I do offer 15-min consultation. You don't have to make an appointment. Please call between 12-1 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday if you wish to have a phone consultation to determine whether my service fits your needs. 

1. Currently, I only see fully vaccinated clients for the office visit. I only offer Telehealth to the clients whose physical location are in Massachusetts in the extreme situation such as weather conditions or urgent situation that prevent them from coming to the office. 

2. You can call @ 978-482-7480, email me @ gracechen@drgracechenlmft.com, or use the inquiry box below to send me the inquiry message. 

3. Please identify your name, phone # and email message in your inquiry. If you have a specific date and time that works better for you, I will try to accommodate except Mondays. I will send my available time for the next two weeks for you to pick and choose what might work for you.

4. Once we have a date and time for the intake, I will send you a link via email to fill out all the intake paperwork online. Therefore, I will also need your email address and phone number to set up an account for you. You fill out the paperwork at least a day before the appointment so that I can review them before our session.

5. You show up at the time of your appointment.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 9 am to 6 pm.
I only accept fully vaccinated clients for the in-person office sessions. 

My fee schedule is as follows:
Initial intake assessment: $180/hour
Ongoing Therapy sessions: $160/hour

I am an out-of-network provider. I do not work with the insurance company directly.

You can consider the following options other than the insurance options:
1) you have the flexible spending account (FSA) or health spending account (HSA), you can pay the session fee with your flexible spending account (copays and individual therapy);
2) if you have a PPO plan with the "out-of-network" benefit, I can also give you the receipt to file the reimbursement from your insurance company. This is an excellent way to choose the provider you want without being limited by the insurance company. I can walk you through the steps to file the out-of-network benefit on your own.

For Couple therapy clients:
For the couple's therapy, the insurance reimbursement might be tricky. Insurance companies reimburse for "medical necessity," meaning an identified client, a mental health diagnosis, and treatment evidence to improve the identified client's mental health.

Most couples seek communication and conflict resolution from therapy for different reasons (such as co-parenting, finance, infidelity, etc.). To focus on the couple's communication and relationship, the treatment goals and plans are more likely NOT about the individual mental health issues but the interaction between partners.

I highly recommend that you call your insurance company and ask for the following information before you contact me if you do plan to use the insurance for the couple's therapy:

"Do my insurance plan cover CPT Code 980847 (family therapy with patient present) with Diagnose code Z 63.0 (Problems in relationship with spouse or partner)?"

Each session is 50 minutes.

Usually, the counseling is one session a week unless there is an emergency.

 If you are using the insurance, the insurance coverage is usually once a week.

Please click this page for the definition of out-of-network benefit.

If you are considering out-of-network options but not sure whether your insurance benefit, please call the 1-800 number on your insurance card and ask the following questions:
 1) Is my plan a PPO plan covering out-of-network benefits??
 2) If it is, how many percentages will it cover me?
 3) Will it cover both Telehealth and in-person, or just one of them?
 4) For individual therapy, will my insurance cover CPT codes 90837 and 90834 or just 90834 for individual therapy?
   For couple therapy, will my insurance cover CPT code 90847 with Diagnose Code Z 63.0?
 5) How do I file for the reimbursement? Is there a fax number, online filing, or mail address?

I can arrange the initial intake sessions within two weeks when I have available time to accept new clients. But, mainly, the motivation to participate in therapy for change is the highest when a client calls for a therapy appointment. 

However, there is no way to predict the duration of a client's therapy process, making it hard to predict when I will have openings for the clients on the waiting list. 

In addition, a waiting list is a binding contract with the clients. As a therapist, it means that I will have to safeguard the confidentiality and privacy of the clients while agreeing to contact the clients when there is a time slot becoming available. However, a potential client's mental health or relationship might deteriorate while waiting to be seen. 

Therefore, I don't have a waiting list for legal and ethical reasons. However, please feel free to check back with me later if you wish to do so. 

The answer is NO. I don't mix and match the individual and couple's therapy. It's a conflict of interests. Once I start seeing someone as an individual, I don't work with them as a couple except when the individual client is in a dangerous situation, such as suicide, and requires support from the spouse for extra support.

The reason for doing this is this: the couple relationship itself requires the therapist to stay connected and be trustworthy to both partners. Once I start seeing a person individually, we form a bond without the partner. Once the partner joins, it will make the partner feels as if I am aligned with my client before them. I don't mix and match the couple and individual therapy work to work for your relationship.

When I see a couple, I provide them the individual sessions if there is a need to do so, but I will see both partners individually to balance out my time with each partner.

Counseling is usually once a week and 50-minute per session. It depends on the issues you bring in to decide how long it will take for you to be in counseling. At the beginning of the counseling, I suggest that you come in as regularly as possible (once a week) for the first months because we need to get to know each other, assess your issue, and develop the treatment goals. Then, we can decide the frequency of the counseling and the duration of the counseling.

Usually, after a month, my clients often expressed "feeling better." I described this as "calming down from the crisis." However, the real work of change starts here. From here, you might go through some ups and downs with your issue before you reach a "new equilibrium" of your psychological or relationship status. This might take a year or longer for some people who experienced complex trauma. For some sudden life crises, this might be a little bit shorter. Therefore, it all depends on the issues and the duration this issue has been going on. For more information, please check my individual therapy and couple therapy page.