My office is located just south of Minneapolis in Edina — right off of Highway 100 and Industrial Blvd/77th Street. The actual address is:
5100 Edina Industrial Blvd, Suite 232
Edina, MN 55439
For driving directions, photos of the building and instructions once you get inside, visit my website HERE.
Yes.
However, evening hours are the prime real estate — high in demand and limited in numbers. A lot of the couples I work with are able to make daytime appointments work. They come during their lunch break or they are able to adjust their schedule to leave a little bit early to accommodate a 3pm or a 4pm slot.
If evening slots are truly the only time that you and your spouse are able to accommodate, ask me about availability at the end of your initial phone consultation.
To find a time that works for you and I to talk, please use the ONLINE SCHEDULING HERE. I will call you at the number you provided in the form and the given time. The initial phone consultation is about 30 min in length, just so you know how to plan. Please reserve that time and find a place where you can talk freely and without interruptions.
IF none of the times available work, please reach out to me and we’ll find a time that works.
The initial phone consultation is about 30 minutes in length.
And yes, I do offer one for each spouse in the marriage separately. That means you do not need to be available to get on the phone at the same time. You each find your own so that both of you and I can speak separately first.
If you are interested in speaking with me and ready to schedule one of those now, you can do so HERE.
No – I like to speak with both you and your spouse separately first so you will each need to find your own slot to speak with me.
The first piece to the intake process is the initial phone consultation. I like to speak with both of you separately first to make sure that I am a good fit for both of you so please find a time for each one of you and I to connect at different times. To schedule an initial phone consultation, you can do so HERE.
Once I’ve spoken with both of you, what I’d like you two to do is find a time that works, connect and sort of compare notes. But when I say compare notes, I don’t necessarily mean – what did you say? what did she say? how did you answer this or the other question? or what did you ask of the me? BUT – connect more in the sense of: How did the conversation go? Going back to that fit piece – Did the conversation go well? Can you both say yes to that? If so, the next question would be: Would you like to do the next thing?
And if the answer to that is yes – The next thing would be for all three of us to find a time and schedule an initial in-person consultation. We’d find a time that works and do that. The initial in-person session is 90 min in length, just so you know how to plan. In the initial in-person consultation, we would get a chance to meet face to face (or virtually), it would give you two a chance to get a feel for the space, it would give us the opportunity to continue talking about what we talked about during the phone session.
If and when you decided that you wanted to hear what working with me would look like, we would talk about that, if that goes well, we would then find a time to meet on an ongoing basis and we would also schedule the initial intake session at that time.
There is a one-time fee of $369 for the initial-in-person consultation. Once you decide that’s what’s you would like to do, you would receive a confirmation of time via email along with a link to make your payment to reserve that time slot.
The sessions are 50 min in length. I meet with couples once a week, at the same time every week (same day, same time) so that you can schedule your social obligations easily around that. So we’ll find a day and a time that works on an ongoing basis and stick to that – for example, Wednesdays at noon.
As a marriage specialist, I don’t take insurance and am not able to do in-network or out of network reimbursement.
If in order to get help for your marriage, you two need to be able to use your insurance benefits (in-network or out-of-network), I am happy to connect you with a colleague or two of mine who I know you’d be in great hands with.
I initially contract with couples for a minimum of six months — knowing that couples work is not a what you would call a 2-3 week fix. And if that’s what you are looking for, then I am not the marriage specialist you are looking for. I remind couples all the time that if you have been working on your “dysfunction” for years, decades even, to have the expectation that we will have all that taken care of and you will be in and out in that short of a period of time is just plain unrealistic. Don’t expect to walk into the forest in ten minutes and come out in five.
In other words, for the time that you have been together – that may be two years, twelve or twenty two – you have been perfecting these ways that you are finding do not work and are not giving you what you were hoping for. To expect that you can come in, get “fixed” and get on your way within a month or two is just plain unreasonable in my book. Truth be told, it’s going to take some time – to uncover what those things are, why they don’t work, what you can do differently and get you on your way to using these new strategies.
Something that stuck with me since graduate school: I am in the business of putting myself out of business. And if I am not doing that, I am not doing my job well. I want you to come, I want you to do the work you need to do, get the help that you need. Then I want you to leave my office one day, because you will graduate one day, and be able to do this marriage thing successfully on your own for years to come.
And as far as overall length of treatment, I have had couples who got everything accomplished in 6 months, and couples whom I have seen for 2-3 years and everything in between.
Once we have agreed on your appointment slot, I ask that couples let me know 48 hours in advance if they are unable to come. If possible, we will make other arrangements and reschedule within the same week. We will discuss emergency cancellations in person.
The same 48 hour cancellation policy goes for initial in-person appointments in my office. If you fail to notify me and no-show, you will lose the opportunity of working with me.
Absolutely. If you are two people in a long-term committed relationship – whether you are dating, engaged, living together, married or dating again, relationship issues apply for you. And so does relationship counseling.
Definitely. And if you are wondering whether you can make an impact alone – You absolutely can. While ideally we would have both of you in the room, I wholeheartedly believe that even if just one of you comes in and puts in the effort and energy to improve your marriage, it will show. No doubt about it.
So yes, even if you are –what I call– a lone soldier, as long as you want to do something about your relationship, your relationship can and will improve. So yes, call me crazy – I believe that you can single-handedly take a stab at it, and your marriage will benefit from it. I have yet to see anyone prove me wrong on this one.
First – your question about me being married – Yes, my husband and I have been married for over a decade.
And as far as believing in marriage – Absolutely I do. I don’t think that I could do the work that I am doing and see the change in the couples in my office if I didn’t believe that. I don’t think it’s my job to tell anyone whether they should have gotten married, whether they should get a divorce – it IS my job to help you with your marriage if that’s what you are looking to do. It goes back to my WHY – you can watch the video HERE. I talk about why I believe in therapy and the ways that it’s like you taking your car to the mechanic. (Say WHAT? – Yeah – Check it out)
The short answer is – Yes, in general, the law protects your privacy in terms of communication between a client and therapist. If you want me to share information with another professional, you will have to sign a written form of authorization.
The long answer is this: There ARE exceptions to confidentiality and they can be found below. In these situations, authorization is NOT necessary for the professional to disclose information.
– Disclosure of possible harm against self
– Disclosure of possible harm against another
– The suspicion of or proof of abuse and neglect of children or vulnerable adults
– Prenatal exposure to illegal drugs (such as heroin, cocaine, amphetamine) or excessive and/or habitual use of alcohol
– Disclosure about the misconduct of another professional (mental health or health care professionals included)
– Court order
Because I believe that nothing great was ever accomplished when one is hungry.
And lastly – Guess what?
You two can have a good relationship. Whether you are married or not, whether you’ve been together five odd years or a decade or two, if you are willing to work on it, you can even have a great relationship in the end.
And, regardless of what happened in the past or what happens during the course of therapy, I will be the last person in the room to raise my hand and say: “I’m done”.
Because it’s all too important.
