Questions & Answers

Therapy is collaborative, active, and individualized.

We want to understand both what is difficult and what you want your life to look like instead. Together, we'll identify goals for treatment and use evidence-based strategies to help you work toward them.

Sessions aren't limited to talking about what happened during the week. Depending on your needs, therapy may involve learning new skills, examining patterns, practicing different ways of responding, completing exercises between sessions, or gradually approaching situations you've been avoiding.

We want what happens in therapy to translate into meaningful changes outside of therapy.

Our job isn't to decide what your life should look like.

Therapy will sometimes involve feedback, questions, new perspectives, or encouragement to try something difficult. But those interventions should serve your identified goals and values.

We may help you examine whether a particular behavior is moving you closer to or further from what you say matters to you. Ultimately, your values aren't ours to choose.

Our primary areas of specialty are:

Anxiety · OCD, treated with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) · Depression, with Behavioral Activation (BA) as a primary treatment approach · Trauma and PTSD, including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) · Emotion regulation, using DBT-informed treatment

We also work with ADHD-related difficulties, relationship challenges, life transitions, and parenting and family stress.

Five Towns Psychology provides individual therapy for children ages 8 and up, adolescents, and adults.

With children and adolescents, parent involvement is determined by the child's age, needs, treatment goals, and clinical circumstances.

Yes. All therapy sessions are conducted through telehealth for clients located in New York and Florida.

Virtual sessions eliminate travel time and allow you to attend therapy from a private, comfortable location, making it easier to fit therapy around work, school, family life, and other responsibilities.

Telehealth can work well for many children, but—as with any form of therapy—it needs to be a good fit for the individual child.

Sessions with children are adapted to their developmental level and may incorporate games, videos, activities, conversation, and interactive exercises. Parent participation can also be incorporated when helpful.

During an initial consultation, we can discuss your child's needs and whether virtual treatment appears appropriate.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach that examines the relationships among thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

CBT is active and goal-oriented. Depending on what brings you to treatment, it may involve identifying patterns of thinking, changing behaviors that are maintaining a problem, developing coping strategies, or practicing new responses both during and between sessions.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is an evidence-based treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

ERP involves gradually approaching thoughts, situations, sensations, or uncertainty that trigger obsessive fears while practicing reducing or resisting the compulsions typically used to feel safer or more certain.

ERP is collaborative. Exposures are planned together and connected to the client's treatment goals.

Behavioral Activation (BA) is an evidence-based approach used to treat depression.

Depression often leads people to withdraw, avoid responsibilities, stop engaging in enjoyable or meaningful activities, or wait until they feel motivated before doing things. Unfortunately, this can further reduce opportunities for connection, accomplishment, enjoyment, and meaning.

Behavioral Activation helps clients gradually reverse that cycle by identifying and engaging in activities connected to their individual goals and values—even when motivation is low.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is an evidence-based treatment for PTSD and trauma-related symptoms.

CPT focuses on identifying and examining "stuck points"—beliefs about the traumatic experience, yourself, other people, or the world that may be contributing to ongoing distress.

The goal isn't to tell you how you should interpret what happened. Instead, CPT provides a structured way to examine these beliefs and develop a more balanced understanding of the trauma and its impact.

We provide DBT-informed individual therapy, including skills related to mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Five Towns Psychology does not offer a comprehensive DBT program that includes all components of standard DBT.

If you are specifically looking for comprehensive DBT, we can discuss whether the services we provide are appropriate for your needs.

Contact the practice by phone, email, or through the website contact form and tell us briefly what brings you—or your child—to therapy.

We can discuss what you're looking for, answer questions about the practice, and determine whether Five Towns Psychology may be a good fit.

Phone: 516-234-0782
Email: soep@fivetownspsychology.com

Session frequency depends on your needs, treatment goals, and the type of treatment being provided.

We'll discuss recommended frequency when beginning treatment and revisit it as needed based on your progress and circumstances.

There isn't one answer that applies to everyone.

Some evidence-based treatments are more structured and time-limited, while other goals may benefit from longer-term work. We'll discuss your treatment plan collaboratively and periodically evaluate your progress.

The aim isn't to keep you in therapy indefinitely. It's to help you make meaningful progress toward your goals and develop skills you can carry with you outside of therapy.

Five Towns Psychology is an out-of-network practice.

If your insurance plan includes out-of-network mental health benefits, you may be eligible for partial reimbursement. Coverage and reimbursement vary by plan, so we recommend checking directly with your insurance company regarding your benefits.

If you do not have health insurance or do not plan to use your health insurance to pay for services, federal law gives you the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate of the expected charges for your care.

Because the frequency and duration of psychotherapy can vary depending on each client's needs, goals, and progress, a Good Faith Estimate is based on the services reasonably expected at the time the estimate is prepared. It is an estimate and does not require you to attend a particular number of sessions.

You may request a Good Faith Estimate before scheduling services. A Good Faith Estimate will also be provided when required under federal law after services are scheduled.

If you receive a bill from a provider that is at least $400 more than the amount listed for that provider on your Good Faith Estimate, you may be eligible to use the federal patient-provider dispute resolution process.

For more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit CMS.gov/NoSurprises.

To request a Good Faith Estimate from Five Towns Psychology, contact us at 516-234-0782 or soep@fivetownspsychology.com.

Clients must be physically located in New York or Florida at the time of the telehealth session.

Because telehealth requirements are based on where the client is physically located during the appointment, we are currently able to provide services only when clients are in one of those two states.

Reach out.

People don't always fit neatly into one diagnostic category, and you don't need to know your diagnosis before contacting us. During an initial consultation, we can learn more about what you're experiencing and discuss whether our approach is likely to be a good fit.

If we aren't the right fit for what you need, we'll let you know.

Five Towns Psychology is an outpatient therapy practice and does not provide emergency or crisis services.

The website contact form, phone, and email are not monitored for emergencies. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. You can also call or text 988 for immediate crisis support in the United States.