Terms, approaches, and logistics — explained plainly.

Existential therapy asks big questions. What gives your life meaning? What are you avoiding? What would you do if you trusted your own judgment? It’s less about fixing symptoms and more about examining the frameworks underneath them.

Humanistic therapy works from a related premise: that you already have what you need to grow — my job as the therapist is to create the conditions for you to access it, not to hand you a technique.

In my practice these aren’t separate treatments; they’re a lens. We’ll spend time on what you believe, what you’re orienting toward, and what might be getting in your way — not just the surface distress.

CBT is the most-researched form of talk therapy. The core idea: thoughts, feelings, and behaviors shape each other, and changing any one of them affects the others. In practice, it means noticing patterns (the loop of thoughts at 3 AM), testing whether they’re accurate, and practicing new responses until they become more automatic.

I use CBT when someone wants concrete techniques to work with between sessions — thought records, behavioral experiments, structured exposure. It’s especially useful for anxiety and depression. Rarely my only modality, usually part of a blend.

ACT (pronounced “act,” not A-C-T) is a cousin of CBT with a different move at its center: not every difficult thought or feeling needs to be disputed or eliminated. Sometimes the work is to notice it, let it be there, and act on your values anyway.

I use ACT when someone’s stuck trying to get rid of a feeling before they’ll let themselves do the thing they actually care about. Anxiety about public speaking doesn’t have to go away before you give the talk — you can give the talk while anxious. That distinction, practiced, changes a lot.

Not a formally recognized modality, but a way of working that leans on philosophical traditions — existentialism, stoicism, virtue ethics, phenomenology — alongside the clinical tools above. It treats questions like “how should I live” and “what do I actually value” as therapeutic questions, not just academic ones.

It’s a natural fit for people who’ve done other therapy and want to go deeper into the why, or who think through life via ideas rather than emotions. My MA in political philosophy means I can meet you there if you want to go.

Two Washington State designations that confuse a lot of people:

• LMSW — Licensed Master Social Worker. Someone who’s earned a Master’s in Social Work and passed the state licensing exam.
• LSWAIC — Licensed Social Worker Associate – Independent Clinical. My current designation while I complete the supervised clinical hours Washington requires toward full independent licensure (LICSW).

“Associate” doesn’t mean less trained. I have the same graduate clinical education as a fully licensed clinician — the associate phase is post-graduate supervised practice, required by the state regardless of how experienced you already are.

Insurance reimburses associate-level clinicians at rates comparable to fully licensed ones on most plans. Your out-of-pocket cost isn’t meaningfully different.

After earning an MSW, Washington State requires associate-level clinicians to complete supervised clinical hours before independent licensure. Supervision means a licensed senior clinician reviews my cases, consults on complex situations, and signs off on my work.

In practical terms for you: you get a clinician with current training and a fresh perspective, plus the added benefit of my supervisor’s experience sitting behind the scenes. Your sessions are private — supervision happens separately, using de-identified discussion of clinical questions, not transcripts or recordings.

Mindful Therapy Group (MTG) is a Pacific Northwest–based network of independent mental health clinicians. Each clinician runs their own practice — our clinical work, style, and philosophy are our own — but MTG handles shared infrastructure: insurance credentialing, billing, scheduling, administrative support, and associate supervision.

For you, this means: insurance claims go through MTG, booking goes through MTG’s scheduler, and your clinical relationship is with me. When you see “billed through Mindful Therapy Group” on a statement, that’s the infrastructure layer — the therapy itself is mine.

A short phone or video call where we:

• Talk briefly about what’s bringing you in — you don’t need to prepare the full backstory
• I explain how I work and what therapy with me tends to look like
• You ask anything — credentials, modalities, insurance questions, scheduling, gut reactions
• We decide together whether to schedule a first session, or whether I should refer you elsewhere

It’s not a sales call. If we’re not a good fit I’ll say so directly and try to point you toward someone who is. Plenty of consults I do don’t become clients — not every match is right, and that’s fine. The 15 minutes is for figuring out whether to spend the longer minutes together.

Therapy conducted over secure video rather than in person. Washington State requires you to be physically located in WA during sessions (because I’m licensed here), but otherwise it works anywhere you have privacy and a stable internet connection. Sessions run through a HIPAA-compliant platform provided by Mindful Therapy Group.

Research consistently finds telehealth therapy roughly as effective as in-person for most concerns, with the obvious practical advantages: no commute, no waiting room, and scheduling that fits around a real working life.

• Copay — a flat amount you pay per session, set by your plan (e.g., $30/session regardless of the full session cost).
• Coinsurance — a percentage of the session cost you pay after your deductible is met (e.g., 20% of the negotiated rate).
• Deductible — the amount you pay out-of-pocket before your insurance starts contributing. Some plans waive the deductible for mental health; many don’t.
• In-network — your insurance has a contracted rate with the provider. Lower costs to you, and claims are billed directly.
• Out-of-network — the provider isn’t contracted with your insurance. You typically pay upfront, then submit for partial reimbursement.
• Superbill — a receipt with the diagnostic and billing codes your out-of-network insurance needs to reimburse you. I can provide one on request.

I’m in-network with Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, Regence, and UnitedHealthcare. If you have a different plan, the consult is a good place to talk through what out-of-network might look like for you.