Beyond the Bill: Why I Don’t Take Insurance and Why It Matters for Your Healing

One of the first questions people ask when they’re looking for support is, “Do you take insurance?” And for me, the answer is no. This is a conscious choice, and it’s not because I want to make things difficult. It’s because I believe true, deep healing requires a level of privacy and freedom that the traditional insurance model simply doesn’t allow.

This decision is about creating a sacred container for our work together—one that is completely focused on your growth, without outside interference.

The Sacred Space of Your Privacy

When a provider bills through an insurance company, your diagnosis becomes a permanent part of your medical record. In some cases, a therapist’s session notes could be scrutinized or a treatment plan analyzed by someone at the insurance company to determine if your therapy will be covered. I find this to be a profound invasion of privacy.

Furthermore, I work with individuals who, for the sake of their career or profession, cannot or do not feel comfortable sharing that they are seeking mental health support. Police officers, military personnel, airline pilots, and others have structures in place that can discourage people from seeking therapy for fear that they could lose their jobs or be seen as a liability if they are given a mental health diagnosis.

Your healing journey is yours alone. I fervently believe that it should be a completely private process, not something shared and documented for a third party to review.

The Freedom to Heal on Your Own Terms

I’m an advocate for a different kind of healing. I believe in the power of alternative methods like breathwork, psychedelic-assisted therapies, energy healing, shamanic healing, and many more.

Unfortunately, the traditional Western medical system and the insurance companies that operate within it don’t acknowledge many of these tools as valid or effective. They are structured to cover a very specific type of mental health care, often limited to talk therapy and medication.

The truth is, talking is not effective for everyone. Medications are not effective for everyone. Yet these are the only tools that insurance often gives to mental health providers.

I am not here to check a box or stick to a rigid treatment plan created by an insurance company. I’m here to guide you toward what actually works for you. When you work with me, our focus is on your unique needs and your whole being—the wild, the wise, the dark, and the light. We are free to explore all the tools and practices that will support you on your journey, without limitations.

A Non-Pathologizing Approach: You Are Not a Diagnosis

My final reason for not accepting insurance is perhaps the most personal and fundamental to my practice. I believe in working with people in a non-pathologizing way, which means I don’t believe you are your diagnosis.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) was created with good intentions—to bring some cohesion to the mental health field. However, it has become a system that creates limitations and can be used in abusive ways. Our modern social media culture loves to throw around diagnoses, but these labels can be damaging, not just for the individual, but for our relationships as well.

This is why I choose to practice in a way that respects the whole of who you are. The non-pathologizing idea comes from my use of Internal Family Systems (IFS), which teaches that someone may have a “part” of themselves that is experiencing depression, but the whole person is not depressed or depression.

While diagnoses can be helpful for some, they can also be limiting. They can be helpful as long as we don’t identify with our diagnosis as “who we are” or who someone else is, and instead, see it as something to learn about a piece of who we are.

Furthermore, the DSM categories and the studies used to determine effective treatments are primarily based on studies of young, white men in rural Midwest towns. This means that if you are a woman or a person of color, your unique experiences may be misunderstood or misrepresented in your diagnosis. Your cultural and gender-based differences often are not accounted for, which is a significant failing of the system.

Choosing to work with me is an investment in your privacy and your personal freedom. It’s an opportunity to go beyond the surface and into the soul, on your own terms. If this approach resonates with you, I invite you to step into this space and begin your healing journey.

– Kelly