James Fitzgerald Therapy, PLLC
Strengthening Your Conscious Self © 2022
James Fitzgerald, MS, NCC, LCMHC
359 Dorset Street, Suite 200-2, South Burlington, VT 05403
Welcome,
I am currently meeting with clients both in-person and through telehealth video calls. I am licensed in Vermont as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor, LCMHC, in private practice, under clinical supervision, applying for second licensure in Vermont as an Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor, LADC.
I will continue revising and updating this site, posting regular daily entries in my daily maintenance plan blog. In my blog posts, I will share links to interesting journal articles I have found, recommended books from my own reading list, other podcast episodes I have found interesting and useful, and knowledge from the worlds of science, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and human services. Please check back often.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT TELEHEALTH SERVICES!
As of May 11th 2023, the Covid Public Health Emergency will end. This may mean that some health insurance plans will stop reimbursing providers for telehealth sessions. I will be contacting insurance companies to verify coverage for my existing clients, but if you are a new potential client, you will need to verify whether telehealth is reimbursable with your insurance provider or human resources department.
Learn more about the issues, problems, and types of mental health disorders I can help you address.
Learn more about the types of therapy that inform the approach I take in helping others.
Learn more about my health & wellness life coaching program. ‘Strengthening Your Conscious Self’ © 2022
The Table of Contents for my health & wellness program. Links to all the modules and courses on one page. (Client Account Required)
An outline and overview of the health & wellness program. (Client Account Required)
Review a standard therapy action plan that describes the therapy process and interventions in specific details. (Client Account Required)
My Approach to Therapy
(Theory and Philosophy)
The way I practice therapy is focused on the client, allowing them to lead the way while I take on the role of a guide and confidant. Think of yourself as captain, and imagine that your Psyche, your internal system, is your ship. While you decide the ship’s course heading and speed, I am in the role of your navigator with the map.
I believe that a person’s strengths and character can drive healthy ways of thinking, feeling, relating, and being. I believe that the individual can find solutions to problems and challenges given the right environment to explore their strengths and skills.
I believe that relationships, experiences, and events, can have lasting effects on a person’s emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health and wellbeing. I believe that a person’s biology, genetics, environment, culture, religion, community, and physical and mental health has a profound influence on their personality development.
I practice therapy from a humanistic, existential, integrated approach that considers multiple dimensions of philosophy and psychology. In therapy, I help you examine core beliefs, values, morals, narratives, assumptions, expectations, intentions, motivation, ethics, central nervous system functions, reactive physical sensations, emotions, automatic thoughts, meaning making, processing events, reactions, and secondary emotions, sensations, and thought patterns.
I place the focus on what people do right for their health and wellness, rather than focus on what is “wrong with them.” My goal is not to “fix” people, instead I work with them to discover the best approach that “fits” them. I believe in a holistic approach to improving overall health and wellness, including integrated work with the cognitive and intellectual mind, physical brain and body, consciousness or spiritual aspect, and shadow or suppressed memories.
Important Health Insurance Information
I currently accept the following health insurance plans:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Cigna
- MVP
- VT Medicaid
I am accepting these insurance plans during my transition to being independently licensed. I am in negotiations for credentialing with their panels, and in-network coverage is not guaranteed.
Clients with health insurance plans from Cigna, BCBS, and MVP will be required to provide a valid payment method to be kept on file along with a signed authorization for automatic payments. I will process payment for each session’s deductible or copay after the session. I will file a claim with your insurance company for therapy through an online client account portal. I will send you receipts, EOB copies, and account statements electronically. You will receive a receipt for payment electronically from my secure merchant account payment processor.
Your receipts and statements can be used to file for HSA and FSA reimbursement. In the event that there is insufficent funds in your payment method, an invoice will be sent, and payment of your outstanding balance is due before the next scheduled appointment unless other arrangements are made.
Some HSA and FSA cards cannot be accepted at this time due to the processing procedure they follow for transactions. I strongly discourage clients from making payments directly to the insurance company through their patient portal for my charges (copays and deductibles). The insurance company patient portal process involves several unnecessary steps that are inconvenient and confusing.
Please verify your insurance benefits before your first session. If you are checking to see if I am covered in-network on your plan, I am listed under Caroline O’Connor, LCMHC. This supervised billing practice is subject to change, (estimated June 2023) and I will update this page as changes occur.
You have a right to request a good faith estimate of the cost of my services, as guaranteed by the “No Surprises Act.”
Talk to your Insurance Provider
Health insurance plans are different from one company to another. Before the first session, call your insurance company or talk to your human resources department.
Ask your insurance provider these questions:
- Does my plan cover outpatient mental health care services?
- Does my plan cover telehealth services over video or telephone?
- Do I have a deductible I am responsible for paying?
- How much is my deductible and how much have I met?
- Do I have a co-pay or co-insurance I am responsible for paying?
- How much is the co-pay or co-insurance amount?
- Does therapy require prior authorization?
- Does it need a referral from your primary care provider?
- How many sessions will my insurance plan cover?
Payment Types:
I accept American Express; Mastercard; Visa, and some HSA/FSA cards.
My Health & Wellness Program
Learn more about “Strengthening Your Conscious Self.”
Review the outline to the health and wellness program.
(Theory and Philosophy)
Strengthening Your Conscious Self © is the title of my health and wellness life coaching program, In my coaching practice, I teach and adhere to an integrated health and wellness practice that addresses all the domains of a person’s existence:
-
- emotional/psychological
- intellectual/mental
- shadow/memories
- spiritual/religious/consciousness
- meaning/purpose/values
- physical/nutritional
- physical/biological
- genetic/neurological
- gender/sex/identity
- family of origin/family dynamics
- intimacy/relationships/friendships
- social/community
- organizational
- occupational/financial
- cultural/political
- leisure/recreational
- environmental/ecological
Disclaimer: Health & Wellness Program
Despite the fact that life coaching and health and wellness programs are effective and empirically supported preventive practices, coaching sessions and my coaching program are not covered by health insurance plans. I will send you an invoice and charge your card on a monthly payment plan for the coaching program.
When you sign up for the coaching program, you have access to all the modules, and you are free to explore the ones you want to. Keep in mind that the entire program rests on the foundational philosophy that all the domains are interconnected, they overlap, and one of them affects all the others and vice versa.
Therapy clients are given the opportunity to access the health and wellness program independent of the therapy relationship, however, for ethical, insurance, and licensing concerns, therapy and coaching sessions are not able to be provided to the same person.
Office Hours
Monday: 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tuesday: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm
Wednesday: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm
Thursday: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm
Friday: 9:00 am to 7:00 pm
Saturday: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Sunday: Closed