Welcome to Dr. Grace Chen, LMFT
I am Dr. Grace Chen, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Individual Therapy
I specialized in working with individuals who suffered from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Couples Therapy
I am an attachment-oriented therapist. With attachment as the foundation of my therapy approach.
Consultation
I want to walk you out of your aloneness and darkness, transform you into the person you desire to be
About us
Couples Therapy
Welcome to my website! I am Dr. Grace Chen, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I specialized in working with individuals who suffered from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and couples who experienced conflicts and infidelity recovery.
As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I see mental health issues from relationship lenses. That is, I see the mental health issues are the symptoms of relationship problems. My specialty areas are working with adults suffering from Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, and Trauma Recovery as individuals or as a couple.
I am an attachment-oriented therapist. With attachment as the foundation of my therapy approach, the primary goal for therapy is to help the individual or couples transform their childhood insecure attachment orientation to the functioning secure attachment in adulthood.
About Me
Individual Therapy
I am a certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) therapist. EMDR is my primary treatment model (with attachment as a foundation) when working with clients with trauma history.
Drs. John and Julie Gottman’s model (Gottman’s Model) are my frameworks when conceptualizing the couple’s relationship issues. My specialty areas are working with couples in communication, conflict resolution, and infidelity recovery. As a Taiwanese immigrant, I am a bilingual (English and Mandarin Chinese) and bi-cultural (American and Chinese/Asian) therapist. I have also been working with immigrant couples and couples who come from two different cultures.
My overarching goal for therapy is TRANSFORMATION. I believe that change is not enough as a goal for psychotherapy. We can all make changes today and change back tomorrow. I think that the goal for psychotherapy is transformation. Once transformed, you can walk onto a different path towards a meaningful and joyful life with a sense of fulfillment and joy.
Testimnonials
Sweet Words From Clients
fulfillment
We all Deserve Joy
- Do you feel a dark cloud following you no matter where you go?
- Do you feel your mind continually running through different thoughts, and you are exhausted from all those racing thoughts but unable to stop them?
- Do you feel your life is going through the same motion, and no matter how hard you try, you always ended up feeling defeated?
- Do you doubt where your life is going and are tired of living your life the same way as it is?
- Are you living your life making choices based on fear instead of desire?
- Do you feel like you repeat the same relationship patterns and wonder why you are always attracted to the wrong person?
- Do you feel your partner doesn’t truly hear you, and your communication is running through circles?
- Do you feel tired of fighting with the same issues over and over again with your partners for little things that really shouldn’t matter?
- Do you wonder, other than children and house, what else do you and your partner have in common?
- Do you feel lost in the communication because your values and philosophy of life are so different from your partner's?
- Are you at the crossroad to determine whether you should repair your relationship and give your partner a chance, or you should go on your separate ways because of your partner’s affair?
If you are going through the feelings described above, I want to help you (and your partner). I genuinely believe that no one should cry in the dark corner, and we all deserve to live with a sense of joy, contentment, and fulfillment.
I want to walk you out of your aloneness and darkness, transform you into the person you desire to be, and share your life with your partner in a harmonious rhythm.
Let’s collaborate to get you back on the journey of your life that is satisfied, meaningful, and fulfilled.
FAQs
Regular Questions
You can reach me by phone at 978-482-7480 or email me at [email protected].
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. If you use Blue Cross Blue Shields of Massachusetts to cover your sessions, I will ask for your insurance number, the subscriber's name, and date of birth to seek insurance authorization.
2. If you don't plan to use the insurance, you don't have to worry about this part.
3. 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.
4. 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.
Initial intake assessment: $180/hour
Ongoing Therapy sessions: $160/hour
For individual therapy clients:
I do take Blue Cross Blue Shields. If you have Blue Cross Blue Shields, your cost is your copay for the "behavioral health" unless you have the deductibles.
If you do not have Blue Cross Blue Shields insurance, you can consider the following 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 durations this issue has been going on.
Blog & News
Articles From Our Website
Embracing Feeling Broken (Part I)
I am a meditator. After getting myself a cup of coffee in the morning,…
EMDR Treatment Experience by Anonymous Client # 1
My EMDR Treatment Experiences ~~~ by Anonymous Client #1 Before EMDR I was so…
Making the most of EMDR: Difficulties in Going Through EMDR treatment.
When thinking about EMDR, many clients think about the phase four processing: “moving your…
Contact Dr. Chen
Get In Touch
Are you ready to take action? The easiest way to contact me is to fill out the following information and send it to me.
Address
12 Essex St. STE 8, Andover, MA
Phone
978-482-7480
