I work most closely with:

Activists and people working for social transformation

Gender expansive people exploring or pursuing gender transition

People healing from complex or developmental trauma including spiritual abuse

People suffering from anxiety and depression

People struggling with high stress relationships

People living with chronic illnesses

I most often see individuals and families weekly for a period of six months or longer. I prefer to schedule sessions at the same time each week such that we have ritual around when we look forward to seeing each other.

I am not a crisis service and am not available outside of business hours, however I welcome communication relevant to the course of our conversations that I can read when I am at work. If you are in crisis, please call the Hennepin County Crisis Line, COPE, at 612-596-1223 or go to a nearby emergency room for care.

I am also a trainee in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy at the Institute for Integrative Therapeutics and am able to offer Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy.

My mentor Janet Bystrom sometimes starts sessions by asking “what do you want to grow, nurture, or protect”. Therapy starts when you begin to have answers to those questions, or when the stress in your life overwhelms the resources you have access to. Or maybe someone referred you to therapy — a friend, family mentor, doctor, mentor, or pastoral presence. Or maybe you were in therapy in the past (or now!) but have ore information now about what you’re looking for and want something different.

Then, you probably started googling. To work with me, the first step is to call me at 612.888.0897 and leave me a message or email me at abbie@therapy-mn.com. I’ll respond to you and let you know if have openings. If I do, I’ll ask you to send me a couple of times that work for a 15-20 minute phone call where we’ll get to know each other a bit and learn if we are a good fit for each other. If the answer is yes, we’ll initiate a Benefits Check if you plan to use insurance to pay for services. After you receive the Good Faith Estimate and have a sense of the financial commitment for therapy, I’ll send you a bunch of intake forms. Those forms usually take people 20-30 minutes to complete. They can be a little glitchy, and work best on a web browser rather than a smartphone.

Once you complete the paperwork, we will schedule an intake session which is a 60-minute diagnostic assessment. I’ll ask questions about your life experience, your symptoms and how we’ll know when things shift towards “better”. Then I’ll explore the paperwork and the information you shared in the assessment and land on a provisional diagnosis. We’ll discuss that diagnosis together in our next session for you to learn about the words, based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, that mental health practitioners use to describe clusters of symptoms. From a diagnosis, we’ll do collaborative treatment planning in the second session. And then we’ll be off and running!

Let's demystify insurance

For those that want to use health insurance, most insurances have "behavioral health benefits" or "mental health benefits" that you can ask about. You can often log in to your provider online or give them a shout at the 800 number listed on the back of your insurance card. Sometimes your benefits used in therapy are wrapped up with your medical benefits, but other times they are separate. LynLake has wonderful professional staff who run benefits checks to support you in accessing your health insurance to pay for mental health support and provide a “Good Faith Estimate” to support you in accessing transparent information about cost and services.

Most people have a deductible. Deductibles vary in amount. The deductible is a monetary number that you have to reach before you have 100% coverage, partial coverage (called co-insurance) or just a copay to make on your visits. Sometimes this deductible is separate for therapy, but many times the deductible is reached by any medical professional visits that you are making (primary doctor, specialists, etc.). Co-insurance and co-pays are often listed on your insurance card.

Providers can be In Network or operate Out of Network for you. I am In Network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, BluePlus, UCare, Medical Assistance, Health Partners, PreferredOne, Medica, and United Behavioral Health. Individuals have both In Network benefits and Out of Network benefits. This might mean that you have a separate deductible and coverage amount for each.

Using health insurance to pay for therapy has many benefits and is almost always cheaper for people than private pay. I am in network with all major companies and most people will meet their deductible with ongoing mental health support. Some people have concerns about using health insurance for safety reasons, either because of concerns for privacy, lack of safety if family learns about this type of care or particular diagnoses, or concerns about workplace discrimination. These are important considerations that we discuss in our initial consultation phone call.

Fees

At LynLake, we have an automated system that securely charges a card on file in an ongoing fashion based on the agreed upon fees for sessions (deductible, co-pay, or private pay). This can be a Health Savings Account card, a credit, or debit card.

In addition to accepting insurance, I also take private pay clients. If people do not feel safe using insurance or prefer private pay for any reason, assessments (first appointments) are $225 and all subsequent appointments are $185.

Union Plaza, 333 N. Washington Avenue, Minneapolis

My office is in a building called Union Plaza. This building is set back from Washington Avenue and you will not see it from the street. To access the building, there is a driveway between Dock Street Flats and Deja Vu Showgirls. The office is behind these buildings.

This location is accessible by the Blue and Green light rail transit lines and the 3 and 18 bus. There is bike parking across the parking lot, off of the Cedar Lake Trail. There is not free car parking available at this site, although if you stop by a local business you may be able to get your parking validated.

Once you are in the building, take the stairs or the elevator to the 5th floor. The elevator opens to the waiting room. Please find a comfortable place to sit and I will greet you and welcome you into my office. Please wear a mask in common areas to increase accessibility for all.

There are gendered restrooms in the waiting room. There is a single occupant restroom in the basement near the bike parking. This restroom is accessible to all and has the benefit of being both more private and non gendered.

This is a low scent space but due to the volume of people in the building, I cannot guarantee all sensory needs will be met.

If you have any concerns finding the office, please call or text Abbie at 612.888.0897 and we will figure it out together!

I am vaccinated and boosted against COVID and wear masks in large public settings (grocery store, etc). I happily wear a mask in sessions when requested.

I am happy to schedule in person sessions with individuals and families in which all eligible people are vaccinated to contain the spread and mitigate intensity of COVID 19.

At our first in person session, I will ask you to sign a waiver indicating your informed consent to risks of in person sessions, just as we did for telehealth.

I test regularly. If I have a COVID exposure, I move all sessions to remote until I test negatively 3 - 5 days after exposure and communicate this information.

While insurance companies pay for telehealth and in person sessions, I am happy to provide both. If insurance companies change their policy, I will still be happy to do both, but telehealth will then be a private pay experience, making it inaccessible for most people. I will do policy advocacy around this issue but imagine that change may be slow.

I will honor the commitments that we make to each other. I will not change a scheduled in person session to telehealth the day of the appointment, barring inclement weather or COVID exposures. If, for other reasons, you need to make that change, we will postpone our appointment.

Abbie is a member of the first cohort of ketamine assisted therapists at the Institute for Integrative Therapeutics in Eden Prairie, MN. More information about these services coming soon.