anything. Nothing has to come out in the first hour, and there is no version of this where you say the wrong thing.

Toward the end we will talk about what regular work together might look like, how often we would meet, and where we might start. Some people leave the first session certain, and some need two or three before it settles. Both are normal.

If it becomes clear I am not the right fit, I will tell you and help you find someone who is.

What does EMDR treatment actually look like?

It rarely looks the way people imagine from the name.

We do not begin with reprocessing. The first phase is preparation, sometimes for several sessions: understanding your history, building skills for staying grounded, and making sure you can come back to steady before we go anywhere difficult. That groundwork is the treatment, not a delay before it.

When we do move into reprocessing, I will ask you to hold a memory in mind while you follow a repeating side to side movement with your eyes, or sometimes a tapping or an alternating sound. Then we pause and I ask what came up. Usually something has shifted, and often not in the direction you expected. We repeat that cycle. You do not have to describe the memory in detail, and you stay in control the entire time.

Sessions end with time to settle before you close the laptop. Over time, the goal is that the memory becomes something that happened to you rather than something happening to you now.