The best way to contact us is through our CONTACT page.

Our office number, 808-301-HELP (4357), typically goes straight to voicemail since we are therapists and are often in sessions with clients all day. But our CONTACT page gives you a lot more space and time to be thoughtful in giving us the information we will need. We will need to know what issues you’d like to address in therapy, if you’re requesting a specific therapist, your gender and age, in what state or island you are located, if you plan to use insurance or pay out-of-pocket for services, and any other questions, concerns, or issues you think may be important to share. This information helps us match you with the best therapist for you.

You will first need to contact us (see above) and set up an initial consultation. Our intake staff will communicate with you to try to pair you with the best therapist for you. That therapist will then reach out to you to schedule. 

Our therapists set their own hours. Some therapists may work evenings or weekends and some may not. Some may offer in-person appointments and some may only do telehealth (video) appointments. Please feel free to talk with your therapist about any scheduling issues you may have.

At the end of each session, you will typically have the option to schedule another appointment. Usually our clients meet with their therapist once per week for one therapeutic hour (45-50 minutes). If once per week is too much or not enough, please discuss that with your therapist.

You will receive a notification when an appointment is scheduled, canceled, or otherwise altered. You will also receive a reminder notification ~24 hours before each scheduled appointment time.

Our full rate is $180 per session, but we are often able to offer rates as low as $90 or less for those paying out-of-pocket depending upon the client’s household income and the therapist’s availability. Our therapists in training may be able to offer even lower, or sometimes pro bono (free) sessions!

The American Counseling Association Code of Ethics encourages counselors to “contribute to society by devoting a portion of their professional activity to services for which there is little or no financial return.” We do our best to work with clients to fit their financial needs. Please reach out for a free consultation to talk about this more.

Different professionals can accept different insurances. Please contact us for more information on what insurances we can accept. 

Some therapists are able to accept insurances such as HMSA, Ohana Health Plan, University Health Alliance (UHA),  and AlohaCare as in-network providers. If you would like to know more about what your insurance covers, contact your insurance provider by calling the phone number on your insurance card.

Some insurances are able to reimburse for out-of-network providers. Make sure you ask them if they will reimburse for out-of-network telehealth therapy if you’d like to see a therapist who may not be in-network with your insurance. If they do reimburse, you will need to pay out-of-pocket first, then submit your invoice to your insurance for reimbursement. Invoices are easily accessible in our client portal system.

Clients will need to pay out-of-pocket for services if they do  not have insurance that we are able to accept or if they are seeing pre-licensed professionals (unless your rate is set as pro bono (free). 

Different professionals can accept different insurances. Please contact us for more information on what insurances we can accept. See more information above under “What are the rates of your services?”

We are currently able to offer mental health therapy, coaching, and advocacy. If there is a specific therapeutic approach you are hoping to have with us (e.g. cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR, somatic experience therapy, etc.) please let us know in your initial request. Some of our therapists can do in-person sessions and some only do telehealth (video) sessions.

If you are looking for mental health medication, we recommend contacting our colleague, April Ann Shintani Kua, MBA, MSN, APRN, FNP, CARN-AP, PMHNP on our RESOURCES tab under “Medication Management.”

The short answer is that there is not one of these that is always the best choice. Perhaps what is most important is finding the right clinician for you and your needs.

We totally understand that the terminology can be confusing, so let’s try to clear this up for you a bit…

A psychiatrist  (MD or DO) is a medical doctor   who specializes in psychiatric (mental health) medicine. A Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) can also diagnose and prescribe mental health medication. These people can help you with the medical side of mental health. It is extremely rare that a psychiatrist would do therapy, but a good psychiatrist should be highly recommending that their patients who take mental health medications also find a mental health therapist. Research is clear that when a patient gets therapy along with their medication it shows much better outcomes than medication alone.

A psychologist  (PhD or PsyD) is someone with a non-medical doctorate degree  in the field of psychology and is licensed as a psychologist by the state. A psychologist may also be credentialed as a therapist (clinical psychologist), but may primarily be trained more in research, assessment, or education rather than therapy.

Do not fall into thinking that a psychologist is going to be better than other therapists. For instance, licensed therapists are trained specifically in clinical mental health counseling, so that is what they typically do best.

The term therapist  refers to anyone credentialed to provide therapy. This could be a counselor, social worker, marriage and family therapist, or psychologist, as long as they are trained in providing therapy. 

A marriage and family therapist  (MFT or LMFT) is specifically trained at a masters level to provide therapy from a systemic perspective (ie. family systems theories). Some clinicians may even have a doctorate in marriage and family therapy (ie. DMFT or PhD in MFT)

*Some states do allow people to be therapists without a masters degree, but this is usually just in specialized fields that are especially difficult to staff, such as substance abuse counselors. To our knowledge, a therapist that does not have a masters degree cannot be licensed as a therapist in the United States, but would have to work under, and bill under, someone who is licensed. 

A social worker  is someone who has a degree in social work or something similar. If a social worker is a therapist, they should have a masters degree at minimum in the United States and then credentials after their name to indicate a clinical aspect to their training such as LCSW (licensed clinical social worker), or at least be working towards that licensure. Some clinicians may even have a doctorate in social work (PhD in SW).

Counselors  are not as easy to define due to different states having different credential designations. It may be best to look at the letters after their name and plug them into a search engine to find out what they mean, but in Hawai’i, the designation is Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC). An LMHC may even have a doctorate degree (i.e. Phd, PsyD, DMFT…).

Hawai’i and many other states also have added a pre-licensed designation such as “Associate Licensed Mental Health Counselor (ALMHC)” to indicate that this person is working towards full licensure in their particular area of practice and is being properly supervised. 

And if you have any questions about all of this, we’d be happy to talk with you and help you figure out what is right for you!

Some therapists may be licensed in more than one state. According to licensure rules as well as regulations of the American Counseling Association (ACA), these therapists can only work with clients who are physically located in states where they are licensed to practice. 

Pre-licensed professionals are ethically only able to see clients in the state in which they are working towards licensure, but that technically could be more than one state at a time.