FAQ

Therapy sessions at Divine Mind Therapeutics are 50 minutes to 1 hour long. Clients have the option of purchasing additional time with their therapist so long as their therapist has the availability and receives a notice 24-48 hours before the scheduled session.

Coverage and benefits for traditional therapy and counseling services change from one health insurance company to another and from one plan to another. Still, they seem to follow several general rules.

With many health insurance plans, clients can receive partial or limited coverage. Even if your plan covers all your costs, the co-pay may be higher than the entire cost of Divine Mind Therapeutics.

In many cases, before you can receive reimbursement from your insurance company, your therapist must provide a diagnosis describing a mental disorder or issue. Your insurance company gets this diagnosis, which becomes part of your medical record. In some cases, the therapist must provide additional clinical information to the insurance company, such as treatment plans, summaries, or copies of the entire record.

If you consider using your health insurance, please check your coverage carefully by asking the following questions:

Do I have mental health insurance benefits? What is my deductible, and has it been met? How many sessions per year does my health insurance cover? What is the coverage amount per therapy session?

Is approval required from my primary care physician?

Please note that Divine Mind Therapeutics offers very affordable pricing options that are typically comparable with the co-pays of most insurance plans.

We have a 24-hour cancellation policy. If you cancel with less than a 24-hour notice but can reschedule your session for the same workweek, you will receive a charge for your session but no fee.

However, if you cancel with less than 24 hours and you cannot make up the time in the same workweek, you will be charged a fee for the time. The therapist is unable to fulfill your appointment time due to such short notice.

Divine Mind Therapeutics is NOT the right solution for you if…

You have thoughts of hurting yourself or others.

You are a minor or are under the care of a legal guardian.

You are in an urgent crisis or an emergency.

You have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness or advised to be in psychological supervision or psychiatric care.

You were required to undergo therapy or counseling either by a court order or by any other authority.

You do not have a device that can connect to the Internet, or you do not have a reliable Internet connection.

Call (571) 249-2519 now for your free consultation and get scheduled.

We like to make sure that we are a good fit for you. Our main priority is to assist you in a timely fashion.

We offer our clients virtual individual, group, couples, and family therapy Monday through Thursday.

We provide bi-weekly sessions where clients can choose daytime sessions from 10 am – 4 pm or evening sessions from 5 pm –12 am (for our night owls).

Couples and Family Co-Therapy involve working with two credentialed therapists during your sessions.

We offer clients the option to work with a therapeutic reflection team where sessions will include a primary therapist and co-therapist along with 4-6 additional therapists listening, observing, and working with you to aid you in solving your primary concerns faster and more efficiently.

Our reflection team is entirely virtual, allowing you the chance to work with a brilliant therapist from anywhere in the world.

You can receive therapy in the following ways: exchanging messages with your counselor, chatting live with your counselor, speaking over the phone with your counselor, or video conferencing with your counselor.

You can use different ways at different times as you wish, based on your needs, availability, and convenience.

You can have a video session with your counselor where you see each other and talk with each other in a virtual face-to-face setting (e.g., Skype).

At Divine Mind Therapeutics, we utilize Google Meet for our video sessions.

To talk with your counselor via video, you will need to schedule a time with your counselor and log in to your private room at that time. Your therapist will email you a Google Meet invitation to be granted access to the video session. After you confirm, you will immediately begin video chatting with your counselor.

To message your therapist, you will write about yourself, the things going on in your life, ask questions, and discuss the issues that trouble you. Your therapist will read your messages and respond with questions, feedback, insights, and guidance.

You can exchange messages with your counselor at any time, from anywhere, using any Internet-connected device. You can message your therapist 24/7. Since messaging is not in real-time, it doesn’t require scheduling. Instead, you can choose whenever you want to write or respond to your counselor. You will receive a notification by email when the counselor has sent you a message.

Your therapist will respond to your messages within 24-48 hours of receiving them.

You will sometimes want to have a text conversation with your counselor in real-time. This way you can still enjoy the convenience and privacy of messaging and enjoy a “live” interaction that allows instant response and feedback from your therapist.

To have a live chat session, you will first need to schedule a time with your counselor. At the scheduled time, log in to your account to start typing and chatting with your counselor.

Phone sessions are a great way to conveniently speak with your counselor by simply using your landline or cell phone, no matter where you are.

To talk with your counselor over the phone, you will need to schedule a time with your counselor and log in to your counseling room at that time. The counselor will prompt you to start the phone session, and the system will ask you for your phone number. The system will then call you at that number and connect you with your counselor to start the phone session. Please note that this phone number will not be shared with the counselor.

We take your privacy and confidentiality seriously. Here are some things that might be helpful for you to know

Everything you tell your counselor is confidential. We don’t cooperate or work with any insurance companies, so we share, report, or file nothing with them.

We use encrypted and password-protected note-taking and email systems.

If you wish for any of your information or records released to a third party, please let your counselor know. Your therapist will send you an authorization form that you will need to fill and sign before your counselor releases the information.

When you reach out and contact us for an inquiry, we will not require you to provide your full name and contact information unless you desire our services.

When you begin working with us, we ask you for your full name or contact information for emergencies. You can use a “nickname” that we will use to identify you in our system.

Your name is kept safe in the system for use if your counselor believes that you or someone else might be in danger.

Your therapist may request additional specific information about you as required by their licensing board guidelines. This information is kept strictly confidential and protected by our secure system and patient data protection laws.

Once a we have prepared a settlement agreement, you can file an “uncontested” divorce with the court. The court often fast-tracks uncontested cases because everything has been worked out in advance; judges are often able to finalize the divorce in a matter of a couple of months.

Mediation will only work if both spouses are open to negotiating the terms of the divorce. Typically, you’ll set up an initial meeting between the spouses and the mediator. During the first meeting, each spouse will have the opportunity to explain expectations for the most common divorce-related issues, including:

property division
child custody and visitation
child support, and
alimony or spousal support.
This initial discussion will help the mediator gain an idea of how far apart you are and what areas need the most work.

Aside from statutory limitations of divorce, mediation doesn’t have a time limit. You can continue to mediate and work on your divorce judgment for as long as you, your spouse, and the mediator would like. Naturally, the longer it takes and the more meetings you have, the more expensive it becomes. You can decide to meet once per week, monthly, or at any other time. Most couples can resolve mediation with a few sessions, which typically costs thousands of dollars less than litigating your case in court.

Once you agree on all the outstanding issues, the mediator will draft a divorce settlement agreement for both spouses (and their attorneys) to review, sign, and present to the judge.

1. Help Navigating the Issues
When you and your spouse are in agreement, you have options for divorcing quickly and cheaply—including using an online divorce service. But if you and your spouse have issues you can’t agree on, most online divorce services won’t work for your case.

Also, the more complex your situation is—for example, if you have a lot of assets or a child with special needs—the more likely it is that you and your spouse will need some guidance resolving the issues. A knowledgeable mediator can alert you to the details you need to work out, lay out possible solutions that have worked for other couples, and help you complete the paperwork.

2. More Control Over the Outcome
To a large degree, mediation places your future in your own hands, rather than leaving it up to a judge to decide what happens to you, your children, and your assets. No one is as familiar with your situation as you and your spouse. Mediation can help you determine the outcome of your marital split on your own terms.

Judges typically have big caseloads, with only a limited amount of time to consider each situation that comes before them. With mediation, you have the opportunity to really dive into the issues and craft creative solutions. For example, through mediation, a couple might come up with a specifically tailored situation where the pair keeps the family house until the kids are out of school, or the kids live in the house and the parents move in and out.

3. Faster Resolution of Your Divorce
Another benefit of mediation relates to time. When you hire lawyers and head to court, you might find yourself stuck in a process that moves with the speed of a glacier. Your case is one of thousands to be handled by one of a limited number of family court judges. Mediation, on the other hand, can proceed at whatever pace you, your spouse, and the mediator agree on.

4. Significant Cost Savings
If you file for divorce before resolving issues like custody, child support, distribution of marital property, and alimony (spousal support), it’s more likely that you’re going to need a lawyer to help you get the outcome you want. With so many issues needing to be resolved, it doesn’t take long for attorneys’ fees to add up. And the more arguing there is, the faster those bills accumulate.

In most mediations, the spouses split the mediator’s fee. So whether the mediator is an attorney or another professional trained in mediation (such as an accountant or psychologist), the odds are you’ll be paying far less than if you had gone to court. And if the idea of representing yourself in a mediation seems daunting, you do have the option of hiring a lawyer to guide you through the process.

Note that there are situations where divorcing spouses might need other professionals to help with mediation. For instance, you might want an appraiser to assess the value of property or a psychologist or social worker to help work out child custody and visitation issues. But you’d likely need assistance from those same professionals if you were to bypass mediation and go directly to court. And, in all probability, you’d be paying even more for their services—you would have to pay not only to consult with them but also for them to testify in court or prepare a written report.

5. Control Over Your Schedule
When you go the court route, you have no control over scheduling—the court will tell you when you must appear, with little regard for your personal schedule and prior commitments. And it’s not unusual to go to court for a hearing or a conference and wind up waiting hours before a judge is ready for you. With mediation, you and your spouse set the dates and times of meetings with the mediator. Some mediators even offer evening sessions, a major plus for spouses holding daytime jobs.

6. A Good Start to Your Post-Divorce Relationship
When the mediation ends, you and your spouse will likely be on better terms than if you’d spent a year or so battling each other in the courthouse. Court skirmishes tend to foster lingering hostility and resentment that becomes nearly impossible to overcome even once the divorce is finalized. The negative effects of that are obvious, both for you and your children.

Mediation can also set the tone for a better relationship and make for smoother co-parenting down the road. In fact, a long-term study revealed that mediation resulted in parents who don’t live with their children seeing the children more often than those who took their divorce to court.

For some couples, working with your spouse and a mediator might be just what you need to obtain a divorce with as little conflict as possible. But, mediation will only work if you and your spouse are on the same page. You are more likely to have a successful mediation if all or most of the following statements are true.

You and Your Spouse Agree to Divorce

Despite what we see on television—or what we often hear from friends or family—not all divorces are contentious. In some cases, the decision to divorce is mutual. If you and your spouse agree that the marriage is over, you can file a petition for divorce together or, one spouse can file with the other’s knowledge. When you’re both on the same page, it’s often easier to negotiate and work together to find a resolution for any unresolved divorce issues in mediation.

There’s No History of Domestic Violence

With divorce mediation comes the need for frequent meetings involving both spouses, the mediator, and possibly attorneys. If you and your spouse have a history of domestic abuse, most mediators won’t take your case because it’s difficult to keep both spouses on track, and it’s challenging for the mediator to determine if the victim agrees to the settlement because of fear or intimidation from the abuser.

Both Spouses Are Forthcoming About Finances

One of the most complicated parts of any divorce is the finances. Both spouses must be willing to provide the other (and the mediator) with sensitive information, including documentation relating to bank accounts, retirement, pensions, stocks, and all other assets and debts. In most marriages, it’s common for one spouse to be more familiar with the family assets and liabilities than the other. If you don’t have all the relevant financial information, you’ll need to investigate and understand your marital estate before you agree to a proposed property settlement.

You Agree on Custody Terms

Child custody and visitation can be the most challenging aspect of divorce. Most parents can set aside their differences for the children’s sake, but sometimes even the best intentions are met with complications.

Divorce mediation is an excellent way to work with your co-parent to decide who should care for the children on a day-to-day basis, who should be responsible for paying child support, and the type and frequency of visitation with the non-custodial parent.

There’s no question that parents know what’s best for their children, and the most effective way to ensure that your judgment of divorce protects your children’s best interest is to negotiate the terms for custody with your spouse. If you discuss custody and reach a roadblock, your mediator may be able to offer advice or suggestions on how to resolve the issues without asking the court for help.

If you and your spouse disagree on custody, especially if there are allegations of abuse or neglect, you’ll need court intervention. The court will try to determine what arrangement is in your child’s best interests by using your state’s custody process before the judge makes a final decision.

Mediation Isn’t Suitable for Couples With an Imbalance of Power

A successful mediation depends on a level playing field. Mediation can fail if either spouse has the upper hand in one form or another. For example, a spouse who bullies and is used to “winning” might never agree to settle. Or a spouse who has experienced domestic violence might be too afraid to speak openly in a mediation session. (Ongoing domestic violence and other dangerous situations basically rule out mediation and mean that the potential or actual victim needs help from a professional.)

Likewise, mediation is less likely to be successful when a spouse has a history of being deceitful or untrustworthy. This is especially true when a spouse is suspected of hiding assets or wasting funds. You can’t reach a meaningful settlement unless both spouses are truthful about all issues involved, including everything they own.

Also, if one spouse is legally claiming that the divorce is the other spouse’s fault or has already hired a lawyer, then the other spouse should normally have an attorney.