Unlike psychiatrists, whose training focuses on medical treatment, including the prescription of medications, our training focuses on assessment and therapy. It is simply a different area of expertise. We are not licensed in Virginia to administer medications of any kind. If we believe that you would benefit from medications, we sometimes refer our clients to prescribing providers in the area. Medication is not recommended by researchers as the first line of treatment for most disorders.

Yes.  Many people are concerned that their employer or peers will find out that they are seeing a psychologist and that it will somehow negatively effect them or their reputation.  Some of our clients are very high-profile in this community and one of the reasons that they feel comfortable seeing us is that we are extremely careful about protecting their confidentiality.

Your privacy is one of our top priorities.  Our office is in a very low-traffic setting with parking in the rear.  We have a separate waiting room with two doors so that no one sees anyone else coming or going from my office.  For this reason, we ask that you close the door to the waiting room upon entering.  If someone else calls our office and asks if we are seeing you, our response will be “I cannot discuss who I do or do not see.”

The ethical rules and laws governing our profession strictly prohibit us from sharing your information with anyone except for your insurance company without your permission.  Our rules about confidentiality and legal privilege are stricter than the rules that attorneys have to follow with the following exceptions:

• Child or elder abuse
• If you are intending to seriously harm yourself or another person
• Court orders, which are very rare and generally only occur in very extreme circumstances involving violence or an ongoing crime

We accept Aetna, Anthem and other Blue Cross Blue Shield non-medicaid plans, and Tricare. We do not accept Aetna or BCBS Medicaid or Medicare Supplemental plans. In other words, if you have Medicare and Anthem or Aetna, they will not cover your sessions with us. Visit our Insurance and Fees page for more information.

This depends on the nature of your concerns and a number of other factors.  Marriage counseling and treatment of problems related to sexuality can range widely in duration as some couples problems are very minor, while others are experiencing very severe, long-standing problems such as those involving repeated infidelity.

Therapy for anxiety commonly lasts between 8 and 20 sessions, but can be slightly shorter or can last considerably longer for very complex problems.  However, some problems appear to be more complex than they are, so you should never assume that therapy will go on for too long.  For example, people who suffer from panic attacks frequently believe that the attacks will never end.  But panic attacks are actually one of the most treatable problems that psychologists work with, and they can often be cured in as little as 6-12 sessions.

You can read more about our approaches by exploring the menu bar at the top of this website.

We are always searching for ways to improve our level of service.  If you have a question that is not addressed on this page, please help us out and send questions or comments through our contact form so that we can address them on this FAQ page.