Low Cost and Free Therapy in Los Angeles + All California
Do You Offer Free Mental Health Services in Los Angeles, CA/LA County?
Finding mental health support that is both effective and affordable is no easy feat. The entry point for mental health services often stops before it starts as many struggle with being able to afford mental health care on a regular basis. Many insurance companies don’t come with comprehensive mental health benefits and while some therapists offer sliding scale rates, even those fees can still surpass a person’s budget.
We understand the frustration that comes with wanting to take the necessary steps to manage your mental health but running into roadblocks such as insurance or high out of pocket rates. As a therapy practice who believes in mental health care accessibility, Modern Intimacy is doing what we can to offer low cost and free individual and couples therapy to those in Los Angeles County and throughout California.
In addition to being a therapy practice, we are also a training site for graduate students in the practicum stage of their education. Practicum students, or student externs, are at the tail end of their clinical psychology graduate program and starting their training hours with clients under diligent supervision. Since externs are not licensed mental health professionals yet, we offer a significantly decreased rates and free therapy for those who are open to working with a pre-licensed extern.
We offer our low cost and free therapy services to LA county residents, as well as all residents within the state of California.
How Can I Know My Assigned Extern is Providing Adequate Therapy?
Since student externs are new to clinical experience, the care they are providing to their clients is carefully supervised on a weekly basis. Each student extern is assigned a supervisor who oversees their clinical work during one-on-one supervision, or weekly meetings between the extern and their supervisor.
All student externs are supervised by Modern Intimacy’s founder, Dr. Kate Balestrieri, who is a licensed psychologist, as well as a certified sex therapist and certified sex addiction therapist. Dr. Balestrieri oversees the externship program in terms of vetting, selecting, and training externs to ensure they are providing the most adequate and ethical therapeutic care.
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mental health | relationships | sexuality | healing + recovery
What Mental Health Issues Can Free Therapy with an Extern Help With?
Our externs are trained in a variety of areas around mental health, sexual health, and relationships. Some of the common areas externs work with clients around can include, but isn’t limited to:
- Substance abuse
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Performance anxiety
- Sexual dysfunction
- Providing emotional support
- Body image
- LGBTQ+ affirming therapy
- Couples with mismatched libidos
- Sexual exploration
- Life transitions
- Stress management
Why Free Therapy with Modern Intimacy Over Free Behavioral Health Resources?
One of our main services at Modern Intimacy is sex therapy, which is a specialized form of psychotherapy. While there are great affordable mental health resources such as crisis counselors, local social services, and therapeutics/psychiatric services via the county department of mental health, specialized therapy such as sex therapy is seldom covered by insurance.
If you are looking for specialized therapy around sex, intimacy, and relationships, at Modern Intimacy, there are opportunities to work with sex therapists in training who are supervised by certified sex therapists.
I Don’t Live in LA. Can I Work With an Extern via Telehealth?
Of course. The rise in popularity of teletherapy has made finding adequate mental health services more geographically accessible for many people. Whether you live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or anywhere in between, our externs can provide therapy virtually.
At Modern Intimacy, we used a HIPAA compliant platform where sessions are conducted through video. Though sessions are virtual, we do highly recommend creating a quiet and private space for your sessions, wherever you plan to have them at. We do not recommend doing sessions in public as it can impact the level of comfort and privacy you are able to achieve during sessions.
We offer our telehealth services in Los Angeles County as well as to all who live in the state of California.
The Issue I’m Looking For Help With are Around my Sexual Health. Can Externs Help with Sexual Health Concerns, in Addition to Mental Health Conditions?
Absolutely. Our therapy practices specializes in treating the intersections of mental health and sexual health, knowing they often interplay with each other. We specifically interview and select externs who are passionate and interested in pursuing a mental health career with a specialization in treating sexual difficulties or eventually becoming a Certified Sex Therapist. All staff members on the Modern Intimacy team are clinicians who care deeply about helping individuals and couples discover the type of sex life and sexual health that is most in alignment with their life. Our externs are trained and educated on human sexuality, working through sexual conditions such as sexual dysfunctions, sexual trauma, and understanding each person’s unique relationship to sex.
Modern Intimacy and our externs also know that many people are coming to therapy with immense feelings of shame and guilt around sex. We do not take that lightly and are passionate about helping people feel more empowered, safe, and liberated to explore sex in whatever way feels meaningful to our clients.
How Will I Know if Working with an Extern is a Good Fit?
For all therapy services, including services with our externs, you can schedule a free 30 minute consultation to learn more about your goals and make sure we have the right services and provider for what you’re looking for. During the consultation, you will speak with our Intake Specialist who will align you with the best therapeutic fit at our practice and answer any questions you might have.
If working with an extern is not a good fit, we can always provide support, resources, referrals, and support groups that offer similar areas of speciality and services as our practice.
If you are specifically interested in working with one of our externs, feel free to let our Intake Specialist know to make sure our Extern(s) are qualified to help with the exact issues you’re seeking help around.