Teletherapy

Congruent Counseling (CCS) is proud to offer Teletherapy or Telehealth counseling in Maryland.  Unlike most other Telehealth programs, all of CCS’s therapists also practice in person – they all have office hours.  This means you can do some of your sessions in person and some via video.  Sessions can change week to week as long as you and your therapist can work out the details.  If you opt for mainly teletherapy, you could set up a few individual sessions when you feel meeting in person would be more beneficial for you: for instance,  a teen or child can meet with the therapist in person, while an out of town parent videos in for a family session.  Talk to your therapist about how this might work.

CCS offers therapy with most commercial insurances, however not all insurances cover teletherapy/telehealth. For those commercial insurances that do, we can provide services under your insurance.  Some clients may choose teletherapy as their primary mode of treatment; Maryland law states teletherapy can only be provided by a counselor licensed in the State of Maryland, and the client must be a resident of Maryland. This means that students who have seen a counselor in-state can continue to see their same counselor while off at college as long as their primary residence remains in Maryland. The law also requires that one party be located in Maryland – the counselor may be out of the state, but then the client must be in Maryland (or vice versa).

Congruent Counseling does ask that the initial intake be in-person at one of our offices with the therapist you choose to work with. It is important to determine that teletherapy is right for you, that you will have a safe environment to see your therapist, and that the therapist knows who to contact in case of an emergency. Confidentiality is important: CCS uses the HIPAA-complaint portal provided by Zoom – no, not the free publicly available Zoom for business or school meetings, a special portal intended to protect your privacy.

Set up an assessment to get started, and ask whether the therapist you want to see has openings for teletherapy.  We do require that the initial appointment be done in our office, face to face, to ensure teletherapy is right for you.