I rang Jeanne Courtney, a partner/founder of Feminist Therapy Associates, because I needed to find a counsellor for grief. I had my hopes up, especially after reading on her website the following key points, direct quotes on the website by Jeanne Courtney: "As we work together to make your life better, I bring patience and compassion to the ups and downs of that process, and I can show you how to do the same," "I'm a passionate ally for transgender folks, and I work with all sexual orientations and genders, as well as the kink and poly communities," and finally "to make therapy affordable, I accept Medi-Cal for Alameda County, and have a generous sliding scale."
This lady who espouses patience, seemingly didn't even have the capability to patiently listen to me on the phone! The amount of times she interrupted me was astounding, and definitely not something I've ever been accustomed to experiencing from someone in this industry. This was my first red flag. My second was how her Energy shifted toward me when I mentioned my husband. Dreading the box she would undoubtedly put me in (something to which I've grown accustomed when speaking to people from certain "communities"), this unfortunately did not surprise me. I held out hope, however, that given time, she'd be able to remove me from that box, especially when she learned more about my own orientation, which is never what meets the eye upon first meeting me. However, we will never get that far, because her claim that she has a "generous sliding scale" is something mock-worthy! I have been in therapy many times over, and I have worked with "sliding scales" most of those times. Her starting rate, without using a sliding scale, is 150 an hour. When, through all her impatient interruptions, I was finally able to share with her our income, she said we "qualified for (her) lowest end on the sliding scale." I held my breath to hear what that would be, and then gasped when she stated it was "100 an hour." WHAT? That is what she calls a "generous sliding scale?" Her LOWEST is only 50 dollars less? That is just ridiculous.
I just relayed this to my 22 year old daughter, whose reaction mirrored mine, and it was she who encouraged me to put this on yelp. I trust others who have experience working with therapists will agree and not waste their time with such hypocrisy. read more