Hi Rock...I did go into some debt with therapy after my first T abandoned me and I was frantic. I was interviewing 2 to 3 T's a week and they were not covered by my insurance. My insurance has very few T's in this area in their plan. I am still having some aftereffects of going into debt for therapy and I would not really recommend it since you already are carrying a lot of debt. In my case it was an emergency because I was in active trauma at the time.

I would start with trying to find out WHY your insurance has now stopped paying for sessions. Maybe you could appeal this with them or take it up to a higher level to get approval. Your T should work with you on this.

I don't know what your future job will be that will allow you to pay off this debt so easily but I do think your T is a bit out of line to suggest this as a solution. Seems a bit self-serving. Yet, I do understand how hard it is to change T's when you are working well with someone. It's a hard choice to make.

I hope you can work something out with insurance.

Take care
TN

TN- yes. i agree with you. i will look further into the insurance issue. my future line of working is being a therapist. perhaps this current T thinks i will push my patients to go into debt which will make it easy for me to pay off my debt.
thanks again for understanding. can i ask what you mean when you say you were in an emergency and in active trauma? i know that may be personal.

Rock... because of the harsh, abusive and sudden abandonment by my T of 3 years I was suffering from pretty severe PTSD and could not function much. Nightmares, shaking, flashbacks, panic attacks, dissociation, fear of annihilation, terrified of everything...it was not pretty.

Good luck in your work as a T. Have you finished your schooling yet? I ask because I am graduating next month with my BS Psychology degree and am contemplating grad school now. I'm older so this would be a second career for me.

TN

this is my second career as well. i am finishing this summer w. schooling. then i need about 2-3 years of hours.
im 36. how old are you?

wow. your T abandoned you? thats aweful. im sorry.

Is the 25K debt due to therapy? I have spent a few thousand out of pocket for therapy because my insurance covers 80%. I wouldn't go deeply into debt for therapy because I feel there are just some risks involved.

When my exP terminated me suddenly, I was so distraught that I forgot to pay several credit cards for about a month. I got hit with some hefty fines and raised interest rates, which resulted in lower credit scores and much higher stress. So in a sense, I went into debt for a while due to bad therapy.

I think some Ts and Ps in my area will not accept credit cards for payment, maybe to prevent clients from going in debt.

When my husband lost his job, I told my current P that I couldn't afford to come for a while and he didn't offer to lower his fee. It hurt a bit to think he didn't offer any assistance, but on the other hand, he didn't make me feel badly about taking a break for financial reasons. He never said to me that I should just run up a bill and pay it off later. To me, that's stepping out of the bounds a bit.

How does it make you feel?

I hope you work this out,
Summer

It makes me feel that it would be nice to afford his rate and it would be nice if he lowered it, it would make me feel more valued. And it would make me feel better if I was of a social status to be able to afford it.

But overall, I understand I cant afford him and its ok. What concerns me is finding a new T and I am nervous I will mess up a new relationship I am in or go back to using substances as a result of the loss.

So the reasons for the loss I understand but the risks of feeling worse and doing worse are very scary to me.

My credit card debt of 25k is not from therapy.

Thanks summer. I appreciate your support.

Do you know why your exP terminated you suddenly?

You are in a difficult situation if the result could lead to subsance abuse. I wish I could offer better suggestions, but I'm beginning to feel as if I'm so confused about therapy myself that I shouldn't be trying to offer advice.

My exP lied to me about the reasons for a sudden termination and it took me months to discover the truth - he was losing his license for therapy abuse.

hi DaRock

it's one thing for your T to be holding his boundary about fee-setting, which is his right, it's another for him to be assessing your financial situation and your likelihood of being in debt years down the road. It would be ridiculous for *anyone* to draw any conclusions about your future ability to pay off debt. He's a therapist, not an oracle.

quote:

my future line of working is being a therapist. perhaps this current T thinks i will push my patients to go into debt which will make it easy for me to pay off my debt.

ROFL!! This is very astute. I am going to go on a limb here and assume you're American? Unfortunately for us, we live in a society where being in massive amounts of debt is the norm, and it is taken for granted that we need to be living with the burden of it most of our lives. But it doesn't work that way everywhere; it really doesn't *have* to be that way. Not wanting to go deeper into debt is a good thing, and it shows that you have a sense of responsibility and foresight-- something your T hopefully recognizes.

quote:

It makes me feel that it would be nice to afford his rate and it would be nice if he lowered it, it would make me feel more valued. And it would make me feel better if I was of a social status to be able to afford it.

If you felt like addressing this matter further, I think this would all be great material to bring to him. I hope, for your sake, that he budges just a bit, or barring that, that your insurance comes through! Changing Ts is so hard.

I wish you the best of luck in sorting through all this... keep us updated