FAQ

My office is located at the following address:

1301 W. Omaha Street
Suite 205
Rapid City, SD 57701

It’s a long, two-story building called The Plaza, located across from Founders Park. There is a large parking lot in front of the building. Park anywhere in that lot.

Enter through the middle doors under “The Plaza” sign and head upstairs. When you get to suite 205, come on in, help yourself to some tea, and relax in the waiting area.

We don’t! Many clients find that meeting outside, walking, or sitting in nature helps them connect with their thoughts and feelings in a different way.

Other clients prefer to meet virtually due to convenience, for health reasons, or because they live out of town.

Longer sessions can be arranged in advance. Like, if you want to do a therapeutic day hike, we can plan for that!

For mental health counseling in South Dakota, I am a network provider for Blue Cross, Avera/Dakotacare, and Sanford health plans. For other insurances, I will be happy to provide you with a Superbill receipt to submit to your insurance if you wish to use out-of-network benefits. You can also pay with an HSA account.

Financial therapy is not covered by insurance or HSA accounts.

Clients are requested to cancel or reschedule at least 24 hours in advance.

Clients will be responsible for a $100 fee for cancellations made between 2 and 24 hours before the appointment.

A $150 No Show fee will be charged when clients do not show or fail to give notice greater than 2 hours before the session.

Financial therapy is a process of exploring the real numbers of your financial life and the real thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relationship interactions that go along with them. It combines personal finance and counseling to provide a holistic approach to achieving financial wellness. Some sessions we may be deep in a spreadsheet, and others may never mention a number.

The most common frequency for financial therapy sessions is every 2 weeks, however we can meet anywhere from weekly to monthly.

Topics typically addressed in financial therapy sessions include uncomfortable feelings (such as guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, resentment, anger, depression) around managing finances, not having enough, having too much, supporting others financially, arguments with a partner or other family members around money, and life transitions involving finances such as marriage, retirement, divorce, and death. In these situations, the impact of emotions and relational stress can have real, lasting, and permanent consequences on finances.

Working with someone trained in both counseling and personal finance can help provide some of the support you need in both areas.

Financial Therapy is not a replacement for working with a financial planner or investment advisor. If you need those services, I am happy to make a referral.

No. Standalone financial planning is not a service I offer here.

If we are working on financial obstacles together and you decide you want or need traditional financial planning, I will be happy to make a referral.

Most of my clients are adults age 18 and over. I will also work with teens.

Spirituality and religious beliefs are incredibly personal.

We will incorporate spirituality if you want to do that in your therapy sessions. I am Catholic, and that doesn’t mean you have to be Catholic or Christian for us to use spirituality in your healing process.

I haven’t always been interested in spirituality, and there was a time I didn’t believe in God. I have explored many spiritual paths, and what I appreciated most from others was their support of my journey and their respect for my beliefs at every step of my way. I will support and respect yours as well.

All beliefs are welcome here.

Professional Training and Experience

I have completed two clinical counseling internships: one in financial therapy and the other with veterans facing difficult financial situations. Apart from these internships, I have completed numerous workshops and trainings in healing from trauma and abuse, relationships, communications, boundaries, sexuality, codependency, financial codependency, Intuitive Experiential Therapy, and Internal Family Systems theory. I also am a Certified Financial Therapist™ Practitioner and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional.

For the first decade of my professional life, I worked as a mechanical engineer, developing a keen eye for details and an ability to solve problems. After that, I spent another decade doing financial planning as I continued to use my problem-solving skills and began to deal with the emotional side of money. This is where I learned that the best, most logical financial plan in the world often doesn’t solve a person’s financial situation. We need to understand what we think and feel about money, what it represents in our lives, and how we use it to meet our emotional needs.

Education

MS, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, South Dakota State University
MS, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BS, Mechanical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis

This is your therapy. I will offer different approaches. I will challenge you at times. I will follow your lead, going as deeply as you wish to go.

What you get out of therapy will depend on what you put in. Clients are most successful when they are willing to face difficult emotions and to look directly at the familiar patterns in their lives and choose to do something different.

Depending on the level of hurt, this work can take time and requires a great deal of gentleness. I encourage you to be gentle with yourself.

Only if you want to!

If you choose to make nature a part of your therapy experience, we can go outside and climb a mountain (or, more likely, a hill here in South Dakota).

I will likely, however, encourage you to climb what seems like an emotional mountain. And I’ll be there with you when you choose to climb it.