Counseling

Our licensed counselors provide therapy services using a variety of techniques. Counseling can help you overcome mental, behavioral, and emotional barriers in your personal, social, and professional life. Our counselors are trained and certified in many evidence-based treatment modalities, including the following:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

What kinds of problems do your counselors treat?

Our counselors can treat a wide variety of mood and personality disorders, including depression, anxiety, stress, intrusive thoughts, self-harm, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, emotional regulation issues, and many more. Start by talking to your primary care provider at ICHC, and then schedule an appointment with our counselors to see if your needs and our licensed counselors are a good fit. 

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is a form of psychological treatment using talk therapy that focuses on changing harmful thinking patterns into helpful, problem-solving patterns. CBT has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of challenges including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness. You and your therapist will work together to identify your thoughts and behaviors that are contributing to (or at least not helping!) your psychological challenges or making unnecessary barriers in your life. You and your therapist will also work together to learn new patterns of thinking and new skills to problem-solve and cope with difficult situations. 

What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a form of psychological treatment similar to CBT, but with more focus on building skills for regulation of emotions and the behaviors that result from those emotions. DBT can help you form more effective interpersonal skills, distress tolerance, and mindfulness when faced with difficulty. Most often used for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), it emphasizes how feelings contribute to subsequent problematic behavior, and develops skills to provide structure and routines to mitigate those feelings. 

What is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)?

EMDR is a psychotherapy treatment that is designed to enable you to heal from symptoms and distress caused by trauma or negative life experiences. It uses eye-movement techniques to help activate processing of memories and negative internal associations and feelings, and transform them into positive beliefs. EMDR is widely used for PTSD, anxiety, panic, and trauma. 

What therapy technique should I choose?

Everyone is different, and only you and your counselor can decide what will work best for you. We recommend scheduling an appointment with a counselor to discuss what challenges you want to work on. No one method is inherently "better" than the other; it all depends on you and your unique needs.

How much does therapy cost?

Good news! Federal law requires that mental health services, including therapy, be covered by most forms of insurance, including private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. Talk to your insurance company or call our billing department at 907-455-4567, option 6, to find out what this means for you.

ICHC offers a sliding fee based on your income, regardless of your insurance. If you are having financial stress or worry about how to pay your bill, we recommend applying for our sliding fee discount, and if that isn't enough, talking to our billing department about further assistance. You can also check out our fee schedule to see our standard rates, in case you don't qualify for the slide or don't think your insurance will fully cover your bill because of deductibles or co-insurance. 

What is the difference between counseling and therapy?

Some people will give you a long-winded explanation about the technical differences between the two that really comes down to industry-related semantics, but for our purposes, there is no difference. We use those words interchangeably all over this site and in our office, and we encourage you to pick whatever word makes you most comfortable. 

Do you offer group therapy, couples' therapy, or one-on-one?

Right now, we only offer one-on-one, individual therapy with our counselors. If you need couples' counseling or group therapy, talk to your ICHC providers about where you can go for those services. 

Do you offer in person or telehealth therapy?

We offer both! You can schedule an appointment in person at our Fairbanks office, or by telehealth from anywhere in Alaska. Call us today at 907-455-4567, option 1, to schedule. 

Are your services open to anyone?

We are currently only accepting patients for counseling who are established medical patients with a primary care provider at Interior Community Health Center. We have a lot of demand for counseling services and not enough providers to serve them all, as much as we wish we could!