Practice Policies & FAQ | Mindful Kindness Counseling San Antonio

Information that both I and the State of Texas want you to know about therapy and counseling services.

How to file a complaint

The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council investigates and prosecutes professional misconduct committed by marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, psychologists, psychological associates, social workers, and licensed specialists in school psychology.

Although not every complaint against or dispute with a licensee involves professional misconduct, the Executive Council will provide you with information about how to file a complaint.

Please call 1-800-821-3205 for more information.

Adopted to be effective: September 1, 2020

Texas Behavioral Health Council and the Texas Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors

1801 Congress Ave., Ste. 7.300 | Austin, Texas 78701
(512) 305-7700

For a complete description of state required privacy practices, please see the Texas DSHS summary found here.

Additionally, Texas consumers can file a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General Consumer Protection webpage.

The Scope of My Practice

I'm licensed in the state of Texas, and the rules here are that I can only provide mental health services to people who also live in Texas. We can work in person at my office, or I can provide telehealth services through secure and private channels.

My practice is a general mental health practice, and I can assist with a wide range of challenges and areas you want to work on. I provide these services, as appropriate, to people ages 16 and up.  It  is my current policy that people ages 14 and 15 are only seen with family members. I am glad to provide referrals to families with children under 16 who want individual therapy.

My training is based in Relational Cultural Theory; I'm a relationship expert and I operate from this framework in session. We can examine all kinds of relationships in your life.

I make no guarantees about expected outcomes of your therapy. Treatment planning will be collaborative and goals reviewed regularly, but progress is not linear.

I provide letters to clients age 18 and older in support of gender affirming medical care as well as safety carry letters. Please be prepared to sign a release to your primary provider so I can confirm your treatment and your care timeline.

No letters are provided without the appropriate vetting, for your safety and mine.

Legal Business

If you have needs that fall outside of my training, competency, or practice, I'm going to be honest with you about that, and I'll be glad to give you appropriate referrals.

If you're coming to me for just a few sessions for a specific topic, but are seeing another provider for long-term care, my code of ethics says I need to consult with your regular provider, as needed, about our work together. You'll need to sign the appropriate release paperwork for that to happen.

You will be provided with and asked to sign a Good Faith Estimate in accordance with The No Surprises Act of 2022. You will be asked to keep an active credit or debit card on file in the secure client portal to cover your financial responsibility.

My building and office space are designed to be accessible to people with mobility issues or assistant devices. If you have specific needs, please let me know.

To request a copy of your confidential medical record from Mindful Kindness Counseling, you need to do so in writing. Please contact us or email bonniescottlpc@gmail.com. Your medical record belongs to you; I’m responsible for keeping it secure. You may request one copy of your file/year at no cost to you. Additional requests will incur a $25 charge/request to cover administrative fees.

You may additionally request documents be sent to other service providers; contact me to request a Release of Information.

Whatever is bringing you to therapy, I'm so glad you're here and that you're considering me to join this part of your journey. I sincerely look forward to our work together. You're awesome and wonderful and I admire your commitment to doing the work to take care of yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • You can expect to do a review of the paperwork you completed before the session. You’ll have a chance to ask any questions that came up after you scheduled the appointment. Then we will spend some time getting to know one another. I’ll ask you about the important people in your life, your overall mental health, and we will start to plan your treatment goals.

  • Therapy is right for everyone! Ok, maybe not everyone. But if you’re considering therapy, it means you’ve got some areas of your life where you’d like some support. Therapy is a place to explore, to learn about yourself, and to understand your important relationships. If you’ve got those kinds of questions, therapy is one place to look for answers.

  • Yes. The current cash rate for a session is $150. But clients can negotiate to pay as low as $90 per session. You don’t need to prove to me that you need a sliding scale; I’ll never ask for your financial information. But you can tell me what fits your budget.

  • I currently accept Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare. There are lots of different policies and subsidiaries under each of those large insurance companies, so we can check your insurance together for your specific policy. You can also contact your insurance company and ask about seeing a therapist who will bill for code 90837.

  • If you had asked me this before COVID, I wouldn’t have really known the answer. Lots of therapy training programs would have said no. But I’ve seen over the past 5 years or so that it can be equally effective to be virtual or in-person. That said, virtual appointments need to be treated the same as an office visit; minimize distractions, don’t drive while in session, don’t use substances in session, get childcare…things like that. If your virtual session isn’t set up for focus, you’ll find it less effective overall.

  • This is a very individualized question in my practice. It depends on several factors, like what you want to work on, how much you work between sessions, or the amount or types of trauma you’re carrying into session. Emotions and experiences are delicate so we can’t rush, but the pace can be fast or slow depending on what you need to feel secure enough to dig into your stuff. Generally, plan for a minimum of 6-8 sessions, but we will go as long as you need to.