Mental health is important to me if you haven’t noticed by my willingness to talk about my struggles. Well at my last therapy session, I received news that threw my world into a tailspin. Due to my primary insurance, the State of Arkansas has decided that only a person with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology can accept my insurance. My therapist has the same license but her degree is in Psychology. Arkansas has made it so that only social workers can accept my primary insurance. This presents the biggest problem for billing my secondary insurance which my therapist does take.           

I am now in a situation where I must either pay out of pocket for each therapy session. To be completely honest, paying out of pocket means I have to choose between food or continuing to work on my mental health. I am opting to pay out of pocket because I have a rapport with my therapist and do not want to try finding a new one. Building trust with a therapist is hard for me, so that is a big reason why changing therapist is not a viable option.           

I am asking everyone to contact the Governor of Arkansas to help bring attention to this issue and how important accessible affordable mental health care is. I also ask that you write to your government officials to change the federal laws as well. Help me and others you know get accessible and affordable mental health treatment.

Since this will affect how often I attend therapy there may be weeks where there is no Therapy Thursday feature. But I will do my best to keep posting weekly about things I am working on or want to work on in therapy. Until next time be weird and nerd out.