Low Cost Therapy Available at Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT)

New to our team is Karissa Ekwall, an MFT intern who started in October from Capella University. Griffin Gordon, an MFT Intern from Southern Connecticut State University started this past summer. We welcome Karissa and Griffin to the LCAT family for hopefully many years to come!

We’ve had great success with our internship program, which started in the summer of 2022. Our first two hires were Mia Salgado, LMFT-A and Melody Atkinson, LMFT-A from Southern Connecticut State University’s Marriage and Family Therapy program.

Please click here for their bios! 

I am really excited for our newest team members, as it offers us an opportunity to expand our practice, offer low cost therapy sessions to the community, and provide an educational space and opportunity for new professionals in the field who are dedicated to the healing arts! It really feels like a win, win, win!

They are passionate about our work and are dedicated to facilitating sessions that promote healing and growth.

Mia, Melody, Griffin and Karissa hold interest in the LGBTQ community as well as making sure there are spaces for all people regardless of identity or barriers to accessing treatment. 

How Does it Work?

As LMFT-A professionals, Mia and Melody are licensed, but are still required to be supervised for 100 hours by a licensed therapist in the same field. We are offering lower cost cash sessions to make their services more accessible and affordable to all.

Either myself or Amanda supervise our LMFT-A’s on a bi-weekly basis and MFT interns on a weekly basis. Supervision is where the master’s level clinician directly reports to a licensed therapist to discuss more in depth ways to approach a case. They start with small case loads. Not only do we help with the cases, but we also review and sign necessary clinical documentation.

Our interns have already been seeing clients in the field in other placements through their graduate programs. Within all placements they are required to be supervised and observed prior to engaging in their internship placement. Interns join our team to start to focus on their area of interest and speciality. We are their final placement prior to achieving their masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. 

Supervision includes discussing cases on the intern’s caseload, various interventions and clinical tools to use, ways to help fine-tune and specialize clinical skills as well as reviewing and signing all clinical documentation. This ensures opportunities for the interns to experience more growth and development.

Both Amanda and I have worked with interns in the past and have been working at Life Coaching and Therapy, LLC since the beginning! We have been in the field for over 10 years and are so excited to utilize our expertise and therapeutic models to advise a new generation of therapists in the field.

Amanda is an AASECT certified sex therapist who has completed her PhD in Clinical Sexology. She has supervised both undergraduate, graduate, and licensed therapists and is an amazing therapist if I do say so myself. Amanda is an expert in trauma, sexuality, inner aspects, and non-violent communication. 

I am an LMFT who is certified in EMDR, DBT, and other modalities… all this is just a fancy way of saying I am trained in a variety of things to help people manage their symptoms. Before working at LCAT, I supervised therapists at an agency (with staff of all levels of experience including interns). I work at LCAT as the supervisor of our other therapists. 

If you would like to learn more, please check out our bios.  

Why Work With a LMFT-A, MFT-A or an Intern? 

Low Cost Sessions

Clients benefit from sessions by getting a fresh perspective at a lower cost session. How often are you searching for therapists and think the fees are too much for you to afford?

Karissa and Griffin’s sessions start at $50 per session for individuals and $80 per session for couples, and are not covered by insurance. 

Mia and Melody’s sessions start at $80 per session for individuals and $120 per session for couples, and are not covered by insurance.

We are committed to making therapy accessible to as many people as possible. And this is a way to accomplish that. 

Access to More Therapists

Working with an LMFT-A, MFT-A or an MFT intern also allows you to have the focus of two therapists. Through the supervision and frequency of communication between interns and their supervisors, you are also able to get perspectives from a licensed, experienced therapist as well. 

Professionals early in their careers are usually incredibly energized and committed to the work that they are doing.

In my experience supervising interns in the past, they typically spend a lot of time trying to figure out ways that they can serve the community by utilizing the most current education in the field. 

As many of you know, outside of the cost, accessibility to therapy has been TOTALLY bonkers. Especially during the pandemic and so many therapists have a waitlist or are not available. We wanted to add more staff to our team (including interns) to help fill this gap and make therapy more accessible to everyone. 

Get Started!

If you are interested in working with Melody, Mia, Griffin or Karissa or have questions email us at info@lcatllc.com. 

They will be offering their services via both telehealth and in-person at our West Hartford office. 

Mia and Melody are permanent team members at LCAT.

About Life Coaching and Therapy

Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT) is a therapy and coaching practice that transforms our clients lives through our flexible. Multi-technique approach and pleasure-skills training provided by systematically-trained and licensed therapists!

Our team of compassionate, licensed therapists and certified sex therapists help all clients who visit us for a variety of personal, relationship, intimacy and sex problems.

LCAT provides on-site appointments, as well as video chat and text therapy programs.

Learn more about how LCAT can help improve your life at What We Do. 

About Nicole Scrivano

Nicole is the director and a licensed therapist (LMFT) at LCAT. She has had working in this practice since 2017 when it became a group practice. Nicole loves this practice and what it means to be a therapist. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2013 with a Masters with a speciality in Marriage and Family Therapy.