Welcome to Alia Cross Counseling! This is a therapy blog intended to help those seeking to improve their mental health, whether that be potential clients or other counselors within the field.
I returned to graduate school in my 30’s to become a therapist after surviving my own journey of having Bipolar One Disorder. The disease is something I live with and manage. During the course of my treatment, I’ve felt what it’s like to have had both poor counselors and also to have had excellent ones. I strive to be one of the better ones. I do this in a variety of ways, but the most crucial one is that I regularly check-in with my clients about their lived experience. I ask my clients how they feel counseling is going. I ask for feedback: What do they think is going well? What’s not going as well? What needs to change in order for their healing process to work for them? Sometimes this means a client will share that I am not the right therapist for them. I don’t take that personally. With those situations, I will provide verbal praise for honest communication and will make a referral to another provider.
I’m pleased to share that I am currently accepting new clients into my private practice. Due to licensing rules, I can only work with clients that reside within New York State. I take the following insurances: Aetna, Cigna, Oscar, Oxford, Quest Behavioral Health, United, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey, and BCBS of Massachusetts. Otherwise, I accept private pay at the rate of $135/hour for individuals and $160/hour for couples. I utilize both video counseling and in-person sessions. For scheduling and billing, I use the free Headway platform. You can schedule with me at:
https://headway.co/providers/alia-cross?utm_source=pem&utm_medium=direct_link&utm_campaign=35877
My hope for this blog is that it will be a space for me to flex my writing skills, to share what I know about therapy, to help de-stigmatize asking for help and to increase the conversation around mental health! Feel free to provide me with feedback, comments and suggestions at: aliahealycross@gmail.com.
