This blog has always had two purposes: Providing a repository for all my long winded thoughts on philosophy, especially as they relate to psychotherapy and number two, marketing. We’ll be focusing more on the marketing side of things today so it’ll be a tad dryer than usual but I hope you’ll read anyway. Let’s talk business shall we?
Here are the bottom of the barrel facts: I operate a business. I sell therapy. To suggest otherwise is not only comically inaccurate but also a bold face lie. While it’s absolutely true that the art of therapy is so much more than an exchange of goods and services for tiny pieces of arbitrarily valuable green paper, at some level, it is an exchange of goods and services. To not acknowledge this end of things would also be comically inaccurate, so I shan’t do it.
When selecting a therapist from whom to purchase therapy services, people generally want to know only a few simple things to help them make their decision: Can you help me, how will you go about helping me and how much will it cost for you to help me? It’s an inelegant list but it’s a practical and necessary one so let’s attempt to answer those questions.
Can you help me? Short answer “probably” with a but, long answer “maybe” with an even bigger butt (see what I did there?). I cannot, nor can any therapist offer guaranteed results. In fact, my licensing board forbids me from even making such claims and they’re right to do so. Due to the nature of what counseling is and what it isn’t, certainty is never 100%. As I’ve said before, psychotherapy is less a science and more an art form with bits of science sprinkled in. We’re not looking at things with a “cure” in mind like our medical counterparts may be. If you have an infection, you can take a blood test and confirm it. You can then be prescribed antibiotics to eliminate that infection entirely. Mental and emotional illness don’t operate in the same way. You can’t see depression under a microscope. There’s no medication or therapy that “eliminates” bipolar disorder. If we look at things this way, we’re working with a completely different story. The question becomes less “can you help me” in the concrete way and leans more towards a qualitative, “is the psychotherapy experience likely be beneficial for me?”
Just because you go to a museum with priceless works of art doesn’t mean you’ll like even a single painting. Loving a certain song has a million conscious and unconscious factors at work that are as difficult to list and define as they are subjective in nature. Being moved by a poem can be an wholly indescribable and personal experience. A sculptor may use the finest and most “proper” technique when he makes his piece but for some people, the piece will be of no meaning. It will not touch them in an emotional way. For others, the work will speak to the very core of their soul. For better or worse, psychotherapy operates in much the same way. Just like what would be considered the more visual and creative arts, therapy has to hit you juuuust right. The list of factors important to successful psychotherapy is seemingly endless; the client has to be in the right frame of mind, he or she has to have the appropriate motivation, be psychologically minded, be willing to be vulnerable…and even if this unending list of criteria are satisfied and even if the therapist uses the finest and most “proper” technique, sometimes, much like our sculptor example, it’s just not a good fit. There’s no connection. There’s no rapport built between client and therapist and if this is so, very likely elegant and proper technique will be for naught. My lawyer friend Rob once said of the legal system; “Is it illegal? The answer to that is always ‘maybe and it depends'”. Is Brandon Peters, LPC the right therapist for you and can he help you? Maybe and it depends.
How will you go about helping me? Whoo! That’s an even bigger question! I view therapy as having 2 major parts; The Emotions Phase and The Action Phase. In The Emotions Phase, we’re looking at traumas and experiences that have harmed you and the resulting unpleasant emotions that express themselves both consciously and unconsciously that hold you back in your daily functioning and overall wellbeing. One of the things that essentially all counseling modalities have in common is the work done in this phase; feeling difficult feelings with a caring other as a witness and guide rather than simply offering catharsis has been shown time and time again to be one of the major healing factors in almost all forms of therapy. Therefore, our work here is to bring awareness, insight and within the bounds of a safe, nonjudgmental atmosphere, create a holding pattern for the emotions so that the “wisdom of the brain” can then bring about processing of those feelings so that their effects on you diminish.
In The Emotions Phase, we’re focusing primarily on the more irrational parts of you and saving a look at logic for later. Feelings don’t always make sense and very often they’re resistant to you begging them to listen to reason. Once we reach The Action Phase, however, we’ve taken some of the power away from the unpleasant, irrational emotions so that logic and concrete changes have more effect. Here, we work to create behavioral changes and cognitively based coping strategies that take the newfound health gained in The Emotions Phase and build upon it further, resulting in a solidified healthier level of functioning. In The Action Phase, we’re no longer going from bad to good, we’re going from good to better. This phase is like having lost 75 pounds of fat and then turning your attention more specifically towards muscle growth and strength.
How much will it cost me? On average, an individual therapy session, without using an insurance company will cost approximately $150 dollars. I decided long ago to stop working with insurance companies, as I see them as cumbersome and annoying at best and fraudulent, unethical and detrimental to the field of psychotherapy on the extreme other end. Insurance companies dictate what you and I can do in our sessions. They dictate how long you and I can do what we do. They pay me lower rates but don’t give you any discounts on premiums or services and then pocket the difference. Insurance companies sometimes only cover the lowest standard of care and often very little of that. You have been promised to be fed by them and you pay well enough in premiums and other costs to cover a gourmet meal but the only thing that they provide are McDonalds burgers that have been dropped on the floor. Sure, you’re being fed as promised but you’re getting the worst possible version of being fed. The end result is an industry that is incentivized to give the worst version of what the professional has to offer. Providers have to take on more clients to make up for lost revenue and rather than focusing on their clients needs, have to spend vast amounts of time traversing an elaborate bureaucratic maze to make those funds. This continual engagement with the objectifying bureaucratic complex and needing larger caseloads often has the effect of making the clinician more susceptible to treating client’s like numbers and diagnoses rather than actual people. Insurance companies benefit, you the client and me the provider end up with the shortest possible end of the stick.
Yes, your cost to do therapy with me would be slightly cheaper with insurance but due to the factors mentioned above, when working without insurance, you’re getting a higher standard of care. While this may not always be the case with a more medically based provider, in psychotherapy, a counselor who does not accept insurance tends to be a more experienced, more mature counselor, who provides a higher level of expertise and who can focus solely on you. I don’t have to spend any time fighting with corporate giants, convincing them again and again that I and my clients together know what’s best. I simply meet with you, on a human to human level, in a genuine and authentic relationship with no third party interference and we decide collaboratively what’s best for you. Again with the food analogy, it’s the difference in getting a hamburger from McDonald’s or a steak from a gourmet restaurant; sure the steak costs more but it’s a lot higher quality. It wasn’t spit in by a disgruntled teenager. It also tastes way better and is less likely to give you the runs.
Again, on average, an individual psychotherapy session in the United States is around $150 and as of this writing (August 2023) I offer a competitive rate of $120 per session for both individual and couples counseling.
As initially stated, this blog is partially intended as a marketing tool. In that regard and with the information you now have, please consider choosing me as your therapist or referring a friend or loved one today! Feel free to call, text or email anytime and I wish you well!
Brandon Peters
Licensed Professional Counselor
2929 Allen Parkway
Suite 200
Houston, TX 77019
832.654.3147
http://www.brandonpeterslpc.com
http://www.facebook.com/brandonpeterslpc
Unrelated book recommendation:
The Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre – I “read” this book for free on a Youtube audiobook channel and the voice is done by one of those 90’s speech to text programs where the technology wasn’t so good yet. It’s super creepy and choppy and good lord, you should hear it try to pronounce French words!! Therefore, I recommend this book but I’d say actually READ it, don’t let a robot read it to you like I did.
Unrelated music recommendation:
Prowler in the Yard by Pig Destroyer – Several bullet points here;
1. This album may have been my introduction to grindcore.
2. I stumbled upon the album in Seattle in the attic part of a CD store while my then band was on tour.
3. That same day we searched for and found Kurt Cobain’s house (and sadly took video but no pictures).
4. The intro track to the album is done in that same 90’s speech recognition software voice that I mentioned in the book recommendation so it’s hard not to associate the two.
5. Prepare yourself; this album is not for the faint of heart. The lyrics, harshness of the music, the disturbing album cover and overall tone are a lot to take in if you’re not a fan of this type of music. Be warned but enjoy your sonic journey through one of the all time masterpieces in the grindcore genre!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcLwQ0uXYUA&t=942s
Brandon Peters, LPC 