The Cause

our why

Why does anything need to be dismantled?

Why are we dismantling the mental health system?

Mental Health has a tumultuous history of intending to heal people and inadvertently doing them harm. In the United States, mental health has been operating within the confines of capitalism, which has resulted in people needing to be diagnosed and prescribed a certain number of sessions based on what evidence-based research has shown to be true of a sample of people.

There is a benefit to this: many providers who were profiting off of keeping people in counseling for years and years finally had to answer and show that the treatment was necessary. Oftentimes, people continue in counseling based on their provider’s recommendation and that can result in unnecessary treatment, when greed is involved.

However, the pendulum has now swung the other way and people not directly involved in a person’s journey of healing are dictating the number of sessions that are necessary for a person to heal. The problem is that everyone does not have the same journey toward healing and the only person who knows their growth and journey is the person themselves.

So what do you do differently to address this?

As a therapist, I walk alongside you in your journey providing you with a safe, private place to process what you are facing in your life while providing tools to address the different challenges in your way. I will provide you with a diagnosis, if you would like, but as long as you are paying out of pocket, I do not have to disclose it to insurance or any other entities.

If I am billing your insurance, I will have to provide a diagnosis and they will determine how many sessions you are allotted based on your diagnosis. We can appeal and ask for more sessions, but it is up to the insurance company to agree. Your diagnosis will stay on your health record (still confidential and requiring your authorization to release that information to others with some exceptions).

Okay, but what if I can’t afford to pay out of pocket?

I operate on a sliding-scale, meaning that people pay what they can afford. Our income changes over time and sometimes we can afford to pay more and other times we cannot afford to pay enough. Through communication with me during treatment, we can adjust cost in advance, as necessary.

Initially, we will discuss what you can afford. If you are financially able to pay my standard rate, then we will start there. If you are not, we will discuss what is affordable. Some places use a W-2 to determine income. I trust that you are being honest and straightforward with me, as it is a necessary place to start building our relationship.

At Dismantle, when you pay the standard rate when you are able, you allow others to receive affordable, accessible counseling. I make as much as I need to in order to pay my bills and live. I am not doing this work to become financially wealthy.

Is this affiliated with Dismantle Coffee?

When I started this journey, I initially started an ethical coffee company to help subsidize the cost of counseling. The time it took to run the coffee company, from roasting the beans to making the packaging, left me with little time to provide counseling and help people as I needed.

I am not abandoning that journey. I am leaving that to people who are fighting that fight at Onyx Coffee Lab. Please support their work as they move forward in empowering farmers and growers around the world.