[peaches100]

My h and I are changing to an insurance plan where i may have to pay significantly more money for my therapy ($75 per session, as opposed to $40). The reason for this is because my t works out of a hospital, and according to our insurance plan, it's the higher copay if the therapy is billed by a hospital. Somebody in the health plan is checking on this today and will let me know for sure. But in the meantime, i'm feeling really upset.

Changing to some other insurance plan with cheaper therapy copays won't work for us because my h has numerous illnesses and about 7 doctors, and we had to find a plan that has most of them as Preferred Providers. And this new plan is going to be better for us in some other ways also. But I really don't want to go down to only 2 sessions per month! I don't feel able to. Well, if i absolutey HAVE to, i know i can, but it will be incredibly hard and i will hate it.

My h and I have talked it over, and we agree that if my therapy is going to cost $75, there's no way i can keep going every week. He is mostly disabled and we live on my income. We just don't have the money on top of all of my h's medical bills and our household expenses.

I'm looking to hear from people who have reduced their sessions down, and how they coped with it. Was it really hard? Was there anything that you did to make it easier?

I'm really hoping i don't have to do this. . .

Hi (((((((((((((((((peaches)))))))))))))))))))

I've reduced sessions occasionally, both because I *had* to for financial reasons and because I just felt like I was in a place where I could get by longer between sessions without T.

The times when it's felt out of my control, and I've had to reduce due to finances, were stressful. I really wanted to see T more and I couldn't and it was hard to accept.

The times when I've just felt like I could go longer without T were a lot easier. Somehow, I was (and am) able to hang on to the fact that he's still THERE, and that our connection is the same whether I see him twice a week, or once a week, or every other week.

It's hard to have to reduce your sessions when you don't want to. I wonder if there is a middle ground - maybe see her two weeks on, one week off - so you don't always have to wait so long between sessions?? It would cost a little more than you are paying now, but not a lot ($300 every 6 weeks instead of $240 every six weeks, I think?), and maybe during the longer break that happens every once every three weeks, you'll find out that you can get by longer than you thought without seeing T.

I hope you can find a solution that works for you!

[TayQuincy]

I see my T twice a month and I have been doing great with that. It was not something I wanted to do, but my t, who also works out of a hospital, couldn't fit me in more frequently because she has too many patients and also does group therapy. I have found that I am much better seeing her twice a month than I was seeing my other T twice a week! It helped me to learn to cope better on my own. I know she is there for me if I need her but I don't NEED to see her as often and the time seems to fly by. Now I couldn't imagine seeing her every week, that would be too much (and i am very attached to her). I had no other choice so I accepted it and it has worked out well. This might be a blessing in disguise if your t will be retiring in a year or two like you said in another post. It might make it easier to taper down sessions.

I don't know if this will help but does the hospital have a charity care program that you might qualify for? My insurance copays are $35 and I can't even afford that right now and my income is low enough that they help reduce my copays. Depending on how much income you make you may qualify for a sliding scale fee.

[rainbow8]

Peaches, I don't have to write this because you already know my story, LOL. I was originally forced to cut down when my H lost his job. It was hard at first, but then I got used to every other week. After a while, it becomes routine. I found other pleasurable activities to do on the off-weeks. I was more focused in my sessions, knowing they were going to be less often. That was a positive part of it.

I'm sorry you have to do this, but I know you'll be able to manage.

[Fartraveler]

Nothing's quite like therapy, but I have found some reasonable substitutes.

Actually, I write to my T a lot. She doesn't answer unless I specifically ask her to (and I don't), but she said I could email her as much as I wanted. The emails help me feel close to her, and they also help me process my stuff. At this point, by writing to her, I can usually get to whatever understanding we would have arrived at together. So for me, right now, writing emails work well as a therapy substitute.

Anyway, the emails work for me, but there's probably similar things that might work for you.

-Far

[sunrise]

Peaches, if you tell your T about the hospital billing problem, perhaps she can agree to bill your insurance herself instead of having the hospital do it. That way, you can continue to pay just $40. If it is too much effort for her to do the billing, perhaps you could offer to make up the bill for her yourself and then give it to her for approval before it is mailed. You could also have her do the bill only once a month or every other month to save the the number of times she has to do it. Just some ideas....

I have gone from weekly therapy to once every 2-3 weeks. This was not working well for me because we just couldn't get into serious work efficiently at this frequency of session. We lost too much continuity and had to spend time reconnecting each time and then there wasn't enough time for the work. So T suggested we meet for an hour and a half (actually 80 minutes) every two weeks instead of 50 minutes. So far we've had 3 of these longer sessions, and they have been great. I feel like the problem is solved. The longer sessions cost more, but it is still cheaper than going every week.

[BlueMoon6]

Peaches- I used to go to dt twice/week. I liked being able to process sessions better and there was so much more I could go into with more frequent sessions. But it became unaffordable for me to do that.

When I changed to ftt, I go once/week and with our finances as they are, it is what I can do. I miss twice/week. I know Id be better off going twice/week, but there really is enough continuity and processing that goes on for me to go every week instead of twice/week. I get 60 vistis/year, which means I DO get some months with twice/week. I can do this. I have found other ways to process the sessions. And I know I can call even if I dont.

I think that whatever the frequency of sessions, we find ways to do what we need to do. I have been journaling and reading an Irvin Yalom book. I see myself in the book and I write things down to bring into session. I suppose I am seeing what I am open to seeing, so in a way, its more therapy for me. And can give my session more direction.

I thought what Sunny suggested was very good, not having the hospital do the billing if at all possible. Then you could keep your co-pay at $40.