It is most helpful to leave your contact information, availability for weekly appointments, whether you plan to use insurance and what policy you have and briefly your reason for seeking services at this time. Heather will return your phone call as soon as she is able.

Please bring with you to your first appointment your insurance card, payment card for services and your completed intake paperwork, which can be found on this website or will be emailed to you prior to your appointment.  You will also want to check your mental health benefits with your insurance company prior to your first appointment so you are informed of your financial responsibility for sessions.

Please arrive no more than 5-10 minutes prior to your appointment, keeping in mind you will need to give yourself a couple of minutes to sign in upon entering the building. This will help to ensure you will not run into the client before you leaving the waiting room.

Appointments which are not cancelled or are cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice will be charged a late cancellation fee of $75 per occurrence. Appointments may be cancelled by contacting Heather directly via phone or email or through the text message reminder system, which you will receive 48 hours prior to each scheduled appointment.

Heather is in network with Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, Cigna, GEHA, New Directions Behavioral Health, Optum/United Behavioral Health and Preferred Health Professionals. Heather is out of network with Aetna, Humana, Magellan and Value Options and will file all claims electronically.

Common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents can include the following and are generally present across multiple settings such as home, work, school and socially:

• Feeling sad or withdrawn for more than two weeks
• Severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
• Intense worries or fears that get in the way of everyday activities
• Sudden, overwhelming fear for no reason
• Thoughts of death, self-harm or suicide and making plans to harm oneself
• Not eating, throwing up or using laxatives or compulsively exercising to lose weight
• Significant changes in appetite leading to excessive weight loss or gain
• Severe, out of control, risk taking behavior
• Repeated use/abuse of alcohol and/or drugs
• Drastic changes in behaviors and personality
• Drastic changes in sleep patterns
• Extreme difficulty concentrating or staying still

Mental health conditions can also begin to develop in young children. Because they’re still learning how to identify and talk about thoughts and emotions, their most obvious symptoms are behavioral.  In both young children and adolescents, symptoms of depression may present as symptoms of irritability or anger. Symptoms of mental illness  in children may include the following:

• Changes in school performance
• Excessive worry or anxiety, such as death of a parent
• Fighting to go to bed or school
• Frequent aggressive behavior, temper tantrums and angry outbursts
• Hyperactive behavior
• Frequent nightmares

Your first appointment is an hour long intake assessment, where Heather must gather your entire history including family, medical, psychological and social in order to make an individualized treatment plan, which will be reviewed with you at the end of the assessment.

Following the intake assessment, sessions are 45 minutes in length. Most clients start with weekly sessions, which allows for rapport and trust to be built and progress to be made toward treatment goals. Length of time spent in therapy greatly varies and depends on severity and comorbidity of symptoms present, client motivation and willingness/readiness for change.