Frequently Asked Questions

Under normal circumstances, most of our appointments are in-person; however, due to COVID-19, we often do a combination of in-person appointments and video conferencing or telephonic appointments.

Our offices are in downtown Lakeland, Florida. Some clients prefer in-person sessions, while others like the convenience of having their appointments online. We are flexible and are willing to discuss what works best for you.

We do not take insurance but are on several EAP panels. There are some issues clients should seriously consider before deciding to use their health insurance for psychotherapy.

Clients are often unaware that for therapists to get paid by insurance companies for therapy visits, they must provide a diagnostic code for the client. This means that your therapist must submit a diagnosis code to your insurance company, where it becomes a part of your permanent record. In this day and age of electronic record-keeping systems, a diagnosis given to you by a therapist will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Clients interested in careers that require clearances, like working for the federal government and/or the U.S. military, will have to undergo background investigations where their medical records may be disclosed. Medical records can also be requested in certain legal matters such as custody battles and the like. If at some point you’re interested in purchasing life insurance, depending on the amount of coverage you’re seeking, they often request copies of your medical records, and you may be rated or even denied coverage due to a diagnosis.

At Stoa Life, we value your privacy above everything else. We would rather not have to submit a diagnosis and records of our sessions to any insurance company. We want your sessions to be private so that you are comfortable discussing anything and know that it’s not going to become part of your permanent healthcare record. It’s for these reasons that we often discuss with clients why we strongly prefer not to accept insurance for psychotherapy services.

There is no minimal number of sessions required. The average number of sessions varies and lies somewhere between 12 to 20 sessions to complete formal treatment; however, many clients have said they start feeling better in as few as 3 or 4 sessions. Some clients choose to continue working with us to maintain contact and “check in” every few months. This is something that is worked out individually with each client.

Cost:  Individual 50-minute sessions are $150 and 50-minute couples sessions are $200. Longer sessions are available upon request. As mentioned above, most clients are with us for 12 to 20 sessions. Payment is made at each session. Again, no minimal number of sessions is required.

We try to work with your schedule, but we highly recommend that our first four sessions be scheduled at weekly intervals. While every therapy session is about you, during the first four sessions, we are teaching you a self-counseling system so that, in time, you will be able to counsel yourself. After the first four sessions, many clients continue to meet with us weekly, but at this point, you may choose to spread the sessions out to biweekly or even longer. There is no minimum requirement for sessions.

If you want to spread out the cost of our work, you can achieve that by scheduling one or two appointments per month after the first four sessions. Again, we highly recommend that the first four sessions occur in consecutive weeks.

Please bear in mind there are many self-help exercises and readings that can be done at home to facilitate faster results in a fewer number of sessions. For the type of work we’ll be doing together, the more work you’re willing to do outside of sessions, the faster the therapy will go and the fewer sessions you are likely to need to be able to learn the system and feel the way you want to feel.