Mental health counseling in Nashville, TN

Choosing your therapist can be tough. Therapy is only as effective as the relationship between therapist and client. When you come to your first session it is important to ask yourself a few questions:

“Can I see myself feeling safe and comfortable with this person?”

“Does this person seem to understand me or “get” me?”

Regardless of the therapist’s training, credentials, or experience, if you don’t feel good about coming back it might not be the best person for you. It’s very important that you’re honest with your therapist about how you’re feeling. At Bright Horse Counseling we want to make sure you’re connected to who can help you even if it’s not us. You’re not going to hurt our feelings. We promise.

Every session after your first session can be rescheduled or canceled by communicating directly with your therapist. We have a 48-hour cancelation policy so that we can offer your session to another client who may be in need. When clients cancel within 48-hours or no show, other clients miss out on an opportunity to be seen. If you need to cancel or reschedule an initial appointment, you will need to email info@talktobrighthorse.com.

We like to answer this question with another question, "are you breathing?"

Obviously we are a bit biased. We’re all therapists, and we’ve chosen to work in a practice whose vision is to normalize therapy. We find the business of being human a bit complicated, and so we really value the therapy process. Let’s be honest. Our friends, coworkers, and mother-in-laws mean well, but sometimes they give horrible advice. If you’re not sure whether you need “just someone to talk to” or alphabet therapy (DBT, CBT, EMDR) don’t worry-we’ve got you. Give us a call or email and tell us a little bit about what’s happening. Take a look at the Approach section of our site for some ideas of what’s important to you now.

Bright Horse Counseling is an out-of-network provider which means that we do not bill insurance companies directly.
However, your counseling services may be eligible for reimbursement through your insurance plan’s out-of-network mental health benefits, medical spending, or health care savings accounts.

Health insurance plans and benefits vary. We recommend you call your health insurance customer service number and inquire about your out-of-network mental health benefits. You can learn what percentage you may be reimbursed if you work with us.

Bright Horse Counseling can provide you with a superbill (an itemized medical receipt) at the end of each month which you can submit to your insurance company for out-of-network coverage/reimbursement. Your submission and any reimbursement will be directly between you and your insurance carrier.

Here at Bright Horse Counseling, we choose to work outside of insurance companies for a variety of reasons:

1) We want our clients to be able to determine the length, frequency, and type of therapy they receive. When you use your insurance plan to obtain therapy, the insurance companies can often dictate how long you can be in therapy or even what kind of therapy you can receive. We don’t agree with this. Unless they’re in the room, we think they should butt out of these decisions.

2) Client privacy and protection. When using insurance to pay for therapy, a mental health diagnosis is required-immediately. This hasty diagnosis goes onto your permanent medical record, possibly creating an impact when applying for life and medical insurance coverage, or possibly limiting future employment opportunities. At Bright Horse Counseling, we like to empower our clients to choose whether or not they want to have a diagnosis on their medical record. By being out-of-network and private pay, we can allow our clients the highest degree of privacy, flexibility, and control of their medical records allowed by Tennessee state law.

3) We believe therapy is more about people than pathology. Many of our clients don’t actually qualify for a diagnosis, or the diagnosis we would like to attach to their chart isn’t recognized by the DSM. At Bright Horse Counseling, We recognize that the classification and categorization of mental health diagnoses has largely and historically taken place without collaborative input from women, people of color, the lgbtq community, and more. Diagnoses designed by white men tend to benefit white men. We use a discerning eye and a client-centered approach when diagnosing and assisting our clients.

We understand. Most of us receive therapy ourselves and face the same constraints. Which is why it’s important to us to value our therapists and their right to earn a living wage. Our therapists are highly trained, and have invested years and years of study and practice to advance their craft. Our fees reflect what we believe is reasonable compensation for their service.

Bright Horse Counseling is always working toward options that make therapy more widely available to all of us. Our rates are negotiable based on the therapist you choose, reduced-fee availability, and the type of therapy we provide. We can also connect you with insurance based options and donated sessions in the community.

DBT stands for Dialectical Behavior Therapy. For the DBT client, DBT is made up of three components:

1) Weekly individual DBT sessions with your therapist.

2) Weekly DBT-Skills group training with a skills group trainer.

3) Phone-coaching with your therapist.

The fourth component of DBT is just for your therapist, and that is a regular DBT consultation team meeting.

We think Dr. Marsha Linehan describes it best here.

DBT was originally developed to treat chronically suicidal individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), and it is now recognized as the gold standard psychological treatment for this population. In addition, research has shown that it is incredibly effective in treating a wide range of other disorders such as substance dependence, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders.

If you have a few more minutes, this video is helpful in explaining more about DBT.