Question 1

What are your rates?

Accepted Answer

My rate is $225 per 50 minute session.  I am not paneled with any insurance companies, though I can provide a superbill if you can get reimbursed for the cost through your insurance provider.  The amount is due at the start of the session, though I often don’t charge until the session is over.  I currently accept fees by Venmo, Zelle or cash/check.  You may cancel sessions within 48 hours of the scheduled time without penalty; if within 48 hours, I charge the full session rate.

Question 2

Are sessions available in person or online?

Accepted Answer

I currently only do tele-health sessions.  I can see clients who reside anywhere in California.

Question 3

Why do people go to therapy?

Accepted Answer

Most often people come into therapy because they have discovered or are discovering something in their lives that they would like to change.  It can be a communication pattern or a habit; it can be a way of thinking of themselves; it can be how they are in relationships; it can be coming to terms with a loss and how to be in acceptance with that loss. And sometimes it is something less definable–a need for a greater sense of purpose, or a set of feelings that are uncomfortable.  In all of these cases, therapy provides a safe place outside of their regular lives for people to process where they are and where they would like to go.

Question 4

What is therapy?

Accepted Answer

Therapy is a tool used to help move thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors from an unconscious space to something more conscious.  From that conscious space we can think about why we hold those thoughts and decide whether those thoughts still serve us.  None of those thoughts are wrong, and they may still serve us.  But when we are conscious of our thought patterns, we have the opportunity to make a choice about them that we don’t have when something is unconscious.

I focus on transitions because the thought patterns we hold on to can get in the way of life transitions, whether that's moving from high school to college, moving in and out of relationships, changing jobs, losing of someone important to you, or going through major life changes.

Therapy as I practice it is not an emergency service.  If you are in need of emergency care (physical or psychological), please see the Resources page.

Question 5

How do you practice therapy?

Accepted Answer

I use a lot of different methodologies, some very structured like Dialectical Behavioral Therapy or Internal Family Systems, and others more exploratory, like  psychodynamic or existential.  The common theme, however, is that I do everything I can to create a safe space where my clients can be vulnerable.  This means making sure I am meeting standards of confidentiality, that sessions times and places are clear, and that once in the safe space, the client feels accepted, listened to, and understood.

Question 6

How long and frequent is therapy?

Accepted Answer

A session is 50 minutes long.  I tend to start wrapping up about 45 minutes in so that a client has a few minutes to gather themselves before they leave the container we’ve been sharing for the duration of the session.

I prefer to see clients weekly for the first 3 sessions in order to establish trust and rapport, and at that point a client and I would jointly decide whether to continue weekly or move to something less frequent.  I rarely see clients more than once a week because I believe going out and living with what comes up in therapy is part of the therapeutic process.

Question 7

How do I know when I’m done with therapy?

Accepted Answer

In the first few sessions, a client and I will set up therapeutic goals.  We’ll continue to review them at regular intervals.  It is up to the client to decide if those goals have been met, though sometimes I will intervene if I think that therapy may no longer be serving the client.

Some clients have seen me for just a few sessions for something really specific; others have seen me for a few months or a year for a life transition; others keep updating their therapeutic goals and have seen me for years.  The advantage to being with a therapist long term is that the therapist can observe long term patterns of thoughts or feelings that re-emerge, especially in new contexts.

John Hedley

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS