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About

Find out more about our services and therapist here.

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy is a personal and confidential space where you can explore your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with a trained professional. During our work together, we will focus on identifying sustainable changes that make your life easier. Sometimes you will pick up skills quickly and other times we will practice acceptance as new life strategies often test our patience before they become easy. Many of my clients find that we focus on a mix of behavioral changes and shifting perspectives, along with a healthy dose of fun, curiosity, and feeling feelings. 

Couples Therapy

Couples/Polycule therapy is a time to work on healing and improving your relationship. Our work will be guided by teachings from the Gottman Method and Emotional Focused Therapy. In individual therapy the therapist often provides a safe space for work to happen; in couples therapy, the couple has to learn to provide a safe space for each other in order to allow their relationship to grow to new heights. We do this by practicing relational skills, working through issues in real time, and improving our own individual self-care practices all at once. 

Fees & Insurance

Individual work may be covered by insurance (in-network with Presbyterian/Magellan, BCBS, and Molina only) and superbills may be provided for individual work as an out-of-network provider.

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Marriage and Couples counseling is not covered under most health insurance plans, regardless of whether or not a therapist is in-network with an insurance company. For insurance reimbursement, the therapist must diagnose the client with a mental health disorder, and there is no reimbursable diagnosis code for marriage or family counseling.

 

The only way a therapist can bill insurance for marriage counseling is by assigning a mental health diagnosis to one partner and then submitting claims to the insurance company as if they are primarily treating that person’s mental illness.​ When we do couples counseling with the goal of treating the relationship, working together to improve communication and connection--we are not doing work that is billable to insurance. 

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Private pay rates range from $135 - $225. I ask that you determine what you are able to pay using your financial privilege as a guide. The Green Bottle graphic below may be useful as a reference.

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About Ellen

I value relationships of all kinds and believe it is important to develop skills to support healthy relationships with our own selves and those that make up our communities (family, friends, co-workers, etc). 

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When you ask me about what therapy looks like with me, we often sit and talk. Sometimes there are tears, often there is laughter, and we attempt to balance our time between creating safety and pushing into new thoughts and behaviors. We work on what you want to work on. Clients often notice improvement within a month of weekly sessions, but sustained symptom reduction and new belief and habit development often takes longer practice. I would say anywhere from 6 months to 1.5 years of variations of weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly sessions often creates a strong enough positive feedback loop for clients to feel confident in completely ending services. 

 

I can intellectualize with the best of them, but I have found that increasing my skills in feeling and identifying my emotions has improved my ability to exist as a human. I have learned that we often over-value logic to a level that actually hinders our decisions making skills; that is, we require emotions to make decisions and often benefit from learning how to feel our emotions and respect their value in our lives. Many clients appreciate my humorous, non-conventional style and direct-ish approach. I find that it helps my clients and I approach difficult topics with the idea that social norms are often not goals we want for ourselves. Owning your own perspective is its own kind of rebellion that makes you uniquely you and humor does not have to take away the realness of life. Instead it can add to the joys and sorrows of humanity. 

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Outside of the therapy room, I do my best to live a life that allows me to show up as my best self in as many areas of my life as possible. This means I spend time learning about relationships (because I really am a person that loves working with and learning about relationships) and I prioritize relationships that inspire me. I also enjoy social dancing in Taos and Santa Fe and playing Fortnite with other adults from across the world. If I am working on my fitness routine it will usually involve me working on mobility, dance, yoga, weight lifting, golf, and/or disc golf. I am particularly fond of eating food, and I have a dairy allergy that encourages me to explore various cuisines. I nerd out on financial wellness and spend time curating social media accounts that feed me information on:

  • brain health developments

  • couples communication

  • body health topics on nutrition and fitness information focused on women's health

  • some home renovation ideas

  • a healthy dose of viral dance videos that feel exciting and motivating. 

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I nurture my creative side as a content creator focused on relational wellness. You can find more information about this business at www.loveevolutions.com.

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If you're curious about my life experiences, I want to note that shared life experiences does not mean working with me will be more likely to be effective for you. However, I understand that sometimes, it's important to feel like you have some similarities. Below are some highlights:​​

  • I have been in love and fallen out of love.​

    • I have dated someone who struggled with addiction.​

    • I have dated someone who struggled with mental health challenges.

  • I have been married 13+ years and divorced.

  • I have experienced shame, worthlessness, guilt, joy, love, numbness, helplessness, hope, etc. 

  • I have experienced conflict avoidance, anxious attachment, and secure attachment. 

  • I have a step-kid that identifies as non-binary that I raised since they were five.

  • I identify as lesbian.

    • I often work with heterosexual couples and women, but I also work with polycules, queer identifying folx, men, and teens ages 14+. 

  • I was adopted to a white Dad and Filipina mom who raised me with lower middle-class American family values plus some of their own generational quirks. 

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Education

2013 - 2015

MS in Marriage and Family Therapy
Texas Tech University

My masters in Marriage and Family Therapy afforded me an education focused on systems based therapies and allowed me opportunities to start working with couples while earning my degree. I also specialized in addiction studies. 

2006 - 2010

BA in Mathematics
Texas Tech University

Yes. I initially graduated with a degree in math. I minored in Women and Gender Studies at the time and taught math at an alternative school before deciding to get a therapy degree. Originally, I went to school for industrial engineering, but the group work just wasn't a good fit at the time. 

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