FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHERE IS YOUR OFFICE LOCATED?
Serenity Solutions is located in the Medical Arts Building in Center City Philadelphia at 1601 Market Street, Suite 1005, Philadelphia, PA 19102. In addition to in-person therapy sessions at this location, we offer telehealth sessions, as well. We use a secure HIPAA-compliant program that protects your privacy and confidentiality.
WHAT TYPE OF SERVICES DO YOU PROVIDE?
Serenity Solutions offers the following services:
- Individual therapy for:
- Group therapy for:
HOW DO I DECIDE BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL THERAPY FOR ANGER MANAGEMENT AND THE ANGER MANAGEMENT GROUP?
Deciding which option is best for you depends on a few factors. Consider these questions as you decide. Your therapist can also help you decide during your initial phone consultation and your first face-to-face intake appointment.
- Treatment goals: What are my goals for treatment? Can those goals be met in a group setting in which the focus is solely on anger management and in which I have to share the time with others? Do I have other issues in addition to anger management that would better be helped in an individual session with more personalized attention to my needs?
- Timing: Do the available times for individual or group therapy work with my schedule?
- Cost: How much can I budget for anger management treatment?
To learn more about anger management treatment, click here.
HOW MUCH DOES THERAPY COST? DO YOU TAKE INSURANCE?
- Individual therapy sessions are $120-175.
- Group sessions are $70 per session.
We are an out-of-network provider for insurance companies. What this means for you is that you are required to pay the full fee for sessions at the time of each appointment. At the beginning of each month, you will receive an invoice that you can submit to your insurance company to apply for reimbursement. For a list of questions to ask your insurance company to clarify your mental health out-of-network benefits, click here.
HOW DOES THERAPY WORK? WHAT HAPPENS IN SESSIONS?
Prior to your first appointment, you will be scheduled for a free 15-minute phone consultation (click here to schedule this appointment). During this phone call, you will briefly share what you are struggling with, whether it’s anxiety and stress, anger, postpartum anxiety, or addictions. We will tell you more about how we work and the process for getting started in treatment. We will also discuss fees and scheduling. Any initial questions that you have about therapy can be answered during this call. During your first appointment, we ask a lot of questions so that we can get to know you and truly understand what is getting in the way of you living a meaningful life. Based on the information that you share about your anxiety, anger, or addiction, we will develop treatment goals and a plan of how to work on those goals. Typically that plan includes weekly individual therapy sessions in which we discuss your stressors and practice tools to help you manage those stressors in healthy ways. Therapy sessions are interactive. We are not the type of therapists that just listen and nod. Because we are so determined to help you reach your goals, we ask a lot of questions, provide feedback and take you through exercises to help you learn new skills to help you cope with life’s challenges.
WHAT KIND OF THERAPY DO YOU PRACTICE?
We have training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Both of these therapies help people to learn new ways to relate to painful thoughts and feelings so that they can live meaningful lives even if things aren’t going well. These therapies include time to share about how you are feeling and learn new coping skills to deal with these feelings. Although our work is informed by these therapies, we provide an individualized approach to everyone we work with, working with you to figure out what is going to be most helpful for you to achieve your goals.
HOW LONG DO I NEED TO BE IN THERAPY?
It depends. Every person is different. Some people are able to work through their struggles and achieve their goals in a short amount of time and some people require longer treatment. What we recommend is that you commit to weekly sessions for two months to start out. We have found that people make the most progress quickest when they make this commitment. Throughout the counseling process, we will assess how you are doing toward achieving your therapy goals and make changes, as needed, to help you progress. When you are feeling less stressed and overwhelmed and life starts to feel better, a sign that have made significant progress toward your counseling goals, we will begin to talk about a plan for ending treatment.
HOW DO I KNOW IF I NEED THERAPY?
Great question! You don’t want to invest your time and money into something if it isn’t what you need or isn’t going to help, right? Oftentimes, when people ask this, what they really want to know is “Is my problem bad enough to warrant treatment?” Our answer to this is “if you think it’s bad enough.” You don’t have to have a certain diagnosis or a certain number of problems to benefit from counseling. The thing that matters is how the problem you are dealing with is impacting you and your life. If your stress, anger or addictive behaviors are negatively impacting your happiness, your relationships or your overall enjoyment of life, then you can benefit from therapy.
DO YOU PRESCRIBE MEDICATION?
We do not prescribe medication. Only doctors, MD’s or DO’s, and in some cases, nurses, can prescribe medication for mental health issues. We provide therapy which includes a safe space for you to share about the stress in your life and learn tools to manage that stress in healthy ways. If you continue to struggle after working hard in therapy and we think medication could help make it easier for you to achieve your goals, we will recommend that you meet with a psychiatrist for an evaluation for medication. However, the choice is always yours.
IF I GO TO THERAPY, DOES IT MEAN I’M CRAZY?
Participating in counseling does not make your crazy. It shows that you are motivated to make positive changes in your life. For some people, this means learning the tools to manage stress or anxiety better. For others, it means learning new ways to communicate when they are feeling angry. For other, it means learning how to resist the urge drink or use drugs to cope with how they are feeling. And for others, it means learning how to cope with the anxiety of being pregnant or a new parent.
WHAT IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS?
If you have additional questions, feel free to call us at (267) 317-8817 or click here to schedule your free 15-minute phone consultation.