Initial Screening

Potential client contacts our office to inquire and discuss interest in the program. During this phone call, our admissions coordinator works with a client to determine whether an assessment is scheduled.

 

Assessment and Consultation
A biopsychosocial interview and assessment is completed by one of our master’s level licensed psychotherapists. This includes gathering detailed background information about your strengths, needs, abilities and preferences. The therapist will discuss the assessment findings with the team and create an individualized treatment plan. If it is determined you would benefit from a different level of care, we will provide treatment recommendations and referral options. We do not provide official DWI assessments.

Cost: $250

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Monthly Treatment Program

While each client’s treatment plan varies, participants generally engage in five individual therapeutic contacts per week, plus psychiatry. Treatment plans consist of a tailored combination of psychiatry; functional medicine; individual and/or family psychotherapy; qEEG and neurofeedback; coaching (recovery/employment/career/educational exploration); therapeutic wilderness experiences; intuitive astrology, acupuncture; herbal medicine and more. Our team collaborates daily and holds weekly treatment team meetings, allowing us to offer our clients the highest quality care. Most clients are with us for a minimum of 3-6 months. 

Initial Month Cost: $6700 (due to additional assessments during first month of care)
Subsequent Month Cost: $5700

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Step-Down Treatment Program

Similar to the full program, we offer a step-down option for clients who meet their initial goals.  This is available to program clients who have spent a minimum of three months in our full program.

Cost: $3700

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What multidisciplinary services are available? ​

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• psychiatry + medication management
  Psychiatry is the branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor  who specializes in mental health, including substance use disorders. Psychiatrists are qualified to assess both the mental and physical aspects of psychological problems. Psychiatrists use a variety of treatments – including various forms of psychotherapy, medications, psychosocial interventions and other treatments, depending on the needs of each client.
   

• functional medicine
  According to the Institute of Functional Medicine, the functional medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers clients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes. 
   

• Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
  Buprenorphine (Suboxone, Subutex, Zubsolv, Sublocade) is the first medication to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) that can be prescribed or dispensed in physician offices, significantly increasing access to treatment. Buprenorphine is an opioid partial agonist. It produces effects such as euphoria or respiratory depression at low to moderate doses. With buprenorphine, however, these effects are weaker than full opioid agonists such as methadone and heroin. When taken as prescribed, buprenorphine is safe and effective. Buprenorphine has unique pharmacological properties that help:

  • Diminish the effects of physical dependence to opioids, such as withdrawal symptoms and cravings

  • Increase safety in cases of overdose

  • Lower the potential for misuse
     

• psychotherapy MODALITIES
  Psychotherapy, sometimes called talk therapy, is a treatment that involves a talking relationship between a therapist and patient. It can be used to treat a broad variety of mental disorders and emotional difficulties. The goal of psychotherapy is to eliminate or control disabling or troubling symptoms so the client can function better. Psychotherapy can be done individually, as a couple, with a family, or in a group.
  
  There are many forms of psychotherapy. There are psychotherapies that support changing  behaviors or thought patterns, psychotherapies that help patients explore the effect of past relationships and experiences on present behaviors, and psychotherapies that are tailored to help solve other problems in specific ways. Our seasoned psychotherapists are trained in a wide variety of approaches and interventions.
  
  Common psychotherapy modalities offered in our practice: 
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  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session.  In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level.  The goal of EMDR is adaptive resolution. Unlike talk therapy, the insights patients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the patient’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes.  The net effect is that patients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them.  Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the patients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.
     

  • Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a system of psychological techniques that break the cycle of chronic pain by retraining the brain to interpret signals from the body properly. As we learn more about chronic pain, we realize that in many presentations of chronic pain, the brain is intimately involved in the processing of information and sensations that contribute to the experience of pain. This evidence-based modality works in a somatic way to attend to pain sensations through a lens of safety and bring the system into a place where it can tend toward more positive feelings and sensations.
     

  • Brainspotting: The premise behind Brainspotting is “where you look affects how you feel.” Dr. David Grand, the founder of Brainspotting, discovered that exploring different places in a patient’s field of vision could unlock a door into processing deep, often untouched traumas. By accessing parts of the brain that standard talk therapy alone cannot access, our ability to heal trauma is much greater. I utilize this method of trauma work in conjunction with somatic based coping mechanisms to ensure greater emotional regulation throughout the entire process.
     

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a non-pathologizing evidence-based psychotherapy modality. It is based in the idea that every human is composed of a “system of protective and wounded inner parts that are led by a core Self”. As stated on the IFS website, “IFS creates inner and outer connectedness by helping people first access their Self and, from that core, come to understand and heal their parts.” The work of IFS can bring healing and understanding to the whole internal system as well as increase connectedness, compassion, curiosity, confidence and courage in relationship to the outside world.
     

  • Harm Reduction Psychotherapy is a pragmatic approach to reduce the harmful consequences of drug use and other high-risk activities by incorporating several strategies that cut across the spectrum from safer use to managed use to abstinence. The primary goal of most harm-reduction approaches is to meet individuals where they are at and not to ignore or condemn the harmful behaviors, but rather to work with the individual or community to minimize the harmful effects of a given behavior. 

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• Quantitative Electroencephalography
  (qEEG) + Neurofeedback
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

• Coaching
  Coaching has been defined in many ways. The essence of coaching is:

  • To help a person change in the way they wish and helping them go in the direction they want to go.

  • Coaching supports a person at every level in becoming who they want to be.

  • Coaching builds awareness, empowers choice and leads to change.
     

• Acupuncture
  Acupuncture is an ancient art that has prevented and treated disease for thousands of years. A low-risk, effective option for those considering medication or surgery, it is also for those who want to maintain their good health. Hair-thin sterile needles are used to stimulate specific points which the practitioner has determined will both effect symptomatic relief and treat the root cause of the imbalance. 

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Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) PROGRAM

At Widening Circles, we offer ketamine-assisted psychotherapy as part of our comprehensive approach to wellness. We have found that this unique type of treatment is most effective when paired with other forms of therapy that complement and deepen the work. KAP is a unique therapeutic method used to address a variety of mental health conditions, including treatment refractory depression and post-traumatic stress. It involves the use of the psychoactive substance ketamine to enhance and deepen the therapeutic process, and the use of psychotherapy and other integrative forms of treatment to amplify and prolong the curative effects of ketamine.

Widening Circles offers an Introduction to Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy program offering new and established patients the opportunity to experience assessment, preparation, one KAP session and one integration session prior to committing to a full course of KAP treatment.

 

• INTRODUCTION TO KAP FOR NEW PATIENTS

Medical Evaluation for KAP |  1 hr
KAP Therapist Assessment + Preparation  |  2 hr

Initial KAP with Therapist + Prescriber present |  2 hr 

Integration with Therapist |  1 hr
Relevant Labs
Medication

Cost: $2,200​

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• group kap

Group KAP offers the opportunity to experience KAP in a community of peers. While group KAP is not a replacement for individual KAP, it is a different modality with its own unique benefits. KAP groups are comprised of adults 18+ who have already safely engaged in at least one individual KAP session with a Widening Circles provider. If you are interested in joining the next group, please contact our office manager at office@wideningcirclesnc.com. 

Cost: $2,150

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• KAP CONTINUING CARE (More information about KAP Continuing Care)
   

 

low-fee psychotherapy clinic

In an effort to increase financial accessibility to psychotherapy, Widening Circles offers a low-fee psychotherapy clinic staffed by selected graduate level interns studying to become psychotherapists. This is only available when we are hosting interns. Each intern receives weekly individual supervision with one of our clinical supervisors in addition to participating in our weekly multidisciplinary treatment team meeting. Initial assessments are co-completed with fully licensed staff.

 

This is the first year we are piloting interns shadowing in our ketamine-assisted psychotherapy program. As clinically appropriate, interns may be available for KAP preparation and/or integration sessions. Interns are not available to facilitate KAP medicine sessions. 

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Cost: $30-$50 sliding scale.