Counseling for Engineers, Analysts, & Scientists
Understanding the Analytical Style
Having worked in the engineering field for decades (and being married to an engineer), I appreciate the strengths that highly analytical people bring to the world. I also understand that skills at problem definition and problem solving don’t always translate into every area of life. People with a cognitive style that makes them effective at complex technical work often find that spouses, family members, and co-workers may not share their approach to analysis and evaluation, or find it easy to communicate with them.
Reservations About Counseling
I also understand why counseling may seem too focused on emotional processing and discussion to be helpful. Counseling and therapy can have a reputation of solely aiming to force overwhelming emotions and memories out of us.
While strong emotions can certainly arise and are welcome in the counseling process, counseling can also be seen as involving problem definition, goal setting, prioritization, hypothesis generation, data collection, feedback, process improvement, and reverse engineering. Engaging in those activities in my engineering career taught me much that I have found useful in both counseling and personal relationships.
My Approach and Style
My counseling approach aims at recognizing what style of information processing and problem-handling is most comfortable for each individual, and supporting them in using their personal strengths and traits to find the best solutions for them and their relationships. This means that while one person may benefit most from exploring their emotions in depth, others may benefit more from developing an abstract model of factors affecting their lives or relationships and identifying what adjustments would best suit their environment and situation.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is one of the primary treatment approaches I use. It very much focuses on and utilizes goals, experiments, data, and feedback. In working with couples and families, I also use a Family Systems approach that is based on cybernetics and communications theory.
My own cognitive style is very balanced between emotions and analytical thinking. I bring both styles into the counseling process. This helps me to work with clients who wish to understand their style of handling situations, expand their repertoire, or communicate and problem-solve more effectively with a partner who sees and processes situations differently.
Format
In-person sessions are available Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons. These sessions are held at the Common Ground location at 604 Davis Circle in downtown Huntsville, AL. All group sessions are also held at this location.
In-Person
Telehealth
Telehealth sessions (video or phone) are available throughout the week. A limited number of evening and Saturday morning sessions are also available. Clients must be physically present in the state of Alabama during all telehealth sessions.
There is no charge for an Initial Consultation. Individual, Couples, and Family counseling services are $160 per session. Each session is 50 minutes. Fees for group sessions vary depending on the duration of the group.
Fees
Payment Information
All major Credit and Debit cards are acceptable forms of payment. We can also accept your Health Saving Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA) cards and ACH payments. Payments may be made via the secure online Client Portal. We do not accept cash or checks.
Forms of Payment
We are not an in-network insurance provider, but you may be able to use your out-of-network benefits for therapy. As part of the initial consultation, we will help you understand your out-of-network benefits and how to efficiently manage all claim submissions and follow-ups. We can also provide you with a form (called a Superbill) which you can submit to your insurance company manually. Once the deductible has been met, clients often receive a reimbursement of 60-90% of their session fees. A more accurate estimate can be given once we have your insurance information to calculate your benefits.
Insurance