FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Creative Counseling Center is a private pay practice.

OUT-OF-NETWORK: As a private pay practice, Creative Counseling Center is out-of-network with all insurances and does not accept or bill insurance companies, including Medicaid. Except in cases of victim compensation, we request that fees be paid at the time of service. Although we do not accept insurance nor submit invoices to insurance companies, we will provide a monthly “Superbill” statement containing all pertinent information and insurance coding that you can submit to your insurance company. Depending on your “out-of-network” benefits, you may be reimbursed a portion of what you paid us, or the amount you paid might apply toward your deductible. How it is applied is based solely on your insurance benefits plan. We recommend calling your insurance company to understand your out-of-network benefit specific to behavioral or mental health.

At this time, I am an out of network provider and am not contracted with any insurance providers.

VICTIM COMPENSATION:  We accept Victim Compensation. If you are, or a family member is, the victim of a crime that occurred within the last 12 months, please call us to see if you might qualify for victim compensation. If you are approved by Victim Compensation, we accept what Victim Compensation pays for your services, and we will not ask you to pay any difference or co-pays.

GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE:  You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical care will cost.

Under the federal No Surprises Act, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance, or who are not using insurance, an estimate for medical items and services.

● You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.

● Make sure your health care provider gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing at least 1 business day before your medical service or item. You can also ask your healthcare provider for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.

● If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.

● Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.

For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call 303.894.7490.

The cost is $135 for individual or play therapy per 50-minute session, and $165 for couples or family therapy per 50-minute session. On occasion, family or couples therapy may be scheduled for a longer duration depending on the circumstances and the $165 per-session rate will be prorated.

There are benefits to paying out-of-pocket for therapy. Your mental health information is kept confidential, between you and your therapist. You and your therapist work together without your insurance company interfering with your treatment. Additionally, there is no cap placed on the number of sessions allowed and you get to decide when your personal treatment goals have been met, not your insurance company. And finally, you also have the freedom to select a provider you click with.

We recommend asking your insurance company about out-of-network benefits for mental health. Your specific health plan may reimburse you a percentage of what you’ve paid or it may apply to a deductible. We can provide you with a “superbill” statement you can submit to your insurance company, if you choose.

GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE

You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical care will cost.

Under the federal No Surprises Act, health care providers need to give patients who don’t have insurance, or who are not using insurance, an estimate for medical items and services.

● You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.

● Make sure your health care provider gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing at least 1 business day before your medical service or item. You can also ask your healthcare provider for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.

● If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.

● Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.

For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call 303.894.7490.

Therapy is very helpful to most individuals. Some may not find therapy to be helpful to them. Therapy is very much a collaborative process between the client and their therapist. Most find the support and guidance of a trained and experience therapist helps them feel better, increases their ability to cope with their circumstance, and implement solutions for positive, lasting change. 

A professionally-trained therapist is able to listen objectively and confidentially to your concerns. They are trained to listen in a very careful and specialized manner and are often able to help you recognize patterns in your life and help you change or shift those patterns. A therapist is often able to challenge you, respectfully, to recognize how distorted perceptions or feelings from the past might be affecting current relationships and situations, thereby allowing you to grow and change so that those same distortions don’t cause continued problems or concerns. A therapist helps you make examine things from all the angles that are important to you.

It’s always good to have the understanding and support of family and friends, but they are less likely to be able to provide objective feedback, psycho-education, or brainstorm solutions. When you share your personal thoughts and feelings with friends and family, they may have strong feelings or expectations about how you should proceed which can interfere with your freedom to decide what is best for you. There is an advantage to being able to look at all facets of your thoughts and feelings in private with a therapist, who is a third party and not in your circle of friends or family, with the knowledge that your conversations will remain completely confidential.

There are countless situations where the support of a therapist may help your child. Significant life events, like losing a parent, going through a divorce, relocating to a new area, or experiencing any type of abuse, trauma or neglect can all indicate the need for therapy. We encourage parents to take advantage of our free phone consultation to determine if therapy is right for your child.

Play therapy refers to many treatment methods, all of which make use of one or more of the natural benefits of play. A young child is not at an age where they have learned to identify and label their emotions, let along sit still and communicate their emotions to a therapist. Play therapy is a special therapeutic approach for working with children, adolescents, their families and/or care providers, taking the child’s attention away from what they think they should say and allowing them space to actually communicate through play. 

Play is a natural medium for children. Typically, children have not developed the cognitive or verbal skills that adults use to discuss feelings, emotions, and experiences in therapy. A safe and structured playroom environment is established where children are encouraged to play in ways that reveal their concerns, problems, and issues they are struggling with.

Come on in… we would be happy to give you a tour of our play rooms. 

It’s difficult to answer this question without learning more about you. Everyone is different, therefore everyone’s therapeutic journey is unique to them based on their needs and goals. Some come in with a very limited specific challenge they want help with while others want to examine many issues in their life for healing and personal growth. Additionally, we will always move forward at a pace you are comfortable with.

During your first session, you and your therapist will explore and discuss your expectations and goals for therapy—that will give you a beginning idea of how long therapy might take.

It’s not uncommon for people to enter therapy unsure what exactly they want to work on. They may know that something is wrong but can’t quite identify what the problem is or where to begin. In that case the first goal of therapy is to help you clarify what is going on. Therapists are very skilled at asking the right questions to help you focus inward and find the problem. After a few sessions you will probably have a much better idea of what direction you want to go in and what goals you want to set. As with most things, it is important to set a direction and goals as soon as you can in order get the most out of your therapy.

You are able to cancel or reschedule appointments by contacting your therapist or by leaving a voicemail. Any appointments that are not canceled or rescheduled 24-hours prior to the session will be billed at the full rate.

It’s important to feel comfortable talking with your therapist and that they are genuinely interested in you. Your therapist should be experienced and licensed, or working toward licensure with an approved supervisor, at a minimum. We encourage our clients to interview their therapist like you would with any other profession to make sure they are a good fit for both of you. Check out blog post for interviewing questions to ask your therapist.

People go through difficult circumstances in their lives without seeking therapy all the time. They gather together their strength and resilience to handle things on their own with the support of friends, family, and their faith community. Sometimes though that is not enough. It is a sign of strength to seek out therapy help if/when you realize that you are not able to handle things as well as you would like or you are experiencing too much stress. At those times a good therapist can help you handle the difficult situation better and learn ways to be stronger, more resilient, and able to handle similar issues in a more healthy way in the future. 

LPC: Licensed Professional Counselor*

LMFT: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist*

CACII: Colorado Addictions Counselor II

RPT: Registered Play Therapist

EFTCert1: Emotional Freedom Technique, Certified Level 1

*LPC and LMFT licenses indicate that a person has obtained a Master’s degree (MS or MS) in a behavioral science discipline at a nationally accredited university. Both LPCs and LMFTs are required to have also completed 2,000 hours of supervised experience in counseling with individuals, couples, and families, and must pass their exams by their respective regulatory boards to be eligible for licensure in the state of Colorado.

Once you have scheduled your first appointment with us, please print out the Intake Form from our website, complete it at home, and bring it with you to your first appointment. You can also complete this information when you arrive for your initial appointment if you wish. In that case, you should plan to arrive about 15-minutes early to give yourself enough time to complete the form in our waiting room before your appointment starts.

When you arrive for your first appointment, check in with our office manager. She will let us know that you have arrived, and which therapist you are scheduled to see.

You will meet with your therapist in a private confidential office setting where you can talk about anything you wish. At the beginning of our first meeting we will need to spend a few minutes discussing confidentiality, fees, and disclosure and consent issues. Once those matters are out of the way, we will want to know about what brings you to counseling. We will also want to know what expectations you have for this counseling as well as any concerns you may have.

During your first meeting we will explore with your history to get a sense of your background, current circumstances, significant events in your life, and what you see as your strengths and weaknesses. We will spend quite a bit of time talking about the challenges that you are currently facing and want counseling help with.