What You Can Expect From Definition Counseling & Therapy
Empowerment through curiosity.
Advocacy with integrity.
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Did you know? Research suggests that relationships are the #1 predictor of happiness.
It’s why we take our relationship with you seriously.
About Your Visits
During your first several sessions, we’ll focus on learning about you and your worldview, assessing the problems or areas within that you’d like to explore, and defining your goals.
Once we have a shared understanding of your life’s story, strengths, and constraints, our sessions will shift to mapping “solution sequences” tailored specifically to you.
How To Prepare For Your First Session
It might help with articulating your thoughts if you can reflect on these questions beforehand:
Who am I in the context of my relationships? Who do I want to be?
What are the significant timelines and changes in my relationships?
What story am I telling myself about the problem I’m having?
What are my fears? What do I think will happen if my problem isn’t fixed?
What’s difficult for me to talk about? Why do I feel that way?
Go easy on yourself! Our first meeting is all about guiding you to the next step.
About Our Therapy Models
If you're curious about our therapeutic approach, here are some of the commonly used models at Definition. Your therapist may use multiple models during your treatment.
Integrative Systemic Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Using a framework that allows us to draw upon the strengths of other family, couple, and individual models, we can tailor interventions to develop solution sequences for your specific dynamics.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
By helping you hone your ability to be present and cope with feelings, we can help you stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with your inner self and move forward in your values.
We can bring your attention to the stories you’re telling yourself and help you separate your problems from who you are. This will help you “write” a new future that better reflects who you are and your purpose.
Structural Family Therapy
By inviting everyone to the discussion, we can observe dynamic responses and interactions to individual viewpoints. This can help us identify elements of dysfunction in the family structure.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Internal Family Systems
To support partner bonds, we can help you engage in emotional exploration and expression that allows others to recognize and attend to your needs and vice versa.
By examining your internal parts and the roles they play as managers, exiles, and firefighters, we can help you acknowledge feelings that could allow you to live with more ease.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
We can help you identify, challenge, and adjust negative thought patterns in order to change your response to difficult situations
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
While we do not provide comprehensive DBT, we may utilize DBT skills to help you develop mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Therapy Fees & Insurance
When you’re thinking about counseling or therapy, we know that cost is a big consideration. At Definition, we’re your primary advocate for fair treatment through insurance.
We’re in-network with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare, and their subsidiaries. Depending on your insurance, you will likely have a copay or deductible/coinsurance structure to your coverage.
Intake Session
With insurance:
Copay or $130-$160
Self-pay: $160
Individual Session
With insurance:
Copay or $75-$160
Self-pay: $160
Relational Session
With insurance:
Copay or $75-$160
Self-pay: $160
We promise to research and inform you of the quote of benefits your insurance company provides us before your first session. And we will investigate and advocate for you if your claim comes back differently.
Our Process
How does it work at definition?
We strive for you to know what to expect from us. We’re clear in how we handle treatment, billing, and therapeutic relationships.
01 / Inquiry
A free consultation allows you to see how our processes work, experience talking with your potential therapist, and ask any questions you have about what’s ahead.
02 / Learning
We learn about you as a person within your relational spheres, your mental health history, and your goals for counseling or therapy. We’ll share ideas for your best course of treatment.
03 / Growth
Gain tools for growing beyond your initial understanding and response to others. Find more compassion for yourself and those you love as you navigate life together.
04/ Guidance
We’re with you at every step to build on your goals through truly informed consent.
Frequently Asked Questions
That depends! After your intake session, we’ll plan 2-6 sessions and go from there. You may start to feel better within those early sessions or we may realize it will take some more time. Your therapist will be with you every step of the way.
Email confirmations and reminders will include the video link for your potential new client consultation or telehealth session. You can also access the video link within your client portal. Note that each consultation or session will have a unique video link.
Because our team is licensed to practice in Illinois, please note that you must be physically present in Illinois during your telehealth session.
You can access your portal here. Within the portal, you can complete paperwork, request and manage appointments, connect with your therapist over telehealth, review and pay invoices, and securely message your therapist. We recommend downloading the SimplePractice Client Portal app to make all of the above as easy as possible.
Telehealth sessions require a 24-hour notice of cancellation to avoid a fee of $160. Office sessions require a 36-hour notice of cancellation to avoid a fee of $160. We understand emergencies may arise, so every client receives one "freebie" each calendar year. You will receive additional freebie(s) any time a therapist may need to cancel with less than 24 hours of notice for a telehealth session or 36 hours of notice for an office session.
You or your therapist can end treatment or the therapeutic relationship at any time. This may occur if you have met your goals, if you and your therapist are not a good fit, if you or your therapist determine that counseling or therapy is not effective, if you are in default of your payment obligations, or for any other reason. You are welcome to reach out for referrals by emailing the practice at inquiries@definition-chicago.com or your therapist.
We’re committed to protecting your privacy and confidentiality by utilizing HIPAA-compliant software for all our operations and ensuring we work from private spaces.
There are some limits to your privacy and confidentiality such as reporting suspected child, elder, or dependent adult abuse or neglect, or preventing or reducing a serious threat to anyone’s health or safety.
We also ask that you additionally protect your privacy and confidentiality by using the secure messaging feature of the client portal to communicate with us and attending your telehealth session from a private space with headphones (wired are best) unless you are sharing the room with other session participants
We promise to research and inform you of the quote of benefits your insurance company provides us before your first session. We will also advocate for you when we notice inconsistencies or inaccuracies with your claim. Most importantly, we promise we will never mess with your finances by charging your card without proper notice and consent.
Our practice accepts these payment options as well as credit and debit cards.
The No Surprises Act was designed to protect uninsured and self-pay clients from unexpected medical bills. As a provision of the No Surprises Action, Definition will provide a Good Faith Estimate to uninsured and self-pay clients to inform you of the cost of your services.
Ready to start finding answers to your life’s biggest questions?
When you’re ready to get started, request an appointment via the link below!
Book a consultation
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