Therapist for young adult - United Healthcare insurance only
My early-20s daughter is ready to try therapy again to try to get to the underlying causes of her anxiety and depression, which she has been self-medicating with drugs, primarily marijuana. In many ways, she is more of an adolescent than her chronological age would suggest. She's four years out of high school, lives at home, and during that time, she has only had one job, from which she was fired for chronic tardiness. My health insurance is United Healthcare (UHC), which I understand is unpopular with therapists. I've asked my therapist friends for recommendations, but none of those recommended accepts UHC. I have a 90-page list of UHC preferred providers, but the names mean nothing to us. So this is a longshot, but if you know of a good therapist (preferably a woman, woman of color a plus) whom you know takes UHC insurance, I'd be grateful. Thank you.
Parent Replies
My heart goes out to you and your family. It is very hard to have a child with depression and anxiety. I have been struggling with my 16 year old for more than 3 years. We did a lot of different therapies with no avail, recently I took the leap and brought him to a psychiatrist. He prescribed him Lexapro 10mg and it made a big difference. The psychiatrist mentioned that for anxiety, he needs cognitive behavioral therapy and for depression dialect behavioral therapy. I don’t have a referral for therapists covering your insurance but I wanted to point out you would want a specific therapist for each condition. I came to understanding that you need both medication and therapy to have a good effect. My son will go to a therapeutic boarding school because he is refusing therapy here. I think change of environment will also help individuals. Maybe you could consider an insitutions like that for young adults! Hang in there and keep breathing!
I took a shorter list to the doctor. She checked off the ones she thought were okay, and I started calling. I got a couple more random names from a psychiatrist (who I found via BPN but had to pay out of pocket for) and both names were on my insurance list. The psychiatrist gave me names of therapists he thought would be a good fit. Though I think some psychiatrists actually do therapy. I think it would be fine to filter the list by sex, by location, and then take a shorter list (not 90 pages!) to an appointment with your daughter's doctor. Maybe if you call CAPS at Cal (counseling and psychological services) they might be able to give you some names of therapists who work well with younger clients? I hope some of these ideas may help.