Hi PsychoactivE,

Welcome back and I hope everything is well with you. Courage was the perfect word to use to describe your girlfriend's decision to get professional help. For a lot of us, the hardest thing can be reaching out to others.

I'm not sure how I feel about this psychologist. I have a therapist, and I've only had one. I'm very lucky in that respect. I have heard of people going to see a psychologist or a therapist for free on the first consultation, but I've never heard of anyone being charged so much. The $43 for the other visits is a lot more reasonable, especially if you don't have insurance. But what got the lights flashing and the bells ringing for me was the $94 for the evaluation of the degree of the problem. If I'm reading that right, it's just a simple determination of what type of disorder she has, and how severe it is. There shouldn't be an increase in the rates just to be given a diagnosis

I'm one of the most trusting people you'll ever meet, but an alarm goes off inside me when I think that something is a scam. And I feel that way about this. I hope I'm wrong, but if I was you, I would shop around a bit. Talk to some other Mental Health care professionals, find out what they charge, and what services they offer. It could be so devastating to your girlfriend to get involved with this person only to find out that they just wanted her money and could care less about her.

Remember, I could be totally wrong. I'm just going with a gut feeling here. I hope everything works out for the best for both of you. Please keep in touch?

bp

"When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance."