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Frequently Asked Questions What are your fees? A principal aim of The Saturday Center is to provide quality psychotherapy to clients at a reasonable cost. There is a one-time $50 fee for the initial appointment. The standard fee for subsequent sessions is $125. However, we offer a sliding scale based on your financial situation with a minimum fee of $30. back to top How do I make an appointment? Call 310 829-7997 to make an appointment. A therapist will contact you to set up a meeting during which the therapist will get a sense of who you are and what brings you into therapy. back to top What is the difference between counseling and psychotherapy? Counseling helps people deal with particular problems in day-to-day living. The counselor works with you to identify problems, to set realistic goals, and to develop skills in problem solving, coping, and interpersonal relations. Psychotherapy is a more intensive process that promotes emotional awareness and psychological development. The process can strengthen one’s sense of confidence, self-acceptance, and responsibility in daily life. It may also lead to a greater capacity for intimacy, to a more productive use of innate skills, and to the experiencing of more meaning and pleasure in life. See Counseling & Psychotherapy for a more detailed explanation. back to top What kind of therapy do you provide? The Saturday Center provides psychodynamic (sometimes called dynamic) therapy. This type of therapy traces it roots back to the work of Sigmund Freud. Clinical theory and practice have developed over the years, as has our understanding of people. However, some fundamental aspects of dynamic work remain the same. This type of therapy is based upon the following assumptions:
back to top What is the difference between psychodynamic therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy? As opposed to psychodymanic therapy, which is a process of uncovering and understanding ones' out of awareness mental functioning, cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on seeking relief for specific symptoms. In contrast, dynamic therapy seeks to understand underlying causes and enables a person to change his or her mental functioning. This is sometimes called characterological change. back to top How long does treatment take? There is no answer to this question. For some people it takes years. Others find some relief in a matter of months. To some extent the answer lies in the client's motivation, his or her willingness to experience anxiety or psychic distress, the therapist's skill, and the quality of match between client and therapist. back to top How often do I have to come in? Most people begin with one appointment each week. For many, this is the maximum frequency. Others find that coming in two or three times a week is more beneficial. The frequency of visits has little or nothing to do with the degree of pathology or psychological dysfunction. Rather, it is related to the intensity of the work. Those people who are highly involved in the process of change find that they get more when they increase the frequency of visits. back to top Will I become dependent on the therapist? In successful dynamic therapies, the client and therapist form a relationship in which the therapist provides understanding, acceptance, guidance, and comfort. In such relationships the client often relinquishes a degree of control, especially when being in control is a psychological issue. They can also feel needy and dependent. Such states may last for long periods of time, but are ultimately of a temporary nature. It often happens that change occurs through the unfolding and exploration of these emotional states. back to top Does going to therapy mean that I’m crazy? No! Most people who seek out psychotherapy are psychologically whole. That is, all of their cognitive and psychological processes are present, and none are so greatly damaged that they are going to end up in a mental hospital or as a street person. Even when a person suffers a breakdown or has to be hospitalized, there is usually a full recovery. The effect of psychological processes that prevent an integration of feelings and thoughts is what causes most people to seek psychological help. That is, the person must keep certain thoughts or feelings out of awareness to protect him or her self from disruptive and potentially overwhelming emotional reactions. The result is that the person functions in ways that he or she experiences as inappropriate and unrewarding. They may call this crazy. The truth is that the person is behaving (responding) quite sanely, given his/her internal representations of self and of how others are likely to respond to him/her. From this point of view, psychotherapy is an updating or expansion of a person's experiential models of self and others. This type of mental restructuring requires a special type of relationship, one in which the therapist's needs are set aside, and the therapist and client are able to explore the feelings, needs, and reactions of the client. In essence, no feeling or thought is considered unacceptable. Rather, all of the client's feelings, thoughts, and reactions are understood as normal within the context of his or her internal world. Such a relationship is extremely rewarding because it increases self-knowledge and expands the person's repertoire of available emotional and behavioral responses. Going into therapy means that you want to use this kind of relationship to do some internal restructuring. This is very different from being crazy. The latter means that some essential aspect of mental functioning is missing or broken beyond repair. back to top |