4 Things You Should Know Before Your First Therapy Appointment

You have decided to go to therapy, excellent! It is almost never too soon. Most of us wait and suffer for too long before we get the help we need.

Maybe it’s your first time, or you’ve been to therapy in the past. Either way, it helps to be prepared. Before your first therapy appointment, here are four things you should know.

Is therapy covered by your health insurance?

To find out, contact your health insurance carrier (Anthem, Cigna, etc.) and ask for details about mental health coverage (sometimes called “behavioral health”). You should ask:

• how many sessions are covered,

• what are your deductibles and co-pays

When you use health insurance to pay for therapy, your therapy provider has to submit information about your condition to the insurance company. Be sure you are comfortable with that.

If you are paying out of pocket, you should know the provider’s rate. Though therapy arrangements vary, you should generally be comfortable paying that rate once per week. The same is true of any co-pay you have through your insurance.

How does "out-of-network" coverage work?

Many therapy providers are not paneled with insurance companies. In other words, they are not "in-network" with a particular insurance carrier and do not "take insurance."

Therapy sessions with "out of network" providers may still be reimbursed by your insurance. You would pay for sessions at the provider's rate and then submit claims to your insurance for reimbursement. To determine your "out-of-network" benefits, contact your insurance carrier and ask:

• what is your "out-of-network" deductible?

• what is their rate of reimbursement per session, after the deductible is met?

Therapy is about “fit”

Therapy is personal, feeling connected to the provider helps it to be effective. When working with your therapy provider, you should feel safe. Do they have the appropriate expertise and does their interpersonal style work for you? In general, in order to feel comfortable you should feel like your provider is “in your corner” and knowledgeable about the issues that bring you to treatment.

To get the most out of therapy, be prepared to do work

It is best to begin therapy expecting to do emotional work, and in most cases also behavioral work. Emotional work typically entails processing, and feeling, complex thoughts and emotions, including ones you might have been avoiding. Behavioral work means doing something new and different between therapy sessions. Therapists are great at knowing what sorts of things are generally helpful (coping strategies, behavioral changes, etc.). The work of individual (and couples) therapy is applying it to you, in your daily life, in your body, in your nervous system.

Therapy is personalized and personal

There is only one you. Even if you have similar problems as someone else, what “worked” for a friend may not work the same way for you. You might see results more rapidly, or more slowly than someone else. Many many factors impact therapy outcomes. That is why therapy is tailored to your needs and your life circumstances.

If you have questions about your first therapy appointment, please don’t hesitate to ask your provider. Providers vary in terms of their process and approach. If you’d like to know what to expect, ask the provider during your initial consultation.

Given the importance of fit to the therapy relationship, Dr. Anna Yam offers a free consultation to help you determine if working together could work for you.