Therapy has both benefits and risks. I’ve noticed that clients gain more from the experience and accelerate their healing when they are motivated and willing to fully participate in the process. I recognize that active engagement in the therapy process isn’t always easy for clients. Difficult emotions may arise, and challenging conversations and topics may need to be addressed within the therapeutic space in order to best serve a client’s needs. 

During the time a client is in therapy, they may notice changes in symptoms, problems, and functioning. Since we will be exploring challenging territory in your life, you might experience greater difficulty as these topics are addressed. Therapy typically produces benefits for clients over time, and evidence-based practices used in therapy have research to support their positive outcomes. Potential benefits could include greater emotional intelligence, greater sense of personal control over one’s life, achievement of individual goals, increased functioning, successful safety planning and harm-reduction, and increase sense of connection and happiness for clients. 

Risks include the potential for emotional distress as we get to the root of tender issues. I cannot offer any promise or guarantee about the results you will experience. However, as you commit yourself to growth, work through the challenges you may face, and build upon your strengths, it is likely that you will see desired life improvements throughout the course of our time working together, and in the future.

I schedule with all of my clients on a recurring, weekly basis, for 53-55 minute sessions, and I feel this is most conducive to productive therapy. Weekly sessions continue until either your symptoms are alleviated, or your condition is stabilizing, or until the client is ready to discontinue care and graduate out of treatment. I am occasionally able to adjust the frequency of appointments (every other week, once monthly) based on the client’s needs, mental health and wellbeing, treatment goals and stability of their functioning. However this flexibility not guaranteed, it is not something I can usually offer, and is dependent on the current caseload and schedule of other clients.

In order to provide you with optimal care, your appointment time is reserved specifically for you. I do not double book clients. If you need to cancel a session, or are going on a vacation, please notify me as soon as possible. I require notice of cancellation with a minimum of 48 hours before your appointment. Without this notice, I charge in full my private pay rate (see financial agreement). If you are more than 15 minutes late to an appointment without notice, this session will need to be rescheduled and it is considered a late cancelation. If you are cancelling the same week, please do not just email me, but also call the Mindful Therapy Group scheduling team at (425)-640-7009 to ensure we receive the communication in time, which allows other clients to be seen for mental health services. It is likely that cancellations will come up for most clients at some point, at times even due to unforeseen circumstances. The late cancellation fee is not meant to feel like a punishment, but rather a way of honoring our time together that we have agreed to set aside weekly for therapy sessions. Depending on the situation, there are circumstances where I make the choice to waive cancellation fees.

If you cancel several sessions, for example, more than three consecutive sessions in a way which I perceive as a barrier to a positive therapeutic process, I will ask that you be removed from your recurring appointment slot and be placed on my on-call list. The on-call list is a waitlist used to fill gaps in my schedule that are created due to client cancellations. I will reach out to you by phone or email as session times become available in my schedule. If you are on this on-call list and then you do not show up to your next scheduled appointment, and have not notified me or scheduling team, then all of your future therapy appointments will be cancelled and services with terminate until I hear from you.

Mindful Therapy Group and I work in partnership, however I set my own policies, including cancellation policies and private pay rates. Often times, the administrative staff are messengers, providing you information regarding insurance benefits, fees, and reminders of my personal established policies, such as late cancellation fees. Therefore, please be mindful of being respectful to the team when addressing any concerns. Abusive behavior toward Mindful Therapy Group staff and myself is not tolerated and can result in immediate termination of services.

AnnJeannette (Annette) Mead, MS, LMHC, NCC offers mental health services in-person at her office in Mountlake Terrace, and virtually on a HIPPA-compliant telehealth platform. This provider offers services for individual therapy and couples counseling. Soon there will also be group therapy opportunities with this provider. Family therapy sessions may also be offered on a case-by-case basis when working with children in individual therapy, depending on that child’s needs. This provider works with clients between the ages of 5 and 100. 

Annette does not offer case management services, which include but are not limited to providing paperwork for disability, unemployment, custody, adoption, foster care, ESA letters, car accidents and any type of legal issue. On a case-by-case basis, the provider may create letters for clients when this is ethically within her scope of practice. This provider does not currently offer therapy for individuals who are court mandated for treatment or seeking treatment in which disclosure of sessions will need to be provided.

The most effective time to address your concerns is during sessions, as this is time which is dedicated to your care. However, you may also contact Annette through her office phone number: 360-818-4091. If you would like to leave a secure HIPPA-complaint voice message, call 425-640-7009 extension 9138. This provider may not always be able to answer my phone due to respect for other clients’ session time during a business day. Email is also an acceptable means of contact for administrative purposes such as canceling a session: [email protected]

Phone/email messages typically get responses within one working/business day. This provider does not text with clients or potential clients.

All information disclosed within your therapy sessions is kept secure and confidential. No information will be disclosed to anyone without your written permission (using a release of information document). In accordance with legal and ethical codes, disclosure of client information may be required in specific types of situations, such as mandated reporting and when a client is in immediate danger – is a danger to themselves or others. 

The mental health provider is required to keep brief notes of client sessions for their medical record, in accordance with ethical and legal standards. If amendments/changes are needed to the client’s session notes or other records, please discuss this with the provider. Clients have the right to request a copy of their medical records at any time. 

A response to your records request will be made within 15 working days; in compliance with RCW 70.02.080. Licensed counselors within the state of Washington are required to maintain all client records for a period of five years following the last visit. Within this five-year period, all records must be maintained safely and securely.

As an independent, private practice therapist, I do not offer crisis coverage. If you are experiencing an emergency or a threat to yourself or others, please call 911 or go to the nearest hospital emergency room. 

You can call 988 which is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, previously known as the National Suicide and Crisis Prevention Lifeline. The previous number (1-800-273-8255) will still be active and will route callers to 988. You may also be interested in text messaging for crisis support, in which case I recommend Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Crisis Connections is also good for urgent mental health crises: 1 866-4CRISIS (1 866-427-4747).

Veterans Crisis Line - 1-800-273-8255 

LGBTQ Crisis Line - 1-866-488-7386 

The Trevor Project: +1 866-488-7386 or text 678-678

Teen Line - 310-855-4673

All clients working with this provider are required to sign a telehealth agreement, consenting to engage in telehealth/virtual services. This applies to all clients, even clients who typically will attend in-person sessions. In the event of poor weather conditions, sessions can continue via telehealth. “Telehealth” includes the practice of health care delivery, diagnosis, and treatment consultation using interactive video, audio, and/or data communications. For telehealth sessions, this provider will be connecting with clients using an online system that is encrypted to the federal standard and HIPAA compatible. 

Your privacy is important to us. It is the client’s responsibility to choose a secure/private location to interact with technology-assisted media for their therapy sessions. It is important to be aware that family, friends, employers, co-workers, strangers, and hackers could either overhear communications that are happening via telehealth, or could have access to the technology that you are interacting with.

Within the telehealth agreement, it states that clients must not record any telehealth or in-person sessions. During a telehealth session, it’s possible we could encounter a technological failure. The most reliable backup plan is to contact one another via phone call. The client will ensure that their contact phone is accessible for these situations, and all clients are expected to provide a contact phone number. All fees for telehealth and non-telehealth services (in-person sessions) are the same.

This provider’s private pay rate is $170 per individual session (including children/teen clients), $190 for couples/family sessions. Most clinical issues should be shared in our appointment, however if calls and case management become excessive, I may need to charge for case management time. I will always inform you prior to providing this service and prior to billing for it, and depending on the time spent the case management may be billed as an additional session. If collaboration meetings are required with other care team members (doctor, teacher, prescriber, previous mental health providers) this is time away from other clients, and there is a fee associated out of pocket $25 for 15 minutes, $50 per half hour or $100 per hour.

If you are unable to pay the associated fees at the time of service for more than one session, without developing a payment plan, your future appointments will be suspended until unpaid balances are resolved. Additional fees may apply to the preparation of requested documents (medical records requests) or copying and sending records. The provider will discuss any fees with you at the time of a request.

Your appointment time is reserved specifically for you, and the provider asks all other current clients to respect this time in the schedule. While I understand that unexpected things may pop up, a minimum of 48 hours’ notice is required to cancel or reschedule a session without a late cancel fee. The fee charged for cancellations on a shorter notice than 48 hours and for no-shows (appointments where no notice is given and a client fails to attend their scheduled session) is the same as the provider’s private pay rate: $170 per late cancel. There may be situations where a session can be changed to telehealth/phone instead of cancelled. There may also be emergency situations where I am willing to waive this fee even if the cancel is within 48 hours, however this is up to the provider’s discretion. If I do not hear from you beforehand, this no-show fee of $170 will be charged regardless of the reasoning for the cancel. Insurance cannot be billed for missed sessions, and do not cover this fee, so it will be automatically charged to the credit card listed on file. 

If there is a pattern noticed of cancelled appointments, I may be unable to continue providing services to you, and I reserve the right to cancel future appointments in order to make space in my schedule for clients committed to the therapeutic process. I will always communicate about this with you and determine if we’re a good fit prior to making changes to your scheduled appointments.

If an unpaid client balance of $100 or more is remaining for more than 120 days, your balance will be turned over to a third-party collection agency. You will receive a final courtesy phone call and/or letter to remind you of your balance due. If you believe that there is an error in your billing, please let us know as soon as possible so we can research and address the issue. Unpaid balances without a payment plan or partial payment initiated after 120 days will initiate a phone collections effort for recovery. It is possible that some identifying confidential information may be released in this process. This may negatively impact your credit. It is very important that you keep your contact information up to date with us to ensure you are aware of your financial responsibility and receive your statements.