EasyToTalkTo.com
Information about Clinical Psychologist and Therapist Susan D. Griffith, Ph.D.
I am Susan D. Griffith Ph.D., clinical psychologist. I provide therapy, support, and problem-solving sessions, by appointment only. (In an emergency go directly to your hospital emergency room.)
My services are covered by private pay fees suited to your income and by many medical insurance plans, including Medicare, (which is very supportive of clients wanting psychotherapy.) However, with the increasing limits in number of therapy sessions paid by some insurance companies and their greater intrusion into the therapist-client relationship,
many clients feel better served by setting up with me a private pay session fee that fits their budget.
Please send email to susandgriffithphd@gmail.com
Voice messages can be left at 919 942-3229.
Read about me here before asking if I have an appointment available that fits your schedule. (Be sure you are not seeking something I cannot provide for you. For example, I do NOT prescribe medication for my clients. I am NOT currently offering group therapy or couples therapy or family therapy. I am accepting ONLY those new clients who are seeking confidential individual talk-therapy sessions.) I do NOT provide work release assessments and work disability reports. I do NOT go to COURT for my clients: If there is any chance that you will want a psychologist to represent you in court, you will need to work with another psychologist. I do NOT write COURT REPORTS or otherwise consult with courts or attorneys.
[Two of the reasons why I do NOT work with legal matters are 1) my work is confidential, and I do not talk about you with others and 2) I could not provide regular same-weekday-and-time appointments if I needed to make time for court appearances. I also love working with individuals, helping them along a path toward feeling better – I do not want to pause along the way to write reports of one time period.]
Appointments are 45 minutes in length, although the first session is sometimes one hour, and we may talk longer at any session if both my client and I are free for a while longer and are involved in productive conversation.
Most of my clients talk with me weekly at the same time on the same day of the week. Some of my clients meet with me every two weeks, or monthly, but generally only after an initial series of weekly meetings. Clients find that keeping regular appointments with me helps wanted changes occur faster.
Regular appointment times mean you and I can both feel more control over the other hours of each day -- that is, we are both able to schedule other meetings, activities and responsibilities around our regular therapy time together (and also spend less time trying to reschedule.) A week that an appointment must be missed is followed by a week with the regular appointment time already saved by both the client and us.
When now and then a regularly-scheduled weekly appointment will need to be skipped, clients text me in advance so we both have a visual reminder of that schedule change. (If text is not available to you, use email or voice mail to let me know.) Planned absences should be noted at a preceding appointment as well.
In the pre-Covid period I for some years met with clients at offices in Chapel Hill, Durham, and Graham, NC. Use of an office in Hillsborough, NC for clients preferring first sessions to be in person, is planned for the near future.
FINANCIAL PROCEDURES AND PAYPAL PAYMENTS
Money paid to me is handled by you, without reminder, through making your self-pay payments or insurance copays the week of each appointment, using the PayPal link below. If medical insurance will be used, be sure to give me your up-to-date medical insurance information, generally by texting to me photos of the front and back of your medical insurance card.
My services are covered by most health insurance plans, including Medicare. You can find, at your insurance company website, online information about whether I am a provider for your insurance policy -- or you can call the number on your insurance card to ask.
I am understanding of and supportive of clients who, at this time of financial stress, need to delay paying me their insurance copays.
I like to keep details of your appointments and payments private, between the two of us, and I also like to avoid discussing payments during our talk time. Feel free to email or text me about payment issues important to you.
PayPal provides a place where you can easily keep an eye on whether you are current with your copay payments — without a reminder from me. (Your payment record at PayPal will also give you an accounting of your annual therapy costs for tax purposes.)
This payment process helps keep our costs down and lessens stress on you as well. No staff person will ask you for your payment. I do not mail statements to your house. Our goal will be to talk together without discussion of fees.
We appreciate clients making those payments on each day of service if possible. Some clients make their payments from their iPhones immediately after each talk session ends.
We do not mail statements to you. Your pay/copay will most likely be consistent across time – although there is sometimes a change in a health insurance plan at the start of a year.
In these times it is understood that you may need to defer until later full payment of your fees.
TIPS FOR COMMUNICATING WITH ME
I can check for texts during the day and evening much more easily and promptly than I can check for and listen to phone messages.
Some clients text me the date and time of our next appointment after each session ends – as a reminder for both of us. I may also text you the day before, or the day of, each appointment as a reminder.
IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW
During this Coronavirus time, I talk with all clients only on the telephone, rather than in person. I am easy to talk to. I am entirely confidential, within the confines of the law, and no one at my end will overhear me talking with you. I want you to feel comfortable and secure with me.
DECIDING WHETHER TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT WITH ME
Reading my comments in the right-hand column may help you know enough about me to decide whether you want to schedule an appointment with me.
One thing is almost certain: We will enjoy working together!
Pay Dr. Susan Griffith through the link below.
Enter amount you are paying
and then click on ‘continue’.
Pay through this link from Paypal,
Paypal Credit, or Debit or Credit Card.
Notes on Working with Susan Griffith:
Dr. Susan Griffith is a fully-qualified and trained professional, a Licensed Psychologist in the state of North Carolina, holding the Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a well-rated program with rigorous admissions standards (rated 2nd in the nation.)
You can call her by her first name, Susan.
During this Coronavirus time, she speaks with clients on the telephone, rather than in person.
Susan has day and evening phone appointments, (but none on weekends at present – and none in the early morning.)
Clients find her to be supportive and on their side.
Tell her what you want to tell her. She may, or may not, ask questions during the first session to help you remember what you want her to know. (If you don’t want to answer something she asks you, just tell her that.)
Susan works with people to help them change what they want to change. She emphasizes strengths rather than weaknesses and avoids illness models. She is not interested in giving you a fancy diagnosis, or otherwise labeling you. Instead, she wants to help you make things get progressively better.
Solutions and improvement come from working together with her to find them. (She does not simply tell you what to do.)
When you decide not to follow through with a plan, she is not frustrated with you, but – instead – she sees a new opportunity for learning together a solution that is better for you.
She is entirely confidential, within the confines of the law. She wants you to feel comfortable and secure with her.
Susan doesn’t take notes, but when you talk again she will remember who you are and what you have told her. (However, she is NOT good with remembering the NAMES of the people in your life. Or any names, actually. That helps with confidentiality 😊 )
She will see something of herself in you.
She will enjoy working with you. And you will enjoy working with her.
Dr. Susan Griffith refers to her therapy practice as Creative Solutions.
The other name for her practice is Easy To Talk To. She is.
If you aren’t totally sure about meeting regularly with Susan, just go ahead and schedule one meeting – you will get something useful from even one meeting. She has years of experience working with people of all ages, backgrounds, orientations, and beliefs – people who now feel better.
Feedback from clients coming soon.