My Services
“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.”
Individual Therapy
Our growth process is uniquely our own. My aim is to meet you where you are with compassion and curiosity for what you bring to explore, heal, and grow in the therapeutic relationship. In my view, therapy is about creating a courageous and trusting space to explore your concerns, hopes, and longings. Establishing this kind os safety — central to all good therapy — builds and is “co-created” over time when:
we feel and are listened to all the way — without interruption.
we are able to risk showing up in our complexity, our messiness, our wounding and connecting with all these parts of ourselves without worry that we are “too much” or “not enough”.
we feel safe enough to practice and grow in holding both change and acceptance, risk and trust, hurt — our own and another’s and repair.
There’s more, of course — these facets allows a way forward. In fact, the research (here) on what “works” in therapy underscores that relational trust between therapist and client is the most important common factor, regardless of therapy approach.
You are not alone in this courageous work. You have the capacity to author the story of your life in celebration of your strengths, complexity and humanness.
I will walk alongside you with warmth and a non-judgmental presence that builds on your strengths. An exploration of your present and your past, at a pace determined by you, offers the opportunity to clarity and decide that values and beliefs you wish to leave behind, those you wish to carry forward, walk towards and deepen. Together, we will look at the stories you hold in your heart about yourself.
You can read more about approach to therapy here, my areas of focus here, me and my training here.
Relational Therapy
Most intimate relationships — couples and partners, family members — develop patterns of interaction and, at one time or another, face challenges. Improving connection, communication, and intimacy; navigating the challenges of parenting; balancing work and family; and concerns about negative patterns or relationships to substances are common reasons you may decide to try therapy.
Relational therapy is a deeply courageous hopeful act in my view. Creating space together to witness one's own patterns, wounding, and hopes in relation to another, in a safe and supported container, offers the possibility for healthy, rewarding, and deeper connections and understanding.
Together, we'll work with what brings you to therapy and what you want most for your relationship. These approaches draw, more or less explicitly, on sense-making through witnessing, communication skills, and listening structures to understand underlying narratives, wounding, feelings, and needs.
Your hopes and goals, your strengths as a relationship, and the roles and stuck places you find yourselves in within the relationship will determine the direction our work takes.
The approaches I take to relational therapy draw from several common threads of systems and attachment theories, leaning on interpersonal and developmental neurobiology, and somatic and experiential patterns. The training I've received in these approaches to relational therapy, all share the following tenets:
Relationships are where we hurt, and also where we heal.
Our human relatedness — "nested" in systems (neurobiological, familial, cultural, sociopolitical, historical, and ancestral, as well as other lines of context within which we live currently or were raised — e.g., religion, race and ethnicity, gender, socioeconomics) — is where problems and patterns, hopes and dreams, are constrained or given room to flourish.
I lean most heavily on the following relational therapy frameworks:
PACT — Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy, with Stan Tatkin
RLT — Relational Life Therapy, with Terry Real
IFIO — Internal Family Systems from the Inside Out, with Toni Herbine-Blank
Parents
From the moment we learn we are to become a parent, intensity of emotions and expectations can bring intense emotions, running the gamut from immense joy and purpose to exhaustion, overwhelm, fear, and old and unresolved wounds, often from our own childhood, but also from cultural messaging and expectations that there is a “good parent” ideal we must meet.
Therapy can be a supportive space for parents along many lines. Many seek therapy and parent coaching to work with:
unresolved childhood wounding that rises to the surface as find ourselves learning all the time in this new identity
feelings of isolation, frustration, frightening thoughts and self-doubt.
the multiple and competing demands placed on us, at whatever stage of parenting throws us off, often re-activating old wounding and stories of “not enough-ness”. For new parents the pressures of this new role can overwhelm at the very time we are also navigating the immediate needs of a tiny and new completely dependent being in our care. And for each stage of parenting comes various pressures — we are bombarded by unreachable and unrealistic expectations in today’s world.
And supports are few. Shame, isolation, and fear can push us to our limits, overwhelming the joy.
Therapy and coaching can help you reconnect with your full self and your values to support your process of becoming the parent and person as parent that you wish to be.
I am passionate about supporting parenting and bring personal experience navigating the demands of a parenting and the difficulties involved in trying to become a parent, including:
the complex terrain of infertility, adoption, termination for medical reasons (TFMR) and miscarriage and the intensity of feelings, including grief, loss, anxiety and depression, so a part of this territory.
navigating stages of parenting — healthy differentiation and boundaries, struggles with learning, focus, and transitions (e.g., new school, a move, a diagnosis, belonging and identity nagivation).
I work with parents in multiple ways, depending on the needs and goals. From a '“systems” perspective, I view our work as collaborative and situated in larger contexts — familial, cultural and the social systems you, as parents, are navigating (e.g., school, technology).
As a parent and as an educator, I’ve worn many hats (more about me here). The following highlights experiences that have shaped my role specifically in supporting parents.
Founder of a parent run, nature-based pre-school, facilitator of parent-run meetings in school settings as a teacher in a “teacher-run” school.
As a life long educator, I have extensive experience working with the complexities and inequities of the education system, including early intervention programs, Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), 504 plans, and children for whom school is not a place of welcome, belonging, or feelings of success. I've facilitated playgroups, conducted observational and learning visits in school settings, collaborated on wraparound care teams that include parents, psychologists, teachers and other educational specialists.
Year-long participant in a Compassionate Communication PPLP (Parent-Peer Leadership Program), thus received peer training and supported, as well as facilitated groups with parents from a Non-Violent Communication with parent peers as well as family practice in “NVC Family Camp” settings.
Facilitated parent and educator focused book groups on topics most commonly at the intersection of developmental and cultural topics of interest.
To learn more about how I work with parents, as a therapist and as a coach please go to the Parents FAQ here.
INDIVIDUALS
FIRST SESSION | 30-minutes — complimentary
INTAKE SESSION | 75 minutes — $250
ONGOING SESSIONS | 50-minutes — $180
RELATIONAL WORK
(parents, couples, families)
FIRST & ONGOING SESSIONS
— 80 minutes — $300
— 50 minutes — $250
INITIAL INQUIRY
I offer a complimentary 30 minute first meeting (rather than 20 minutes) to because I’ve found this gives us time for getting a sense of my approach and your questions without rush
Payment collected through my online HIPPA compliant “Sessions Health” portal at time of service
I accept private pay and insurances.
I am in network with Premera and Lifewise
I can provide a “Super bill” for all other insurance you submit yourself to your insurance.
Cancellations must be made 48 hours in advance in order to avoid regular session fee charges.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Reach out through my contact form, email or call me to schedule a 30 minute introductory call.
Should you decide to begin therapy with me, I will send you an email overview of the intake materials you’ll receive from Sessions Health, a secure, HIPAA-compliant online system.
Look for an email from “support@sessionshealth.com” with the subject line: “Shelterwood Collective has invited you”. Follow the directions in the email to complete the paperwork that will remain secure in your Sessions portal.
I am alerted once your paperwork is complete and we then schedule our first meeting.
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I work with clients on a weekly cadence. The frequency of sessions may be more or less than once per week, depending on your clinical needs.
Consistency is integral to the therapeutic process. We will work together to find a consistent time to meet each week. Therapy sessions are 50 minutes for individuals, 80 minutes for relational configurations (e.g., couples, family members, and other “more than 1:1” arrangements) unless other arrangements have been made in advance.
If you arrive late to a session, you will be seen for the remaining time and will be charged the full fee we have agreed upon.
Once we have agreed upon a set time for us to meet, this time is set aside for you. Since this time is reserved for you, it becomes your financial responsibility. The same fee is collected for missed or canceled sessions as for attended sessions unless we have arranged in previous sessions that you will not attend on a particular date.
In the rare case of emergencies (i.e. medical or weather-related cancellations), you will not be charged for the session. And yet, of course, life is unpredictable, and I understand this. In an effort to create a sustainable and accessible practice, please note that my cancellation policy is 48 hours. If you are unable to make your appointment, 48 hours notice is required, or you will be charged the full session fee. Please note that insurance companies or other third-party payers will not compensate you for missed sessions.
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This depends on many things, but ultimately you decide how long you would like to be in therapy.
You have the right, at any time in the therapeutic process, to ask for a change of direction, to see a referral, to pause, or to end therapy.
Above all, therapy is
I believe that spending time to process an ending can be helpful and healing, as well as uncomfortable and easy to avoid.
I encourage you to discuss this in session.
care.you aren’t noticing progress along the way, we’ll work together to see what might be getting in the way.
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Structured, tool oriented therapies as we work with your needs: EMDR, Lifespan Integration and Trauma informed CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Each of these draw upon narrative and mindfulness components to various degrees.
To learn more please read about me and my training, therapy with me, and areas of focus.
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Do you see clients in-person?
I welcome clients in person whenever possible at Shelterwood Collective in Pioneer Square. I find the collective an inviting and warm space.
I also welcome clients from all of Washington state via telehealth. Sometimes, even when local, it makes sense to meet virtually.
We can talk through either option to best meet you needs.
Conversion to tele-health policy: On a case by case basis, requests to convert appointments from in-person to tele-health can be accommodated. In cases where the conversion takes place with less than 24 hours notice a $100 fee will be assessed. This fee may be waived on a case-by-case basis.
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Washington law requires licensed mental health professions to provide clients with an informed consent of the services we are providing, our practice policies, and their rights as a client. My informed consent paperwork reflects all of the state requirements outlined by the No Surprises Act (detailed below).
The upshot of “informed consent”: This informed consent paperwork provided prior to our first session together offers a framework for our work together and outlines a clear understanding about how our relationship will work, and what each of us can expect.
The therapeutic relationship is unique in that it is a highly personal and at the same time, a contractual agreement. Therapy is an active and creative process between therapist and client. Additionally, therapy is a relationship between people that works; in part, because of the clearly defined rights and responsibilities held by each person.
The informed consent is an ethical and legal “frame” that helps to create the safety to take risks and the support to become empowered to create change. As a client in therapy, you have certain rights and responsibilities that are important for you to know about. There are also legal limitations to those rights that you should be aware of. These rights, along with information about my background, training experience, therapeutic approach, fees, and insurance are described in the following sections.
No Surprises Act: Federal law requires certain healthcare providers, including LMHCAs such as myself, to provide current and potential clients with a “Good Faith Estimate” for the cost of treatment. This is intended to provide transparency to clients regarding their expected expenses and to protect them from surprises when they receive their bills.
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Insurance Information: I provide the following for those seeking to use insurance — "in network" and “out of network”.
I provide in-network mental health care with Premera and Lifewise as an affiliate of Shelterwood Collective PLLC (TIN #47-4860247 / NPI-2 #1538663604).
Insurance companies and other third-party payers may require that I provide them with information regarding the services I provide to you. This information may include the type of service provided, the dates and times of service, your diagnosis, treatment plan, a description of impairment, progress of therapy, and case notes and summaries. If you do not want me to provide your confidential information to your insurance company, let me know so that we can discuss alternatives.
Out of Network Benefits: I will provide you with a monthly “Super bill” that you can submit to your insurance company for reimbursement. You will be responsible for paying for each session in full at time of appointment.
You remain ultimately responsible for paying any deductible, copay, or other out of pocket expenses that your insurance provider may require.
Since coverage varies widely, I encourage you to ask these questions when calling your insurance company:
What are my mental health benefits?
Does a deductible apply?
(If yes) How much is my deductible?
What is my copay (or coinsurance)?
Does my plan have any special coverage for telehealth office visits?
Who processes benefits for claims submitted in Washington state?
Therapist: Jen Lindsay (License # MC61437685) : a member of a group practice, Shelterwood Collective. Their tax # is EIN # 93-3087213 and their NPI# 1114649795. Can you confirm that this group is in network with my plan?tion
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COUPLE & FAMILY THERAPY
When the relationship is the “client” — all members of the system (couple, family, etc…) contribute to and are impacted by the issues that are bringing them to therapy, the focus of counseling then is on the relationship and not on the treatment of a medical diagnosis. The chart is under both/all of your names (your relationship as the client).
I do not provide Superbills for this reason. We’d be happy to give you a receipt for the services rendered and you’re welcome to use your HSA card for payment.
I am happy to discuss your situation and the options available.
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I offer a few sliding scale spots:
$120-180 for couples.
$100-130 for individuals .
Please reach out to discuss this option
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There are commonalities across the coaching and therapy experiences. Both may focus on goals, behavior changes and awareness shifts. The main difference in in training requirements.
Earning a license as a professional therapist involves completing a Master’s program in counseling or a similar field, supervised practice in a practicum and internship, ongoing supervision until full licensure, and successful completion of qualifying exams, all governed by state or other licensing boards.
In the state of Washington state there are no required certifications or licensure processes.
Insurance companies require a formal clinical diagnosis. Licensed mental health professionals diagnose treat mental health conditions. Use of insurance and diagnosis in ethically and legally within the terrain of therapy; however not all therapy is covered by insurance.
Coaching focuses on goals, motivation, not medical treatment, so standard health insurance does not cover these services; however sometimes Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) will cover coaching.
We can discuss differences — your questions and your needs relative to these different routes.