As you start your therapy journey, it is helpful to first identify which type of practice works best for your needs. Below, you can find a summary of different types of practices, as well as a couple of pros and cons to consider as you start looking for a therapist. Therapists can work in private practice, group practice, community mental health, or fully online platforms. If you have no idea what the differences are between those things, you’ve come to the right place.
Individual Private Practice
An individual private practice is one therapist running their own practice, like Table for One. There are private practices with multiple therapists working for the same company, and I refer to those as “Group Private Practice”. You can read more about those next.
Often private practice therapists offer a free consultation or have detailed websites where they describe their background, practice, and areas of specialty. Many accept different types of insurance, while some only accept self-pay clients. Many private practice therapists have areas of specialty, like grief, trauma, eating disorder, addiction, relationship, mood disorders, amongst other things. While areas of specialty are important to consider when finding a therapist, it’s OK if you’re not sure which therapy box, or if you’re lucky, boxes, you fall in to.
One drawback of an individual private practice can be the cost. Therapists are required to give a good faith estimate, just like other healthcare providers. Session prices are also often posted on websites, or if you’re using insurance, you can contact your insurance company to find your expected co-pay.
Group Private Practices
A group private practice is an agency where several clinicians work under the same roof. These organizations can vary in size from 2-20+ clinicians.
Before I started in private practice, I worked in group practice settings, both group private practice and community mental health. From a client perspective, these organizations have their advantages. They often accept many different types of insurance, including Medicaid or Medicare. Also, the administrative staff can be helpful when it comes to scheduling and billing.
One additional bonus is if you don’t particularly click with your first therapist, it’s easy to switch clinicians within the same practice. The first clinician might be able to make a recommendation and provide a warm hand off to another clinician.
I would say the major drawback of these practices is therapist turnover. There are lots of reasons a therapist might leave a group practice; from wanting to start a practice of their own to differences with upper management. At the same time, some therapists work at the same group practice for years. Having to switch therapists is not a guarantee, but it is something to consider when you start your search.
Community Mental Health
Community Mental Health and/or Non-Profit organizations are essential in every community. These organizations accept most insurances, including Medicaid and Medicare. They often offer sliding scale fees for people without insurance.
If you’re in the Colorado area, Jefferson Center for Mental Health is an example of a community mental health practice. In Michigan, each county has their own a Community Mental Health (CMH) office.
Because community mental health centers are meant to reach a wide range of people, they often offer different types of services, like individual counseling, group therapy, peer coaching, case management, and medication services. They also have school-based and/or in-home services. Similar to group practices, you can switch therapists within the same organization if you would like to.
Therapist turnover is also a problem for community mental health organizations. Because these organizations are big and meant to serve large communities, therapists can be overworked and struggle with burn out. Also, because of the high demand and high therapist caseloads, sometimes it can be 2-3 weeks between appointments; however, you do have access to groups and other resources to supplement individual counseling.
Online Therapy (BetterHelp, TalkSpace, Cerebral, and others)
These are the organizations you have likely heard about on podcast advertisements. Admittedly, I know the least about these organizations. They are fully online and many of them are subscription based, so you select a plan that allows you to attend a certain number of sessions at a monthly rate.
I have friends and family who have used these organizations and I have heard great things. If you have reliable internet, you can get counseling from anywhere. And without the overhead of office spaces, therapy can be more affordable for the client. Also, people with transportation issues or those who live in rural areas with limited resources have access to quality counseling from home, which is awesome.
One issue is a lack of flexibility with set monthly sessions. With these services, I believe you have to change your subscription in order to change the frequency of visits. Also, I’m not sure how insurances are billed, but I’m sure that’s something they go over in the initial appointment.
Types Of Therapy
I hope this information is helpful in identifying a therapy setting that works best for you! Remember, if you’re looking for more information about different types of therapy, please refer to the blog post “Types of Therapy”.
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