Menu of Emotional Health Services

  • Prep and Support Pregnancy Therapy (brief or intensive)
  • Developmentally-Targeted Dyadic Therapy (brief or intensive)
  • Emotional Baby Checkups
  • Family Therapy, Play Therapy, Group Therapy…
  • Parenting of very young children and school readiness
  • Training for Professionals, on land or at sea (cruising to the Bahamas?)
  • Consultation Services for Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
  • Psychological Evaluations
  • Research Services
  •  Provision of Clinical Supervision
  • A LA CARTE customized services, please inquire
  • Other Treatment Specialties: click here

We work with a range of patients who present a variety of unique circumstances.  Our services are both traditional and entrepreneurial. Among our many specialties, we intervene with shyness, separation anxiety, sleeping problems…

Our clinical orientation embraces traditional attachment theory, self psychology processes such as healthy narcissism, cognitive behavioral and schema based therapy, and family systems approaches.  We endorse primarily right brain, relational, face to face methods in individual and dyadic therapy to encourage interpersonal approach and work to mitigate anxiety and avoidance tendencies.

We are not opposed to the use of psychiatric medication with child and adult patients, yet we understand the sincere perils of drug cocktails, insufficiently frequent or lengthy medication holidays or breaks, and illusions of a cure or lasting progress.  While medication can occasionally provide an immediate and highly effective intervention, contraindications for reliance on these medications to permanently change behavior are very seldom adequately addressed.  These include: testing for dry eye and thyroid function; consideration of the developmental timing of drug exposure in relation to sensitive and critical periods of brain development; second opinions with regard to diagnoses and focus of emotional health treatment; assessing all possible alternative interventions alone or in combination; etc…  It is also very important to gather the input of family members as to how medication may harm relationships, such as the frequent scenario of antidepressant medication  obliterating a spouse’s sex drive and thus causing marital distress.  The timing of when to give both minors and adults psychiatric medication should be carefully evaluated to ensure other forms of ample support can serve to complement the gains of medication, instead of relying on a pill to magically do all the work.

For patients seeking psychotherapy services, together we will determine whether the doctor/patient fit can meet your needs and specific areas of concern.  This typically occurs during the initial session.  By the end of the first or second session, a doctor patient relationship will either have been established or you may be referred to seek services elsewhere.

This clinic accepts both fee for service or self pay and insurance patients.  Self pay patient fees may be negotiable in situations of financial hardship.  Self pay patients tend to have more exclusive privacy of their patient records, as no diagnostic codes or other treatment information need be shared with insurance company data banks.

At this time, Dr Pamela Collman is in network with Cigna in the southern California, and is pending notification of approval with MHN/Tricare/Federal Health Network west coast military insurance coverage.  It is sometimes possible to arrange a single case agreement for prospective patients with other health insurance coverage.  Accurate copays are the patients responsibility and, by law, are always due at the time of each session.

 

Schedule an Appointment

Rates & Insurance

Rates:

  • Average Session Fee: $150

Insurance:

Services may be covered in full or in part by your health insurance or employee benefit plan. Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Coverage Parity laws require most health plans to apply similar rules to mental health benefits as they do for medical/surgical benefits. Please check your coverage carefully by asking the following questions of your insurance provider:

  • Do I have mental health insurance benefits?
  • What is my deductible and has it been met?
  • How many sessions per year does my health insurance cover?
  • What is the coverage amount per therapy session?
  • Is approval required from my primary care physician?

Please note the cancellation policy. If you do not show for your scheduled therapy appointment, and you have not notified us at least 24 hours in advance, you will be required to pay a fee.   This fee can be waived if we have enough time to schedule another patient for your cancelled appointment time.