Advance Counseling - San Diego

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you accepting new clients now?

Where are you located, please?

What type of therapy / counseling do you do?

How long does your type of therapy / counseling take?  

What is your training and how long have you practiced?

Do you accept insurance or TRICARE ?

How can I encourage my partner to join me?

Are you accepting new clients now?

Yes, we are, and I'd be honored to assist you .  However, my practice is almost full, so if I can't help you now, please accept my apologies.

Where are you located, please?

Our office is conveniently located in Hotel Circle South in Mission Valley, San Diego, California.  Please click here for a map and directions to easily see where we are.

What kind of therapy / counseling do you do?

I do what's known as brief, solution-focused therapy.  It's not designed to go on a long time .  Rather, it's designed to determine what the issues are quickly and then find solutions to them.  It is very interactive and educational.  I don't tend to just sit in the chair and nod and take notes.  You'll hear as much from me as I'll ask to hear from you.

At times, when counseling more than one person, I may use a systems approach.  This orientation believes that if something troubles one person, it cannot help but affect other important people in that person's life.  Balance between the needs of the individual, the couple, the family, and society is important to me.

How long does your type of therapy / counseling take?

Each person and couple is different and we treat our clients as the unique people they are.  Some problems can be resolved quickly and others may take some time. I am committed to work as briefly as possible.  Naturally, it also depends on how committed and dedicated you are to the process. 

I can only urge that you be patient with yourself and with me as I get to know you and your needs.Sometimes communication around problem areas can be difficult.  At these times, we will both need to maintain a dialogue until we reach an understanding of the difficulty.  If for any reason I cannot continue to be helpful, I will make every reasonable effort to assist you in finding other sources of help.

What is your training and how long have you practiced?

I am a fellowship-trained, California-licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (#41279) and have been in private practice since 1994.  I am also licensed in Colorado and Florida.  I hold an APA-accredited PhD in Psychology (Clinical), with a concentration in Health Psychology, from Fielding Graduate University; an M.A. in Clinical Psychology, with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy, from Pepperdine University; and a B.S. in Physics from Tulane University. 

I completed an APA-accredited clinical adult neuropsychology internship and six months post-doctoral fellowship training in pediatric neuropsychology.  A specialist in anxiety, anger management, chronic pain management (including fibromyalgia and lupus), hypnosis, marriage counseling and in treating post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) , I am a certified, experienced American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Provider and served as a volunteer counselor for Columbine Connections in Littleton, California.    I often am invited to appear on radio and television as an expert on various psychological topics.
 

Do you accept insurance?

Many people not familiar with the the medical and mental health systems do not realize their insurance records are often not as protected as they should be.  Diagnoses can stay in your record for years and be seen by people you would not otherwise authorize to see it.  At times, such unauthorized access has proven harmful to a person's employment status, or life and/or health insurance coverage.  We choose not put put our clients at such risk.

Therefore, in order to protect the confidentiality of our clients, as well ensure our clients' ethical treatment, we do not work directly with insurance companies, including TRICARE , Medicare and Medicaid.  It's far more important to us to protect our clients than to get more clients.  However, we do issue receipts you may use to file for reimbursement.

If you have any questions in regard to the above, just ask us.  We'll be happy to answer all your questions.

How can I encourage my partner to join me?

At times, when a couple is having troubles, one partner may want to seek professional assistance, yet the other may balk or even refuse to do so.  Men, in general, have more difficulty making the decision to get help.  Often this is because men sometimes feel they should be able to solve the problems on their own, or may think counseling is too "touchy-feely."

I invite each couple member to call me and discuss things before our first meeting.  Such phone conversations give each partner a clear idea of what to expect in our counseling process and the amazing things they can achieve with our guidance.  Also, they learn I do very practically-oriented counseling, which is anything but "touchy-feely."

To read what our clients themselves say, please click here.

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