I am a registered provider/partner with a number of Health Insurance Companies in Ireland. These include Laya (AIG), Aviva and Irish Life. As my credentials do not meet the standard of some Health Insurance Companies I suggest that you contact your provider FIRST to confirm eligibility before commencing.
Most policies will cover a number of Counselling and Psychotherapy sessions. Between six and eight sessions is normal. My offices are discretely and conveniently located in Dublin 2 and Dublin 14.
Employers (EAP) and Self-employed.
Similarly most employers will have an Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP). They should recognise my credentials as being in line with their EAP policy. Self employed people can claim Counselling and Psychotherapy back on Tax Returns. Therefore I would recommend a simple check with your accountant or revenue would confirm to what extent you can claim back.
How does it work?
Insurance Companies operate on a claim back policy unless it is for very specific treatments e.g. oncology psychotherapy, therefore you would be required to pay for your sessions as normal and then claim back. Employers will normally ask that I invoice them directly. Naturally I will provide all receipts detailing payments made and dates. Of course I will never disclose any of the confidential material we may discuss, the space is always confidentially your space.
Will six to eight sessions be effective ?
To surmise this is a difficult question as each individual and circumstance can be so varied. Research suggests that most successful and complete psychotherapy and counselling treatments last somewhere between eighteen and thirty six months. However good work can be done in the short term. I have trained in Solution Focused Brief Therapy where we set the limits of therapy to short term and set distinct manageable goals. Often in Solution Focused Brief Therapy other issues come to the surface, when this happens we would only flag these issues so as not to distract from the goal set out at the beginning. Then once the short term of therapy has completed we will review the work done and discuss possible suggestions about the issues we noted along the way e.g. reading, therapies, further development goals.
What should I do now ?
Perhaps the first step is to contact your Health Insurance Provider, Accountant or Employer. Make sure your policy covers Counselling and Psychotherapy. Once you confirm this do not hesitate to get in touch with me. You can ask me any questions about my practice, training, credentials and methods. Accordingly we might then book our provisional first appointment.