Here to Help
by Emily Raij
Did you know Jewish Family Services offers wide-ranging counseling programs? It does, and for a fraction of the traditional cost.
Most people know about Jewish Family Services (JFS) programs like the Pearlman Emergency Food Pantry, Reliable Independent Drivers for the Elderly (RIDE), and the services of Rabbi Siegel, the community rabbi featured in the last issue of J Life. But JFS also offers counseling services to people of all ages, both with and without insurance.
The JFS Counseling, Growth and Development Program is one of the few agencies in Central Florida operating on a sliding-fee scale as low as $55 per session. With traditional out-of-pocket therapy costing at least $100-150 per session, JFS fills a critical need for people who do not have insurance, whether that be due to divorce, job loss, or not being able to afford COBRA. But clinical director Ashlyn Douglass-Barnes, LCSW is quick to note that people of all socioeconomic groups have access to the quality mental health counseling at JFS, and utilizing the counseling services does not take away someone else’s spot. In fact, by turning to JFS for counseling, clients are supporting the entire organization.
“Ultimately, when you see us here, you’re helping the rest of the agency,” says Ashlyn. “We’re the only department of JFS that generates any revenue, so you are supporting the rest of JFS by working with us. You still get awesome therapy but are also helping the rest of the agency, like the food pantry and rides for the elderly.”
Counseling fees go toward things like building maintenance, which is essential but receives little donor attention.
The counseling program, which provides mental health counseling to individuals, couples, families, and groups, wasn’t as far-reaching just a few years ago, when Ashlyn first started at JFS. There were only three part-time therapists seeing 65 people per month.
“When I came on, my goal was to have a fully operational counseling program where people could come any time of day and someone would be here,” Ashlyn says.
She accomplished that goal by calling every insurance provider she could find to correct inaccurate information, see if JFS’s therapists were credentialed with the providers, and get them added if they weren’t.
It was a huge undertaking but well worth the effort.
“I don’t want to delay treatment because of insurance,” Ashlyn says. “All our clients need to worry about is physically getting here. Just come in. We’ll see you.”
Today, there are 16 therapists, including Ashlyn, who see approximately 350 people at JFS each month, and the therapists are credentialed, or paneled, with every insurance company Ashlyn could find. JFS also takes Medicare, Medicaid, and all commercial insurances. Ashlyn oversees the department and is the only full-time therapist, while the others work on a contract basis, specializing in a variety of areas and offering counseling in English, Spanish, Hebrew, German, and Turkish.
Ashlyn made it a priority to have therapists available at all times, accepting all insurances, speaking many languages, and specializing in a wide range of mental-health areas, but she also wanted more complete religious coverage so that people of all faiths felt comfortable coming to JFS.
“It is actually hard to find a non-Christian-perspective therapist, so people come from all over to go here, particularly surrounding grief,” Ashlyn explains.
This is especially important in the Jewish community when it comes to talking about heaven.
“The middle of the grieving process is not the time to have to explain your faith,” says Ashlyn, who notes that navigating interfaith marriages is another area where religion comes into play during therapy.
One of the most common issues Ashlyn sees with clients involves life changes. This often includes elderly clients who are not transitioning well and worry about their children, the world, their own usefulness, what to do when not working, loss of independence, loss of a spouse, and being a burden on their kids. College students make up another big client group who often struggle when dealing with transitions – specifically their fears related to becoming adults, figuring out careers or making career changes, managing student loans, and confronting their parents about all of these decisions. There are also younger kids dealing with stress and worrying about college in eighth grade, adds Ashlyn.
Other clients are dealing with trauma.
“A lot of clients say, ‘I never told anyone, I never talked about this before,’ shame-based stuff,” Ashlyn says, but she reassures them that the counseling office is a nonjudgmental place. “I’m not an expert in your life. You’re an expert in your own life. Empowering clients to make decisions – what are your options, what can you do, what have you done in the past, what hasn’t worked, write it down, prioritize, time it out, find a better way to organize – sometimes therapy can involve some of those basic skills around time organization.”
Ashlyn is also working on securing funding to get all of the JFS therapists trauma-trained so they can help people cope with large-scale traumas such as mass shootings and natural disasters.
Whatever the mental-health need, JFS therapists can help. Many employers offer their workers – including part-time employees who don’t receive benefits – an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which provides three to 10 sessions for free.
“It’s OK to be proactive and come into therapy before things get terrible,” says Ashlyn. “If you have a cough, you don’t wait until you get pneumonia. Your mental health affects all of your health. Sometimes, we don’t really think about how our mental health impacts our physical health.”