Welcome to Mindful Springs
Our Mission: to provide culturally inclusive, non-pathologizing, and accessible psychotherapy to a diverse client population. We are committed to creating safety for marginalized and historically excluded communities while practicing with accountability, integrity, and clinical depth.
Mindful Springs Counseling was founded in 2013 by Aimee Solis, LPC. It began as a small practice that Aimee started out of her home in an effort to create the type of practice and work that felt right to her and that would provide balance for a new mom. MSC now has 2 locations, a staff of over 20 psychotherapists, and several administrative staff.
At Mindful Springs, many of our therapists are trained to implement mindfulness-based interventions including Brainspotting, relaxation techniques, breathing exercises and EMDR.
FAQ
What is the difference between the different levels of therapists (I,II, III, IV, and V)?
How much are your fees?
Our coaching fees are: $200 for 55 minute individual coaching sessions. Group coaching is available too! Please call our office to inquire about and schedule coaching services.
Our session fees for our Seattle clients are: $220 for the initial session and $180 for all other therapy sessions. Three-hour Ketamine medicine sessions are charged at a rate of $540. This increase in cost (compared to Colorado) accounts for the higher cost of operations in Seattle and offers competitive pay for our Seattle area staff.
Our session fees with our Level V independently licensed staff (10+ years of post-licensure experience) are: $200 for all visits up to 55 min. Extended visits of 75-120 minutes are available at a higher rate starting at $225 and up.
Our session fees with our Level IV independently licensed staff (5+ years of post-licensure experience or 2+ highly skilled with advanced certification) are: $165 for visits up to 55 min. Extended visits of 75-120 minutes are available at a higher rate starting at $200 and up.
Our session fees with our Level III independently licensed staff are: $150 for all visits up to 55 min. Extended visits of 75-120 minutes are available at a higher rate.
Our session fees with our Level II provisionally licensed staff are: $135 for all visits up to 55 min. Extended visits of 75-120 minutes are available at a higher rate.
Our session fees with our Level I student interns are: $75 for advanced student intern visits (completion of internship hours and within 1 semester of graduation) and $50 for student intern visits (may be in 1st or 2nd year of academic programming and completing internship hours).
What is a "good faith estimate" of care and what are my rights regarding the cost of my services?
You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your medical and mental health care will cost.
If you are using insurance, the good faith estimate does not currently apply to you and you should pay the estimated patient responsibility at the time of service, while keeping in mind that you are responsible for your plan's benefits and Mindful Springs Counseling does not have control over your benefits. Any insurance estimates are ONLY estimates and not a guarantee of coverage. If you pay your estimate at the time of service and your insurance plan processes claims showing a higher patient amount due, you will be sent an invoice and asked to pay that amount promptly.
Under new law effective January 2022, health care providers need to give patients, who don’t have insurance or who opt out of using insurance, an estimate of the expected charges for medical services, including psychotherapy services.
You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare services, including psychotherapy services.
You can ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule a service.
If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill. Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.
For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises.
If you believe you’ve been wrongly billed, you may contact:
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The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or visit https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises for more information about your rights under federal law.
Why don't you accept insurance for couples therapy?
Mindful Springs Counseling strives to provide accessible services to the communities we service; in fact, accessibility is in our mission statement.
With this being said, unfortunately, insurance providers do not recognize that true couples therapy cannot be provided in 26-34 minutes, which is the length of time for which they reimburse couples therapy providers. The reimbursement rates are based on a minimum of 26 minutes with couples and while insurance companies will state that providers may meet with couples for the entire hour, this time is not compensated, which makes it difficult to recruit and retain high quality providers that meet our high standards.
In addition, in order to seek reimbursement for services from insurance, one partner must be identified as the patient and receive a diagnosis with the care being focused on the recovery of that one individual. This can make true couples therapy interventions very difficult as the focus changes from the couple to the recovery of one of the partners.
At Mindful Springs Counseling, we have made the choice to discontinue accepting insurance for most couples therapy in order to focus on the quality of care delivery and the best interests of our clients. When a couples session is required as an occasional adjunct service in the best interest of a client and the primary service is individual therapy, this service may be billed to insurance at the discretion of the client's primary therapist.
What insurance do you accept?
Our Level V independently licensed staff (10+years of post-licensure experience and additional certifications) do NOT accept insurance. We also do not accept insurance for couples therapy nor coaching.
Our Level IV independently licensed staff accept Aetna and United Healthcare. Highly skilled Level IV staff do not accept any insurance.
Our Level III independently licensed staff accept Aetna, Cigna and United Healthcare.
Our Level II provisionally licensed staff accept United Healthcare, Cigna and Aetna.
Our Level I Student Interns do not accept commercial insurance during year 1 of their training and can accept Cigna and Aetna later in their internships (2nd year and advanced interns). Please contact our office to inquire about intern availability.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a skill and a type of meditation. It is being in the present moment, letting go of judgment, acknowledging what is. It is a new perspective, one that may be foreign to you now. From this place of mindfulness, you will achieve more clarity, balance and peace. You will be able to make decisions and behave differently. Mindfulness is not about control. It is about acceptance. If you can accept what you feel, acknowledge urges and temptations, you can explore the impact of all of this on your life. This will change your decision-making, setting off a new chain of behavior through detached awareness so that you can change your life!
Sounds easy right? The concept is easy, but it is really bleepin' hard if your brain isn't already wired this way. It takes lots of practice, faith and persistence. So why do something that isn't easy and is going to take so much commitment?… because it works and when used with intention, it is life changing! Remember, you are here to change your life and that is hard work.
At Mindful Springs, many of our clinicians work from an intentional place of mindful awareness. We are human too though, so we get triggered work through it and come back in our work and personal lives. We both teach mindfulness as a skill that can be developed and also create the energy of present and mindful awareness in our relationships with clients. Even when mindfulness isn't being "taught" in a very direct way during therapy sessions, through the research that has been done on attachment, interpersonal neurobiology and neuroscience we know that human beings can "absorb" the mindful and present energy through the mirror neurons in the brain that are eager to receive this type of present awareness in relationship.
Mindfulness meditation comes from Buddhist teachings about how to reach enlightenment and it has evolved. No human being can ever reach total zen enlightenment, but we can be intentional everyday to be more present in our lives. Mindfulness has been shown to be significantly effective in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. There have been promising studies comparing mindfulness to anti-depressant medication use, showing that in regard to anxiety and depression, mindfulness can be the long-term solution to emotion regulation.