Scared to Start with New Therapist
Hi. I moved a new state which my therapist, who I had been seeing via video, doesn't have a license in and therefore can no longer see me. Since turning 18, there has been a lot of control of my finances & very weird instances of things such as my mother driving up to my school, taking (dragging) me into an electronic store several hundred miles from my home, then refusing to let me leave until I bought $2,000 worth of products when I was making $8,000 that year. There has been a lot of fighting & back and forth over the years of me trying to get all my services under my own name, especially when I was supporting myself (my college, rent, utilties, groceries etc.) while paying several thousand dollars in medical copays per year & was still not allowed to leave & purchase my own insurance. I did not like the feeling of being dependent on the person who molested me for health insurance, nor for anything else. Despite being financially independent, I was never "permitted" to purchase my own health insurance. Now several years later, even after purchasing my own home in another state, I have still not been "allowed" to leave. I'm sure this sounds crazy, in some ways. They are still trying to get me to move "back home," to this day. "Your brothers miss you so much," they used to say, then when I came home to visit out of guilt, he would molest me again. Here's my deal: I'm afraid that if I start seeing a new therapist, they will not believe that I was abused, because I am still on their insurance. How can I trust that a new therapist will believe anything I say when I'm still on their insurance? Should I just forego using the insurance at all, to avoid the paranoia that'll eat through me otherwise?
@potatochip321
Hi there. It can be scary starting over with a new therapist. Those State lines and licenses can be tricky things. The great thing though that is universal is their code of ethics as enlisted by the American Counseling Association. Section B of the code is Confidentiality and Privacy. As you're 18 years old, the information of who your parents are is not their business and the code of ethics prohibits them from requesting such information. Counselors can only release information with appropriate consent from you or with sound legal or ethical justification. Meaning you would have to be an active threat to yourself or others. Talking about your family or whatever they have done to you, would not warrant them going above you. In fact, disclosing any information you share, just because you are on your parent's insurance, would be grounds for them to lose their license.
If you want, you can look over the code of ethics to help soothe the fact that you should be okay with using their insurance :) It can't go back to them. Here
@HopieRemi Thank you for the thoughtful answer - so the therapist would not be able to see that my health insurance isn't in my own name? That is what I am worried about. I'm not really concerned about release of information, as in the past when I was hospitalized against my will by therapists, no one was informed of it. I am more worried about the idea of the therapist knowing my insurance isn't in my own name. Especially if they can see that my insurance is under the name of a male sharing my last name who is 40 years older than me, they will be able to assume certain things. So they can't see whose name is on the insurance? I would be worried that if they can figure out I'm on my parents' insurance plan, they will refuse to believe that I was abused, or that they will think other negative things about me, especially at the age of 22.
@potatochip321
Correct, they cannot see the details of the insurance. In fact, the therapists do not directly handle the insurance. Billing departments in their offices handle the money issues. They simply know that your sessions are paid for and whatever else you inform them of.