Renee Segal, Marriage Counselor in Minnetonka, 55305

Renee Segal, MA LMFT, EMDR Therapist

Profession(s):
Marriage & Family Therapy, Counseling Psychology, Counseling
License Status:
I'm a licensed professional.
Primary License:
LMFT

My Approach to Helping

Research shows consistently that no matter what counseling method is used, the connection between you and your counselor is the essential factor in you feeling better about yourself and your life.

As such, a safe and supportive relationship is created. It is important that you feel heard, acknowledged and supported. This is the significant ingredient for your personal and relationship transformation.

In addition to deep listening, it is also helpful to understand how to cope with difficult feelings and situations. Learning how to be resilient and knowing that you can support yourself through lifeâ��s challenges will give you a sense of empowerment and self-esteem. An active, warm, supportive, and very practical approach is used in the sessions.
Approaching Individual Counseling

A respectful, collaborative, optimistic and holistic approach is used. People are best understood based on how they relate to others. This is rooted in the patterns learned in their most significant relationship experiences â�� usually their relationship with their parents. So your family history is very important.

Since reality and meaning are created by you, what you think about your problem and yourself is very important. It is also significant what is happening for you in the present moment, in the therapy room and in the therapeutic relationship. Your problems will be undermined by looking at some of your beliefs about yourself, the world and how you might be unknowingly perpetuating the problem.

My Approach to Couples Counseling:
Your relationship system is the client. Families create, maintain and live by spoken and unspoken rules. People are best understood within the family system. We choose partners to help us heal and work out our unresolved problems. It is assumed that you and your partner want to a loving, secure and close bond. As such, the approach is guided by Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy.

EFCT is a comprehensive method of relationship counseling, based on well-tested theory and decades of research and clinical practice. It is highly regarded as a most effective approach to marriage and couple therapy.

EFCT focuses on what makes relationships distressed and what can most effectively heal and strengthen them. The premise is that adults who feel safe and secure with each other report high levels of satisfaction and happiness in their primary relationship.

According to the originator of this approach, the core questions we all want answered from our partner are, â��Are you there for me? Do I matter to you? Will you come when I need you?â�� EFT can help you go from â��Iâ��m not sureâ�� to â��yes, I know you are there for me. I know I matter to you. I know you will be there when I call.â��

Through Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, you will restructure the negative repetitive cycles you and your partner get caught in, over and over, feeling like there is no way to stop. The goal is to help you go from angry, withdrawn, hostile and guarded in your relationship, to feeling safer, warmer and more bonded. Most of all, the love, trust and connection that you once had with your partner can be rekindled and grow to a deeper level than ever before.

I also use a technique for resolving trauma: EMDR is an acronym for Eye Movement
Desensitization and Reprocessing, a therapy method that can help resolve painful life memories that still impact you, often in much fewer sessions than traditional talk therapy. Proven over a 20 year history of treatment and research, it works to resolve the way distressing memories are stored in the brain. It is recommended by the American Psychological Association and the Veterans Administration as an effective method.

More Info About My Practice

I am an out of network provider with insurance companies which means that I do not bill insurance companies directly. Your counseling services may be eligible for reimbursement through out-of-network benefits, medical spending or health care savings accounts. Health insurance plans and benefits vary. Check with your provider about reimbursement for your counseling services.

Reasons to pay privately or â��Out of Pocketâ��

Private paying clients choose not to involve insurance companies in their mental health care. Their counseling is not limited by the diagnosis, treatment plan or session limits that health insurance companies dictate. Insurance companies often limit the number of sessions and even the type of therapy. Many insurance companies do not cover couples/relational or family therapy.

To have therapy services covered under insurance, a mental health diagnosis must be made. This then becomes a part of your permanent health care record. This may lead to limitations such as denial for quality life insurance or health insurance later on. Additionally, since a mental health diagnosis must be made to obtain reimbursement, the insurance company has to know a lot of information about you to be covered. The insurance company can review all of your records at their discretion.

By paying privately or out of pocket, I can assure private pay clients of the highest degree of privacy, flexibility and control of their mental health record allowed by Minnesota state law, since my records are exempt from insurance reporting and random compliance audits. Our work is off record.

In addition, many insurance companies require a deductible to be met before they start paying, so you may be paying out of pocket anyway.

We will work collaboratively to decide how often to attend therapy and you decide what you want to focus on. You have the control, not the insurance company.

Standard 50-minute session (After 3 p.m.) $120
Intake session-first session (After 3 p.m.) $140
Standard 50-minute session (2 p.m. or earlier) $100
Intake session-first session (2 p.m. or earlier) $120
80-minute session (After 3 p.m.) $150
80-minute session (2 p.m. or earlier) $130
Sliding fee scale available to clients with limited resources according to a fee schedule, please contact Renee at 612-875-6416 to discuss your specific situation.

Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With

I use Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy to help distressed couples because it deals with the basic human question of feeling safe in a relationship. Is my partner really there when I call? Do I feel secure? When I most need my husband/wife is he/she there for me? These are the issues that are the cause of most marital and relationship difficulty. If we feel alone in our relationship it is highly distressing and can feel like we are fighting for our lives. We then either protest by fighting, and becoming critical of our partner or we feel overwhelmed and completely withdraw. In my work with couples I focus on strengthen the bond between them. Problem solving is a natural result of feeling close and connected. Emotion Focused Couples Therapy is highly researched and evidence based in working with conflicted couples. Once couples trust and can depend on each other problems generally slip away.

On the Fence About Going to Therapy?

A good indicator that you might want counseling is when you’re having difficulties at work, when you are having a hard time concentrating, if you feel unhappy more days than not, if you cannot sleep, have a hard time figuring out what is important in your life, or just cannot manage the stress anymore. If you are currently questioning if you should go into counseling, that is probably the best indicator that you should. Trust your instincts.

Importance of the Client-Therapist Alliance

Healing happens when people have different life experiences. The relationship with the therapist can provide a new life experience which can be generalized to others. I provide a an experience of deep listening, validation, warmth and humor.