Prospective Clients
Ready to Schedule Your First Appointment?
We know that families are very busy. So we are providing this page to give you all the information you need to be sure that we are a good fit for your family before you click the button at the bottom to schedule your first appointment. Please watch the short video and then read through the information below. Let us know if you have any questions, thank you!
What to Know About Counseling with Child Therapy Chicago, Naperville, North Shore
We are a specialty psychodynamic child and family psychotherapy practice. We have a unique focus that addresses the root causes of your child’s behavior. Uncovering and dealing with the underlying reasons for the behavior is the best way to tackle these problems and have long lasting results.
How child therapy works
We are a Play Therapy and Talk-based psychodynamically oriented therapy practice.
Young children express themselves, disclose uncomfortable feelings and learn new coping skills most naturally through play. Therapeutic play with our therapists gives kids a safe space to work on and practice managing big emotions and behaviors.
Older kids have help getting in touch with their emotional world by talking with our child therapists. They discover how feelings and behaviors interact, and they learn healthy ways to cope with various life challenges.
The structure of therapy sessions
The first session is for the parents only and is FREE. This “Initial Parent(s) Only Session” (Initial Diagnostic session) is an extended length session (60-75 minutes) designed to get a sense of your child’s behaviors, personality, and current coping skills, as well as an understanding of your concerns, family dynamics and history. Kids should not be at this session because we do not want them to feel “talked about” or that something is wrong with them. We want their first impression of therapy to be positive and supportive.
The second session is for you and your child together. The purpose of this 45 minute session is to give your child a chance to get familiar with the space and therapist, allow your child to ask questions and for the therapist to get to know your child. The child will not be asked direct questions about the current behavioral or emotional problems during this session. The goal is for them to begin to feel comfortable and to see that their parents support the therapy process.
The third session and all other regular ongoing sessions (all 45 minutes each) will either be with your child by themselves (if they are comfortable with this) or with your child and you, depending on the issues at hand and the needs of your child. We work with families in many different ways depending on what makes the most therapeutic sense.
Parental involvement in the therapy process is important. This is why Child Therapy Chicago gives you a FREE parent consultation session after approximately every six sessions. These parent consultations are designed to discuss what has been happening in therapy, to give you new ideas and ways to continue the work of therapy at home, and to support you in the daily challenges of parenting.
Goodness of Fit - It is important that there is a good match between the therapist and your child. If, after the first session you are not sure that there will be a good fit between your child and the therapist, please email info@childtherapychicago.com to ask that we assign a different therapist. The first session with that new therapist will be FREE.
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When we might not be the best fit for your family
If you are interested in obtaining the following kinds of evaluations and assessments, you will want to instead contact the following providers directly:
Psychiatric Medication Evaluations Only — Contact a child psychiatrist.
Psychological/Neuropsychological Evaluations Only — Contact a child psychologist who specializes in testing or a child neuropsychologist.
Pediatric Developmental Evaluations Only (OT, PT, DT, Speech) — Contact a pediatric therapy clinic or an individual occupational, physical, developmental, or speech pediatric provider in your specific area of need.
NOTE: We have close relationships with various psychiatrists, testing psychologists and child neuropsychologists as well as occupational, physical, developmental, and speech therapists in the Chicagoland area. So, if you are still interested in counseling with us with the option of obtaining any of the above types of evaluations to supplement the work of therapy in the future, your therapist can help make that arrangement at some point during your work with us when it is deemed necessary.
Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors or Crises — Child Therapy Chicago is a private psychotherapy practice that focuses on addressing underlying issues that influence a child’s feelings or behaviors. This takes place over the course of time. A child who is actively making suicidal comments and has a history of significant suicide attempts or hospitalizations in the past is in crisis and will likely need a different type of care to ensure their immediate safety. In this case, you will want to consider a children’s hospital or an evaluation at a partial hospitalization or day program. While we work with kids who have expressed negative self thoughts in the past, these kids that we work with are not actively at risk of harming themselves and they are able to keep themselves safe during their time with us.
Custody or Court Evaluations — Child Therapy Chicago works with separated and divorced families. Our role is to be a neutral space, outside of the divorce proceedings and court system, where the child can feel safe to share their feelings about their family circumstances and learn ways to manage all of the change. It is not in the best interest of the child for us to get involved in court matters (and it can be a conflict of interest). Courts have specific providers they recommend to help with custody evaluations, reunification, visitation, etc. Child Therapy Chicago works with some therapists who conduct custody evaluations in the Chicagoland area and we can make recommendations for this service if ever needed.
Suspicion of Abuse or Neglect — If you are concerned that your child is being abused or neglected by someone, including a co-parent, you may want to visit your pediatrician for a physical exam and talk with them about next steps, based on their findings. They may need to make a report to Child Welfare Services or they may recommend a forensic evaluation. While Child Therapy Chicago works with kids who have experienced various degrees of abuse or neglect, our role is to help them work through the emotions of that experience rather than investigate if abuse or neglect occurred.
Child Welfare Involvement — If you are involved with the child welfare system, you will want to contact your case worker since there are specific therapeutic providers that you can get access to and who can be involved with your family in various ways.
Medicaid and Other State insurance Plans - There are very specific eligible providers who are able to work with clients who have these insurance plans. You can contact your plan administrator to find a local provider in your area.
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Paying for sessions
We are a private pay therapy office, so we do not work directly with or accept payment directly from health insurance companies. When you work with us, we require that you leave a payment card on file (credit/debit/HSA/FSA) and your sessions will be automatically billed to that card after each session.
All of our sessions are $195. Remember, you get a FREE Initial Parent(s) Only session plus a FREE 45-minute parent consultation session after every sixth child or family session.
We know that money is an important consideration.
- When you pay directly (out of pocket) for your child’s mental health care, there are no unexpected or hidden costs. You know what the fee will be upfront.
- Additionally, you and your therapist have complete control over the course of your child’s treatment rather than your insurance company determining what you need.
- Further, insurance companies require that your child receive a mental health diagnosis. When you pay for services directly, no diagnosis is required nor will a diagnosis show up in your child's mental health history.
- Finally, we know you are invested in the therapy process and your involvement in your child’s treatment is important, so we also want to support you and your family by offering the FREE parent sessions.
If you want to use your insurance to cover the cost of therapy sessions, there is good news!
Many insurance companies will reimburse for psychotherapy sessions. Insurance companies typically require that you submit a claim form along with a billing statement called a “Super bill,” which shows the fees you paid for sessions. Super bills are available in our Client Portal for you to download and submit to your insurance company on the third of each month for sessions completed the previous month. Many insurance companies now offer the option of filing electronic claims. Once your claim form and Super bill are submitted to your insurance company, they may send a reimbursement check directly to you for the amount that they cover for the sessions fees you paid.
If you are considering seeking insurance reimbursement, please call your insurance company before scheduling your initial therapy session to inquire about your reimbursement rate for 45-Minute Individual Psychotherapy Sessions (CPT code 90834). This is the primary type of service we provide. There are different codes for the initial evaluation session, family sessions and parent only sessions (CPT codes 90791, 90846 & 90847) and not all of these other session types will apply to your family.
If you need assistance navigating your out-of-network benefits, you might consider using an App such as Reimbursify. Visit www.Reimbursify.com for details.
If you do decide to seek reimbursement from your insurance company, it is very important that you let your therapist know during your Initial Parent(s) Only Session that this is your plan so that your therapist can be prepared to assign a diagnosis to your child and we can set you up in the Client Portal to receive the monthly Super bills. You can also decide at a later time in treatment if you want to start seeking insurance reimbursement from that point forward and we can set that up for you at that time.
Ready to schedule your first appointment?
First review the therapists’ biographies on the About Us page to get a sense of who you and your child might like to work with at your desired office location.
Then, please use the link below to schedule an Initial Diagnostic Session at the location you are interested in.The appointment time you choose should also be a time that could work well for future sessions. Please contact us if you have any questions.
NOTE: When prompted to select who the appointment is for, please choose “someone else” (for your child) unless you are seeking parent coaching sessions only (then select “me”). For child therapy, list yourself as the “contact” (“You”) and add your child’s information under “client” (no need to add an email address or phone number for the client/child).
If you do not see any suitable appointment times or locations when you click the button, please email us at Info@ChildTherapyChicago.com, and we will contact you to discuss upcoming availability which may not be posted yet on our site.
Still not sure or have other questions? Or are you interested in teletherapy? Check out the FAQs page and contact us at Info@ChildTherapyChicago.com.
