Taking care of yourself is important! Mental and physical health can affect your daily life as well as your engagement in school. If you are facing a difficult situation, I encourage you to come talk to me about it, so that I can make appropriate accommodations. In addition, below are some affordable care options that are outside of school.
Help Finding/Affording a Therapist
Rise Above the Disorder
They’re a nonprofit that helps link you to mental health services. All their services are free and anyone can apply (i.e there’s no qualifications based on income, regional location, citizenship, etc). You just fill out the application form on the website and a case manager will reach out to you. If you have insurance, then they’ll help find and interview therapists within your network (based on your needs) and send them your way. If you don’t have insurance, they have 3 kinds of grants you can potentially apply for: one that helps cover the costs of counseling until you get employed and insured, one that splits the costs of therapy, and one that completely covers 6 months worth of counseling for free. (https://youarerad.org/)
Open Pathways Collective
Open Pathways Collective is a nonprofit that you pay a one-time lifetime membership fee of $60 and you have access to all the mental health professionals who partner with them to provide sliding scale services. If your income qualifies you for membership, then their range for individual counseling is $30-70/session and $80/session for couples/family counseling. Each mental health provider is different, this is just meant to be more of a directory to find the one that fits with you. (https://openpathcollective.org/)
Medication
Remedy Psychiatry
$179 for initial comprehensive 50-minute psychiatric evaluation and first full month of care, then $89 per month beginning your second month for unlimited video appointments, 1:1 provider messaging and symptom tracking. Follow-up appointments whenever you need. Cancel at any point.
No insurance needed. Superbill receipts provided for out‑of‑network insurance claims. HSA (Health Savings Account) /FSA (Flexible Spending Account) payments accepted. The cost of medication is not included, but can be covered by your insurance if you have it. (https://remedypsychiatry.com/)
Neuro Wellness Spa
The biggest highlight is they offer in-network general psychiatry. (https://neurowellnessspa.com/)
General Advice
Otherwise, there is also the option of seeking out nonprofit settings where their services are often free (usually for a limited number of sessions, 8-12). These nonprofits are usually paid for by government grants and specialize in certain issues (i.e domestic violence, trauma, eating disorders, etc) so if you’re looking to address very specific issues these would be great. Check out include 211LA.org (LA county) and 211oc.org (Orange County)! It’s a directory for any resources in general, not just counseling.