One-on-one counseling for a wide range of concerns including anxiety, depression, trauma & PTSD, stress, grief, life transitions, low self-esteem, FND, chronic pain, OCD & compulsions, ADHD, relationship issues, sex therapy, and personal growth.
Couples therapy for all relationship stages. We help with communication problems, conflict resolution, trust & intimacy issues, infidelity recovery, parenting differences, blended families, life transitions, and rebuilding connection.
Therapy for teens dealing with anxiety, depression, ADHD, school stress, social challenges, self-esteem, identity, trauma, family conflict, mood changes, and more. We help teens build confidence, coping skills, and emotional resilience.
Play therapy helps children express feelings, process emotions, and heal from challenges such as anxiety, trauma, behavioral concerns, ADHD, grief, and life changes in a safe, developmentally appropriate way.
Family therapy improves communication, resolves conflict, and strengthens relationships. We help families navigate parenting challenges, behavioral issues, teen concerns, grief, and major life transitions together.
Therapist-led groups for anxiety, depression, grief, chronic pain, Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), herpes (HSV), parenting, trauma recovery, relationship support, and personal growth. Find community, hope, and support.
Interactive workshops on topics like stress management, relationships, communication, parenting, anxiety, trauma, self-esteem, sexuality, boundaries, and personal growth. Practical tools you can use in everyday life.
High-quality CE courses for therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other mental health professionals. Expand your clinical skills with evidence-based training from experienced experts.
At The Center for Growth, individual counseling is personalized to your unique needs and provides a supportive space to explore challenges, gain insight, and develop healthier coping strategies. Therapy is collaborative, meaning your therapist works with you to identify goals and approaches that align with what matters most to you.
Understanding ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects children, teens, and adults. ADHD can influence attention, focus, impulse control, emotional regulation, organization, and executive functioning. These challenges often impact school performance, work responsibilities, relationships, and overall well-being. ADHD is not a lack of motivation or effort. It reflects differences in how the brain processes information and manages attention and behavior.
Anxiety is part of being human. It’s the mind’s natural ability to imagine, anticipate, and plan in order to keep us safe. When functioning well, anxiety helps us prepare for challenges, avoid danger, and stay motivated. For example, worrying about an upcoming exam may push someone to study harder and perform better.
When anxiety becomes overwhelming, persistent, or out of proportion to real-life situations, it can interfere with relationships, work, physical health, and overall quality of life.
If anxiety is controlling your life rather than supporting it, therapy can help.
At The Center for Growth, licensed clinicians specialize in evidence-based anxiety therapy for children, teens, and adults. Treatment is tailored to the specific type of anxiety, the age of the client, and the psychological patterns driving symptoms.
When you think of depression, sadness may first come to mind. But depression is much more than the ordinary sadness you might expect someone to feel after losing a job or failing a test. A mood disorder, depression is deeper and more persistent than typical bouts of feeling sad.
Depression tends to be persistent, involving prolonged feelings of sadness, emptiness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in activities. Depression affects every part of you, from your emotional well-being to your physical health, even showing up at times as physical pain and digestive issues.
What is Functional Neurological Disorder (FND)?
Functional Neurological Disorder, according to The Mayo Clinic, is a condition that presents with neurological symptoms such as weakness, abnormal movements, seizures, difficulty swallowing, and sensory changes. This condition is not a neurological or medical condition, but the symptoms are very much real. In other words, a person’s brain is not sending and/or receiving the correct signals. Although FND is not considered a neurological disease, the problem occurs in the functioning of the nervous system. Metaphorically speaking, imagine the person as a computer. The hardware of the computer is intact, but the software, for some unknown reason, is glitchy. The origin of the glitch could be a virus or some other unknown problem. To diagnose a person with FND there must be clear evidence or incompatibility with neurological diseases. FND is considered a rule-in diagnosis, not a rule-out diagnosis. More research is needed to better understand the condition. Functional Neurological Disorder is typically diagnosed by a neurologist.
Grief Therapy
Everyone responds to loss differently, and depending on the individual and the severity of the loss, one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors around their loss can be difficult to manage alone. When coping with the loss of a loved one, time, and the love and support of friends and family around you are key, however when that’s not enough, having an unbiased professional can help you process the loss, help you understand why you are reacting this way, and how to better manage your symptoms moving forward. There is a common misconception out there about grief therapy, however. Many clients who seek out grief therapy share that they feel a reluctance because they’re trying to feel “less sad” and believe that the coming to therapy to talk about their pain and loss will only make their grief and pain worse. Here at the Center for Growth, our approach to grief therapy is designed to help feel safety and support in exploring your loss and sadness with the intention learning better ways to manage your symptoms and to live your life.
Counseling for the LGBTQIA+/Queer Community
Our clinicians are trained to be queer-affirming and supportive, and many specialize in working with issues and challenges that particularly affect sexual and gender minority populations. Sadly, many of our clients have had negative experiences with clinicians who either stigmatized their sexual/gender identities, or who required teaching and education that placed an undue burden on the client.
What is a Personality Disorder?
Everyone uses the term “personality,” but what exactly is a personality anyway? If you think about it, the meaning of personality is multi-layered. We can say personality contains our preferences, dislikes, thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We could say it includes our demeanor, our sense of humor, and how social we are. And none of those answers would be wrong. However, when we go a little deeper, we can also consider personality to center around how we see ourselves, and others, and how we developed these perceptions. If someone has a personality disorder, they struggle with how they see themselves and other people, which often creates problems in close relationships with family, friends and romantic partners. People with personality disorders have challenges on the cognitive, or thinking level, but also in the realm of emotions, gut reactions and responses specifically involving others and how they relate to them, and react to them. This affects how they exist in both their inner and outer worlds. People with personality disorders are some of the most charismatic, vivacious, intelligent and intuitive people in existence. Frequently they are founders of companies with loyal die hard fans. Others tend to react to them with intense feelings of love or hate. Simultaneously people with a personality disorder suffer more than the average person, which is why getting treatment from a trained clinician who understands their experiences is imperative.
What can you expect from sex therapy?
Sex therapy is superior to other forms of therapy for sexual problems because sex therapists have specific training in sexual function and dysfunction. Additionally, many (but not all) of our sex therapists have specialized in the treatment of sexual compulsions, otherwise known as problematic sexual behaviors. In your sessions, you will have the opportunity to talk openly about your most intimate problems and receive specific suggestions about how to solve them.
Trauma Therapy
If you are the spouse, family member or parent of a child who has experienced trauma, you may find yourself feeling helpless. It can feel overwhelming to figure out how to best support your loved one. No two people are exactly alike in how they experience trauma and as a result, recovery from trauma is highly individualized. It can be difficult for a person to learn how to manage and overcome their traumatic experience as well as helping others to understand what is happening for them at the same time. Therefore, you as the loved one, often feel lost and confused about your role in their recovery process.
The Center for Growth is an out-of-network therapy practice. We do not accept or bill health insurance directly. Many clients with out-of-network mental health benefits are able to receive reimbursement from their insurance company for a portion of their therapy costs.
We offer in-person therapy in Philadelphia, PA; Ocean City, NJ; Providence, RI; and Mechanicsville, VA, as well as telehealth services where clinically and legally appropriate.
One important reason we have chosen to remain out-of-network is simple: we believe privacy and confidentiality are fundamental to effective psychotherapy.
Why Doesn't The Center for Growth Accept Insurance?
Therapy requires an unusual degree of honesty.
People talk with therapists about relationships, sex, marriage, divorce, anxiety, depression, trauma, family conflict, identity, work, fantasies, fears, mistakes, and experiences they may not discuss anywhere else.
We want our clients to have as much control over that information as possible.
When insurance is used to pay for psychotherapy, certain information generally must be shared with the insurance company. This typically includes identifying information, dates of service, procedure codes, and a mental health diagnosis. Depending on the plan and circumstances, an insurer may request additional clinical information to determine eligibility, medical necessity, or reimbursement.
When you pay privately and do not submit claims for reimbursement, your insurance company is not involved in paying for or reviewing that treatment.
For some clients, that additional level of privacy is worth protecting.
Is Private-Pay Therapy Confidential?
Psychotherapy is built around confidentiality. Licensed mental health professionals have legal, ethical, and professional responsibilities regarding the protection of client information.
However, confidentiality is not absolute. There are circumstances in which therapists may be legally or ethically required to disclose information, including certain situations involving imminent risk of serious harm, suspected abuse or neglect, or other disclosures required by law.
Your therapist can explain the limits of confidentiality and answer questions about privacy before you begin treatment.
Is Therapy More Confidential Than Talking to AI?
AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude can be useful for brainstorming, education, organizing thoughts, or reflecting on personal concerns. They are not, however, substitutes for the confidential professional relationship created between a client and a licensed therapist.
A psychotherapy relationship comes with professional duties, ethical standards, informed consent, and legal protections that do not automatically apply in the same way when someone enters personal information into a consumer technology platform.
For highly sensitive material, it is important to understand the privacy policies and limitations of any technology you use.
Confidentiality isn't simply a feature of good therapy. It is part of what makes meaningful therapeutic work possible.
Can I Still Use My Out-of-Network Insurance Benefits?
Yes. If your health insurance plan includes out-of-network mental health benefits, you may be eligible for partial reimbursement.
The Center for Growth can provide appropriate documentation that you can submit to your insurance company. Once you choose to submit documentation for reimbursement, however, information contained in that claim is being shared with your insurer.
Before beginning therapy, call your insurance company and ask:
Tell your insurance representative that you are considering working with an out-of-network mental health provider and want to understand your reimbursement benefits.
What Therapy Codes Should I Ask My Insurance Company About?
Our standard individual psychotherapy sessions are typically 53 minutes. Common psychotherapy procedure codes include:
90837 — Individual psychotherapy
90847 — Family or couples psychotherapy
90853 — Group psychotherapy
Your diagnosis and billing codes are determined based on the services actually provided and your individual clinical circumstances. Not every insurance company reimburses every service, and coverage for couples counseling can be particularly variable.
Your insurance company can tell you what your specific plan covers and what reimbursement you may receive.
Can I Use an HSA or FSA to Pay for Therapy?
Many clients use Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds toward eligible mental health expenses.
Because individual plans and tax circumstances vary, check with your HSA/FSA administrator regarding eligibility and documentation requirements.
What If I Can't Afford Full-Fee Private-Pay Therapy?
We believe financial limitations should not automatically prevent someone from accessing high-quality psychotherapy.
The Center for Growth offers lower-fee therapy options with Interns, Fellows, and Associate Therapists.
Interns are graduate students completing supervised clinical training. Fellows have already earned a master's or doctoral degree and are receiving additional specialized training. Associate-level therapists have graduate-level clinical training and are working toward additional professional development or licensure requirements.
Their clinical work is supported and overseen by experienced senior clinicians.
This model allows us to offer therapy at several fee levels while maintaining our commitment to thoughtful clinical training and high-quality care.
Out-of-Network Therapy at The Center for Growth
Choosing a therapist involves more than determining whether someone appears on an insurance company's provider list. It involves finding someone with the training, experience, and therapeutic approach that fits what you need.
At The Center for Growth, we have chosen an out-of-network model because it gives clients greater control over when—and whether—their insurance company becomes involved in their psychotherapy.
Your therapy is your story. We believe you should have as much control as possible over who gets to know it.
If you are considering therapy at The Center for Growth, our team can help you understand our fees, lower-cost therapy options, and the documentation available if you decide to seek out-of-network reimbursement.
Finding the right therapist isn't simply about matching a diagnosis with a specialty. The best therapist for you is someone who has the appropriate clinical expertise and whose personality, communication style, instincts, and therapeutic approach work well with you.
At The Center for Growth, we help you find that person.
You can research our therapists yourself, use our therapist finder to search by specialty, watch therapist videos, read their self-help articles, or call us and speak with a therapist who can help you identify a good match.
And if the first therapist doesn't feel right? You can try someone else.
Once you make a commitment to The Center for Growth, we make a commitment to helping you find the right therapist.
How Does The Center for Growth Match Me With a Therapist?
There are several ways to find a therapist at The Center for Growth. You can use whichever approach feels most comfortable.
1. Search for a Therapist by Specialty
Use our therapist finder to identify clinicians who have experience working with the concerns that bring you to therapy.
Depending on your needs, you may want a therapist with particular experience in areas such as anxiety, depression, trauma, relationships, couples therapy, family therapy, sex therapy, grief, life transitions, or other mental health concerns.
Clinical expertise is an important starting point—but it isn't the only part of a successful therapist match.
2. Read Therapist Profiles
Our therapist profiles help you learn more about each clinician's education, training, areas of expertise, clinical interests, and approach to therapy.
Profiles can help you narrow your choices and identify therapists who seem particularly relevant to what you're experiencing.
3. Watch Our Therapist Videos
Sometimes you need more than a photograph and biography to decide whether someone might be a good fit.
Watch our therapist videos.
Hearing someone's voice, humor, manner, energy, and communication style can give you information that credentials alone cannot.
Ask yourself:
Can I imagine talking honestly with this person?
You don't need to know whether they're the perfect therapist yet. You're simply looking for enough connection and curiosity to take the next step.
4. Read Their Self-Help Articles
Many Center for Growth therapists write self-help and educational articles about the issues they treat.
Reading a therapist's writing lets you see how they think.
What do they notice? What questions do they ask? How do they understand a problem? Do their ideas make sense to you? Do they make you think differently?
This can be especially helpful when you're choosing between several therapists with similar areas of expertise.
5. Call Us and Let a Therapist Help You Choose
You don't have to figure this out yourself.
You can call The Center for Growth and speak with one of our therapists about what you're looking for.
Tell us what's bringing you to therapy, what kind of help you want, what has or hasn't worked for you in the past, and anything you already know about the type of person you work well with.
Because we know our clinical team, we can help you consider therapists based on factors such as:
Sometimes the best therapist match isn't obvious from a search box. That's where knowing the people behind the profiles helps.
What Makes a Good Therapist-Client Relationship?
Research and clinical experience consistently point to the importance of the therapeutic relationship, sometimes called the therapeutic alliance.
Simply put, therapy tends to work better when the client and therapist can form a strong working relationship around the client's goals.
That doesn't mean your therapist needs to be exactly like you—or that therapy should always feel comfortable.
A strong therapeutic relationship usually involves a combination of trust, emotional safety, collaboration, empathy, honesty, appropriate challenge, and the ability to repair misunderstandings.
But there are also qualities that are harder to capture on a résumé.
Humor
Do you want a therapist who can laugh with you?
For some people, humor creates connection and makes difficult conversations easier. Others prefer a therapist who is quieter or more serious.
Neither is inherently better. What matters is what helps you engage.
Communication Style
Some clients thrive with therapists who are direct and active.
Others respond better to someone gentle, reflective, or slower-paced.
Some want questions. Some want observations. Some want practical strategies. Some need space to discover the answer themselves.
A good match involves finding a communication style that helps you do the work.
Voice and Presence
This is difficult to measure, but people often recognize it.
Does this person's presence help you settle enough to think?
Do you feel engaged?
Can you imagine telling them something difficult, embarrassing, confusing, sexual, painful, or contradictory?
Your reaction to someone's voice and presence can be part of therapeutic chemistry.
Emotional Attunement
A skilled therapist listens to more than the facts of your story.
They may notice a change in your energy, an emotion underneath a joke, something you repeatedly avoid, or a discrepancy between what you're saying and what you seem to be feeling.
Good therapy often involves helping you become curious about those moments rather than rushing past them.
Clinical Instincts
Therapy isn't simply the application of a technique.
Training and evidence-based approaches matter, but experienced therapists also develop clinical judgment: knowing which question may be useful, what deserves more attention, when to challenge a pattern, when to offer another perspective, and when to slow down.
The right therapist's instincts should help move your work forward.
Curiosity
You should feel that your therapist is trying to understand you, rather than simply placing you into a predetermined theory.
A good therapist remains curious—especially when something doesn't make sense.
Challenge
A therapist's job isn't simply to agree with you.
Feeling understood matters, but meaningful therapy may also require examining assumptions, recognizing patterns, tolerating uncomfortable emotions, practicing new behaviors, and looking at things you would rather avoid.
The right therapist should be able to challenge you in ways that keep you engaged rather than making you feel dismissed.
Emotional Safety
Therapy requires honesty.
Over time, you need enough emotional safety to talk about things you may not normally say out loud: fear, shame, anger, sexuality, resentment, grief, fantasies, mistakes, uncertainty, or parts of yourself you don't completely understand.
Safety doesn't mean therapy is always comfortable.
It means difficult conversations can happen without destroying the relationship.
The Ability to Repair
Even excellent therapists occasionally misunderstand their clients.
A strong therapeutic relationship doesn't require perfect attunement. It requires the ability to repair when something goes wrong.
Can you tell your therapist:
“That's not what I meant.”
“I don't agree.”
“That didn't help.”
“I'm angry with you.”
A productive therapeutic relationship has room for those conversations.
What Is “Therapeutic Chemistry”?
Therapeutic chemistry is the harder-to-measure part of finding the right therapist.
We sometimes describe it as tempo.
The best therapeutic relationships often develop a natural rhythm.
Your therapist begins to understand when to ask another question and when to leave silence alone. When humor opens something up and when it would get in the way. When to challenge you and when to slow down. When you're avoiding something and when you're genuinely not ready.
You begin to feel that you're working with someone rather than having therapy performed on you.
That doesn't happen instantly for everyone. Trust and therapeutic chemistry can develop over time.
But it matters.
How Do I Know if a Therapist Is a Good Fit?
After your first few sessions, don't ask only:
“Did I like my therapist?”
Liking your therapist can help, but it's not the same thing as having a productive therapeutic relationship.
Instead, consider:
Could I imagine becoming increasingly honest with this person?
Do I feel listened to and understood?
Is my therapist genuinely curious about my experience?
Does their personality and communication style work for me?
Can they challenge me without making me shut down?
When they misunderstand me, do they become curious rather than defensive?
Does the therapist seem to understand what I want to accomplish?
Are we beginning to do something useful together?
And perhaps the simplest question:
Do I want to come back and continue the conversation?
You don't need certainty after one appointment.
You need enough confidence in the relationship to keep exploring.
What if My First Therapist Isn't the Right Match?
Tell us.
A therapist can be highly skilled and still not be the right therapist for you.
That's not necessarily a failure on anyone's part. Sometimes the expertise is right but the interpersonal chemistry isn't.
We would rather help you find another therapist than have you remain in a therapeutic relationship that doesn't feel productive.
Can I Try More Than One Therapist?
Yes.
We understand how difficult it can be to judge therapeutic chemistry from a website.
If you're uncertain, you can meet with more than one Center for Growth therapist as part of the matching process.
When trying multiple therapists within The Center for Growth as part of our matching process, we charge only one initial fee—the fee associated with the highest-priced therapist you meet.
Ask us about the details when scheduling so you understand exactly how the matching process applies to you.
The goal isn't to pressure you into choosing quickly.
The goal is to help you find someone with whom you can do good work.
Why Does Finding the Right Therapist Matter So Much to Us?
The Center for Growth was founded in 1997 with a simple idea: therapy should help people create meaningful change in their lives.
After decades of doing this work, I continue to believe that expertise matters enormously—but expertise alone isn't enough.
People make progress in relationships.
The therapist needs the knowledge and clinical skill to help you. But the two of you also need to be able to think together, be honest together, tolerate difficult moments, recognize patterns, experiment with something new, and recover when you misunderstand each other.
And ideally, there is a natural tempo between you.
As the founder of The Center for Growth, I can tell you what continues to make this work exciting to us:
Progress.
We love watching people accomplish things that once felt impossible: understand themselves differently, have a conversation they were afraid to have, develop healthier relationships, experience intimacy differently, repair something worth saving, leave something that isn't working, tolerate difficult emotions, take a risk, or create a life that feels more like their own.
That's why finding the right therapist matters to us.
Find the Right Therapist at The Center for Growth
There isn't one correct way to choose a therapist.
Research us.
Read our therapist profiles.
Watch our videos.
Read our self-help articles.
Use our therapist finder to search by specialty.
Or call us and let one of our therapists help you identify clinicians who might be a good match.
Then meet someone and see what happens.
If the first therapist isn't right, tell us. We'll help you reconsider the match.
Choosing The Center for Growth doesn't mean you're committing to one therapist. It means we're committing to helping you find the right one.
Every therapist at The Center for Growth participates in ongoing small-group clinical consultation. This includes interns, associates, fellows, licensed therapists, and experienced senior clinicians.
We believe good therapists should never stop learning.
Training and experience matter enormously. But years in practice don't automatically make someone an excellent therapist. Great therapy also requires curiosity, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, good clinical instincts, the ability to connect with people, and the humility to question your own thinking.
Our approach to clinical quality starts with who we hire and continues through training, supervision, peer consultation, feedback, and ongoing professional development.
What Makes a Good Therapist?
There is no single personality or therapeutic technique that makes someone a great therapist.
Different clients need different things.
Some people respond to a therapist who is direct and challenging. Others need someone quieter and more reflective. Humor may be enormously important to one client and almost irrelevant to another.
But after decades of training and working alongside therapists, we believe excellent therapists tend to share certain qualities.
They are curious.
They listen carefully.
They notice what is happening underneath the words.
They can tolerate uncomfortable emotions without immediately trying to make them disappear.
They recognize patterns.
They know when to ask another question and when to be quiet.
They can challenge someone without losing the relationship.
They are willing to reconsider their own assumptions.
And they genuinely care about helping people change.
Clinical knowledge can be taught. Therapeutic skills can be strengthened. Experience can deepen judgment. But we also believe excellent therapists begin with a natural capacity to connect with and understand people.
How Does The Center for Growth Choose Therapists?
The Center for Growth was founded in 1997, and our hiring philosophy has remained surprisingly simple.
Our founder's standard is:
“I don't hire an intern, associate, fellow, or staff therapist whom I wouldn't feel comfortable going to therapy with myself.”
Credentials matter. Education matters. Experience matters.
But those are the beginning of our evaluation—not the end.
We look for clinicians who demonstrate curiosity, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, openness to feedback, sound judgment, and a genuine ability to connect with another person.
Not every excellent therapist will be the right therapist for every client. Personality, communication style, specialty, therapeutic approach, and chemistry all matter.
But before we invite someone to work at The Center for Growth, we ask ourselves a more fundamental question:
Would we trust this person with something that really mattered?
Then the training continues.
Do Therapists at The Center for Growth Receive Clinical Consultation?
Yes. Every clinician at The Center for Growth participates in ongoing small-group clinical consultation.
This is one of the most important parts of our clinical model.
Consultation isn't reserved for interns, newly trained therapists, or clinicians who are struggling with a difficult case.
Everyone participates.
Our interns consult.
Our associates consult.
Our fellows consult.
Our licensed therapists consult.
Our experienced clinicians consult.
We believe everyone benefits from a second set of clinical eyes.
Why Do Experienced Therapists Need Consultation?
Experience is enormously valuable.
Over years of practice, therapists encounter more people, more relationship patterns, more complex situations, and more moments when the obvious intervention doesn't work. Good therapists develop judgment that simply takes time to acquire.
But experience creates its own risks.
The more certain any professional becomes that they already know the answer, the easier it becomes to stop asking questions.
Experience should never mean that a therapist stops questioning their own work.
Clinical consultation creates a structured opportunity to do exactly that.
Our clinicians meet in small groups to think together about their work, examine cases from different perspectives, question assumptions, and consider approaches they may not have thought of independently.
Sometimes another therapist notices something you've missed.
Sometimes they ask the question you haven't asked.
Sometimes they have specialized knowledge that changes how you understand the problem.
Sometimes they recognize that therapy has become stuck.
And sometimes simply having to explain your clinical thinking to respected colleagues makes your own thinking sharper.
What Happens During Clinical Consultation?
Clinical consultation is an opportunity for therapists to think critically about treatment.
Depending upon the situation, clinicians may explore questions such as:
What are we seeing?
What might we be missing?
Is this therapy actually helping?
Are we addressing the right problem?
Has treatment become stuck?
Am I making an assumption that needs to be challenged?
Is there another way to understand what is happening?
Could a different therapeutic approach be more effective?
The purpose isn't for another therapist to take over your treatment.
Your therapist remains your therapist.
The purpose is to prevent therapists from practicing in an intellectual vacuum.
Is Clinical Consultation the Same as Supervision?
Not necessarily.
Clinical supervision is particularly important for therapists who are completing training or working toward professional licensure. Depending on their professional status, clinicians may have specific supervision requirements.
Clinical consultation is broader.
At The Center for Growth, consultation is part of the professional culture for everyone—not something a therapist graduates out of after becoming licensed or experienced.
We want our interns growing.
We want our associate therapists growing.
We want our fellows growing.
And we expect our senior clinicians to keep growing too.
Professional development shouldn't end when someone earns a degree, obtains a license, or has practiced for twenty years.
Is My Information Confidential During Clinical Consultation?
Clinical consultation takes place within the professional and ethical framework of psychotherapy and our group practice.
Protecting client information remains important when clinicians seek supervision or consultation.
Our goal isn't to have unnecessary people involved in your therapy. It is to give your therapist access to appropriate clinical perspectives and expertise while maintaining professional responsibilities around your information.
If you have questions or concerns about how consultation works within The Center for Growth, ask your therapist. We want clients to understand how their care is provided.
Why Is a Team Approach Important in Therapy?
Mental health is complicated.
No therapist—regardless of experience—knows everything.
One clinician may have extensive experience with trauma. Another may understand sexuality particularly well. Another may specialize in couples therapy, eating disorders, anxiety, children, family systems, or another area.
Working within a clinical community allows therapists to benefit from knowledge beyond their own individual training.
We believe this makes therapists better.
It also creates accountability.
Instead of asking only, “What do I think is happening with this client?” therapists have opportunities to ask:
“How are other experienced clinicians understanding what I'm seeing?”
That distinction matters.
Does The Center for Growth Collaborate With Other Healthcare Professionals?
Yes, when collaboration would benefit your treatment and you give us appropriate permission.
We believe in treating the whole person.
Emotional health can intersect with physical health, medications, hormones, neurological functioning, sexuality, relationships, pain, sleep, family dynamics, school, work, and many other parts of life.
When clinically useful and appropriately authorized, our therapists may coordinate care with professionals such as:
For routine care coordination, we generally obtain the appropriate signed authorization before communicating with outside providers.
The purpose isn't for everyone to know everything about you.
The purpose is to help the appropriate professionals see enough of the whole person to provide better care.
What Does This Mean for Me as a Client?
You have one therapist.
But that therapist doesn't have to work alone.
Behind your therapist is a clinical culture designed around continued learning, consultation, feedback, accountability, and curiosity.
We aren't trying to make every therapist at The Center for Growth practice exactly the same way.
Different therapists bring different personalities, voices, humor, instincts, specialties, experiences, and ways of connecting. Those differences are valuable—and finding the right therapeutic fit matters.
What we want is something different:
talented therapists who keep becoming better therapists.
Our model is to identify clinicians who have the underlying qualities we believe good therapy requires and then surround them with training, experience, feedback, supervision when appropriate, and ongoing peer consultation.
We hire for the qualities that are difficult to teach. Then we create a clinical community designed to keep developing everything that can be.
That commitment doesn't end when someone graduates.
It doesn't end with licensure.
And it doesn't end after twenty years of practice.
At The Center for Growth, we believe therapists do their best work when they remain curious enough to keep learning—and humble enough to let another therapist take a second look.
Getting started with therapy at The Center for Growth is straightforward. You can call us and let us help you schedule your first appointment with a therapist, or you can self-schedule online.
From there, your treatment is individualized. There is no one-size-fits-all therapy schedule or process.
How Do I Schedule My First Therapy Appointment?
You have two options.
You can call The Center for Growth and speak with us about what you're looking for. We can answer questions and help you schedule an initial appointment with a therapist.
Or, if you already know who you want to see, you can self-schedule your first appointment online.
Either way, your first appointment is an intake session.
What Happens During the First Therapy Session?
Your first appointment gives your therapist an opportunity to get to know you.
We want to understand what brought you to therapy, what is happening in your life now, your relevant history, the concerns you want help with, and what you hope to accomplish.
You don't need to prepare the perfect explanation or know exactly what your therapy goals are before you arrive. Part of the intake process is figuring that out together.
The intake is also an opportunity to determine whether the therapist's expertise and approach are appropriate for your needs.
If we realize that we aren't the right clinicians to help you, we will tell you and make a referral when possible. Our goal is to help you get the care you need, whether that ultimately happens with us or with another professional.
How Often Will I Attend Therapy?
You and your therapist will determine the frequency of therapy together.
Most clients attend therapy once a week, particularly when beginning treatment. Weekly sessions provide consistency and give you and your therapist time to build momentum.
But weekly therapy isn't right—or realistic—for everyone.
Someone with small children, a demanding job, extensive travel, or other significant responsibilities might decide with their therapist that every-other-week therapy makes more sense.
Someone who needs substantially more support or is experiencing a period of greater clinical risk may meet with a therapist two or three times a week, when clinically appropriate.
Other clients may change frequency over time.
There isn't a single schedule that works for everyone.
Your therapy frequency should reflect your needs, goals, circumstances, clinical situation, and the recommendations you and your therapist develop together.
What Does a Therapy Session Look Like?
At its most basic, therapy looks surprisingly simple:
You talk with a therapist.
Sessions can take place in person or virtually through teletherapy, depending upon your therapist, your location, and the services appropriate for you.
You bring whatever is happening in your life. Your therapist listens, asks questions, notices patterns, offers observations, helps you understand what is happening, and works with you toward the changes you want to make.
What those conversations look like will vary enormously from person to person.
Individual therapy looks different from couples therapy. Working through anxiety is different from exploring sexuality. Processing grief is different from navigating a family conflict.
And two people with the exact same diagnosis may need very different things from therapy.
Everyone is unique. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.
How Long Are Therapy Sessions?
Our standard psychotherapy session is 53 minutes.
Depending upon the type of service and your clinical needs, other session lengths may sometimes be appropriate. Your therapist can discuss this with you when developing your treatment plan.
What Happens as Therapy Continues?
Therapy develops over time.
As your therapist gets to know you, the two of you develop a clearer understanding of what you're working toward and what is getting in the way.
You may talk.
You may learn new skills.
You may practice having difficult conversations.
You may examine patterns in your relationships.
You may understand why certain situations trigger such powerful reactions.
You may experiment with behaving differently.
You may discover that the problem you originally came in to solve isn't actually the problem that needs the most attention.
Treatment evolves as you do.
Can My Therapy Schedule Change?
Absolutely.
You aren't committing to the same therapy schedule forever.
You might begin weekly, temporarily increase the frequency during a difficult period, and later decrease to every other week as things stabilize.
Or you may come in for a focused period of work, accomplish what you wanted, and stop.
Frequency is something you and your therapist can revisit throughout treatment.
What if The Center for Growth Isn't the Right Place for Me?
We'll help you figure that out too.
Part of responsible therapy is recognizing the limits of what a particular therapist or practice can provide.
If, during the intake process or later in treatment, we determine that your needs would be better served by another clinician, a different specialty, a different level of care, or another type of service, we will discuss that with you and help make an appropriate referral when possible.
Getting you to the right care is more important than keeping you at The Center for Growth.
How Do I Get Started?
Choose whichever route is easiest:
Call us and let us help you schedule your first appointment.
Or self-schedule online with the therapist you would like to meet.
Your first appointment will be an intake session. From there, you and your therapist will determine what you need, what you're working toward, and how frequently it makes sense to meet.
That's really how our services work: start with a conversation, get to know each other, and build the therapy around the person sitting in the room.
Yes. The information you share in therapy at The Center for Growth is confidential, subject to specific legal and ethical exceptions.
Confidentiality is one of the foundations of psychotherapy.
For therapy to work, you need room to talk honestly about your relationships, sexuality, family, fears, anger, shame, mistakes, trauma, fantasies, doubts, and experiences you may not discuss anywhere else.
At The Center for Growth, we take protecting that space seriously.
At the same time, confidentiality does not mean your therapist has to work in isolation. We believe good care can include thoughtful clinical consultation and, when you give us permission, collaboration with other professionals involved in your care.
Our goal is to protect your privacy while helping you receive the best care possible.
Who Can Know That I'm in Therapy?
Generally, your therapist will not disclose information about your treatment to people outside your care without your permission, except when disclosure is permitted or required by law.
Being your spouse, partner, parent, adult child, friend, employer, or another important person in your life does not automatically give someone access to information about your therapy.
That includes the fact that you are a client.
If someone contacts us asking about you, we don't simply provide information because that person knows you.
Who at The Center for Growth May Have Access to My Information?
The Center for Growth is a group psychotherapy practice.
Your therapist is your primary clinician, but authorized members of the practice may have access to information when it is appropriate for treatment, clinical consultation, supervision, scheduling, billing, practice operations, or other legally permitted purposes.
Access to client information is based on legitimate clinical or operational needs.
We don't believe therapists should practice in an intellectual vacuum.
Every clinician at The Center for Growth participates in ongoing small-group clinical consultation—including our experienced clinicians.
Consultation gives therapists another set of clinical eyes and an opportunity to question assumptions, consider different perspectives, and think more carefully about treatment.
Your therapist remains your therapist. Consultation simply means that your therapist is part of a professional clinical community rather than working entirely alone.
You can learn more about this model on our What Makes a Good Therapist? page.
Will You Talk to My Doctor or Other Healthcare Providers?
Only with appropriate permission for routine care coordination.
One of The Center for Growth's core beliefs is that people should be understood as whole people.
Mental health doesn't exist separately from physical health, medications, hormones, sexuality, neurological functioning, sleep, pain, relationships, family, school, work, or the rest of your life.
When collaboration would improve your care, we may recommend communicating with other professionals involved in your treatment.
Depending upon your needs, that might include your:
For routine coordination of care, we generally obtain an appropriate signed authorization before communicating with an outside provider.
We want you to understand who we want to speak with, why we think the conversation would be helpful, and what information may be relevant.
Collaboration should happen with you, not around you.
Why Would My Therapist Want to Talk With Another Provider?
Because sometimes different professionals are seeing different pieces of the same person.
Your therapist might notice changes in mood, concentration, sleep, sexuality, anxiety, or behavior.
Your physician may know about a medical condition or medication change.
Your psychiatrist may be adjusting medication.
Your OB/GYN may be addressing hormonal or sexual-health concerns.
Your neurologist may be evaluating cognitive or neurological symptoms.
Your physical therapist may be treating pain or a physical condition that affects emotional or sexual wellbeing.
With a child or teenager, a teacher may see things happening socially, academically, or behaviorally that aren't visible during a therapy session.
The purpose of communication isn't for everyone to know everything.
The purpose is to put relevant pieces of information together when doing so can help us understand and treat the whole person.
Can I Decide What Information Is Shared?
For routine communications requiring your authorization, you can ask questions before signing a release.
Ask:
Who will you talk to?
Why do you want to talk with them?
What information do you expect to discuss?
How will this help my treatment?
We want you to understand what you are authorizing.
There are circumstances in which information may be permitted or required to be disclosed without your authorization under applicable law. Those situations are different from ordinary coordination of care.
What Happens if I See My Therapist in Public?
You might.
You could run into your therapist at a restaurant, grocery store, gym, school event, on the street, or somewhere completely unrelated to therapy.
Your therapist will generally not approach you or identify you as a client.
Even saying hello first could inadvertently reveal that you know one another.
If you choose to say hello, your therapist can follow your lead.
If you have a particular preference about how accidental encounters should be handled, talk about it with your therapist.
How Does Confidentiality Work in Couples Therapy?
Confidentiality in couples therapy can be more complicated because more than one person is participating in the treatment.
Your therapist should explain policies regarding confidentiality, communication outside sessions, individual conversations with the therapist, records, and information shared privately by one partner.
If you want to tell your couples therapist something privately and expect the therapist to keep it from your partner, ask about the therapist's policy before disclosing it.
Don't assume that confidentiality within couples therapy works exactly like confidentiality in individual therapy.
How Does Therapy Confidentiality Work With Children and Teenagers?
Therapy with children and adolescents requires balancing privacy with the rights and responsibilities of parents or legal guardians.
The exact rules can depend upon the young person's age, circumstances, type of treatment, consent arrangements, and applicable state law.
At the same time, children and teenagers often need an appropriate degree of privacy for therapy to be useful.
Your therapist should discuss these boundaries at the beginning of treatment so everyone understands what information may remain private and what information may need to be shared.
When appropriate and authorized, a child's care may also include collaboration with parents, pediatricians, psychiatrists, teachers, school professionals, or others who see the child in different environments.
Our goal is to understand the whole child, not simply what happens during one therapy session.
Are There Exceptions to Therapy Confidentiality?
Yes. Therapy is confidential, but confidentiality is not absolute.
Depending upon applicable law and the circumstances, therapists may sometimes be required or permitted to disclose information involving matters such as suspected abuse or neglect, serious safety concerns, certain legal requirements, or other circumstances established by law.
Because The Center for Growth provides therapy in more than one state, the specific legal requirements may differ depending upon where treatment occurs.
Your therapist will review the applicable limits of confidentiality with you as part of the informed-consent process.
If you're worried about whether something particular would have to be disclosed, ask your therapist about the limits of confidentiality before you share it.
Are My Therapy Records Confidential?
Mental health records contain sensitive information and are subject to privacy protections.
You are welcome to ask your therapist how documentation works, what kinds of information are typically included in your clinical record, how records are maintained, and who within the practice may have access to them.
It's also important to understand that a clinical record and legally defined psychotherapy notes are not necessarily the same thing and may be subject to different rules.
If record privacy is particularly important to you, ask us questions.
You don't need to understand healthcare law to understand how your own information is handled.
What Happens if Someone Subpoenas or Requests My Therapy Records?
Legal requests involving therapy records can raise complicated questions about confidentiality, privilege, authorization, and applicable law.
Receiving a request for records does not necessarily mean that every request is handled identically or that every piece of information is automatically disclosed.
At the same time, we cannot promise that therapy records can never become subject to a legally enforceable disclosure requirement.
If The Center for Growth receives a subpoena, court order, or other legal request involving your information, we will respond according to our professional and legal obligations.
Does Using Insurance Affect Therapy Confidentiality?
It can.
Submitting information to an insurance company for payment or out-of-network reimbursement may require certain information about your treatment to be shared with the insurer.
We address that separately because it deserves a fuller explanation.
Please see our Do You Accept Insurance? and How to Use Out-of-Network Benefits for Therapy pages for information about insurance, reimbursement, diagnoses, procedure codes, and the information involved when you submit a claim.
What if I Have a Specific Question About Confidentiality?
Ask us.
Often, “Is therapy confidential?” isn't really the question someone needs answered.
The real question may be:
Can my spouse find out I'm here?
Can my parents see my records?
What will you tell my teenager's other parent?
Can you talk to my psychiatrist?
Can my employer find out I'm in therapy?
What happens if my attorney or my spouse's attorney asks for my records?
Will my couples therapist tell my partner something I said privately?
Who at The Center for Growth can see my information?
Those questions may have different answers depending upon your circumstances, age, type of therapy, location, and applicable law.
Don't avoid talking about something important because you're uncertain about confidentiality. Ask us how confidentiality applies first.
Our Approach to Confidentiality at The Center for Growth
We don't believe privacy and collaboration are opposites.
Good confidentiality protects the therapeutic relationship.
Good consultation keeps therapists thinking.
Good care coordination helps professionals understand the whole person.
And good informed consent means you understand how your information is being used and who may have access to it.
Sometimes the best therapy happens entirely between you and your therapist.
Sometimes your therapist benefits from the perspective of another Center for Growth clinician.
Sometimes—with your permission—the best care happens when your therapist and another professional can put their pieces of the puzzle together.
We believe your information should be protected thoughtfully, shared purposefully, and used to help you receive the best care possible.
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