The best way to contact us is through our email address, info@AkahaiEmotionalWellness.com.

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 email 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 your presenting issues are, your gender and age, if you plan to use insurance or pay out of pocket, and what you are hoping to get out of therapy. This information helps us match you with the best therapist for you.

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

We are currently able to offer mental health therapy. If there is a specific therapeutic approach you are hoping to have with us, please let us know in your initial request. If you are looking for mental health medication, we recommend contacting our colleague, April Ann Shintani Kua, MBA, MSN, APRN, FNP, CARN-AP, PMHNP through her Psychology Today profile by clicking HERE. Feel free to tell her you found her on our website. 

All therapists working under Akahai Emotional Wellness, LLC are required to carry liability insurance.  

Our therapists’ full rate is $180 per session, but they 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. 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 email us (info@AkahaiEmotionalWellness.com) for a free consultation to talk about this more.

Kevin is currently able to accept HMSA  and AlohaCare as an in-network provider. If you have different insurance other than this please contact your insurance provider to see what they reimburse for out-of-network providers. Make sure you ask them if they will reimburse for out-of-network telehealth therapy. If they do reimburse, you will need to pay out-of-pocket first, then submit your invoice to your insurance for reimbursement. 

Clients who do  not have the insurances listed above or who are seeing pre-licensed professionals will need to pay out-of-pocket for services through Akahai Emotional Wellness, LLC. 

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 is a medical doctor  who specializes in psychiatric (mental health) medicine. This person 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 is someone with a non-medical doctorate degree in the field of psychology. 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. Licensed counselors are trained specifically in clinical mental health counseling, so that is what they do best.

A therapist is 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 for couples and families and the issues that accompany these. 

*Some states do allow people to be therapists without a masters degree, but this is usually just in specialized fields that are difficult to staff, such as substance abuse counselors. To my 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 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. 

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.

For instance, Kevin is officially “Kevin Faust, MS, LMHC, LPC, NCC, NATC, CCTP-II” at this moment.

It is often not advised to use more than 3 credentials after one’s name in many cases so Kevin typically does not list the “MS” after his name. One can safely assume that if a counselor is licensed, they have a masters degree at least. And since we are in Hawaii, he tends to leave the Pennsylvania “LPC” off as well.

Kevin’s credentials explained…

MS = master of science degree
LMHC = licensed mental health counselor (Hawai’i)
LPC = licensed professional counselor (Pennsylvania)
NCC = national certified counselor (board-certified)
NATC = narcissistic abuse treatment clinician
CCTP-II = certified clinical trauma professional level 2

Kevin is licensed in Hawai’i and in Pennsylvania. According to licensure rules as well as regulations of the American Counseling Association (ACA), he can only work with clients who are physically located in states where he is licensed to practice. So for now, he can only see clients who are physically located in Hawai’i or Pennsylvania. 

Pre-licensed professionals with Akahai Emotional Wellness, LLC are restricted to the states where their supervisor is licensed, so they are also restricted to Hawai’i and Pennsylvania.