Dr. Fajardo has advanced training in individual, couples, and psychological testing.

She has been in the field for 20 years, so at this point it’s more a question of who is not a good fit for Spring Psychology. Clients who are dealing with eating disorders, active suicidality of their own, self-harm such as cutting or burning, and drug and alcohol addictions are not a good fit as these individuals need more medical monitoring.

Dr. Fajardo ONLY takes out-of-network insurance or private pay clients. If you don’t have out-of-network benefits, you would pay out of pocket (not use or be reimbursed by insurance). If you have out-of-network benefits (and you have to check with your health insurance company to see what you arranged for your personal benefits when you signed up for health insurance), you are likely eligible for reimbursement. Spring Psychology will provide you with a statement on a monthly basis after you have paid for a full month of services. You can submit this superbill to pursue out-of-network reimbursement.

If you are an uninsured or self-pay patient, you have the right to request a good faith estimate of expected charges prior to receiving services.

Yes, you can use the debit card provided with these accounts to pay for psychotherapy. Even if you don’t have a debit or credit card that came with you FSA or HSA, you can submit the superbill and get reimbursed based on the accepted services. If you don’t have an HSA or FSA or don’t know what that is you should approach the benefits department of your workplace and see if either is available to you.

No. At this time, Spring Psychology does not accept any Medicare, Medicaid, or in network insurance plans.

These acronyms can certainly be confusing!

A PhD is a research-based doctorate in clinical psychology. That means a psychologist holding a PhD was required to have a program of research while in graduate school. Oftentimes, competition for grants (research funding), having a mentor whose research the mentee (in this case the PhD candidate) made significant contributions to, and teaching obligations were a significant part of if not the primary focus of that person’s training. It is also referred to as the Boulder Model or the Scientist-Practitioner Model. It is definitely a requirement and oftentimes a focus for PhD’s to publish their studies in academic journals and to present their findings at academic conferences, and many are encouraged to pursue academic careers.

The PsyD is also a doctorate in clinical psychology, but it is often referred to as the Vail Model or the Scholar-Practitioner Model. This degree is more equivalent to the degree that lawyers and MD’s have because it is focused on the practice of psychology and not the philosophy or developing research programs in psychology. It is just as rigorous as a PhD, but trainees in these programs focus their energies on theories and practice of intervention as opposed to, perhaps, studying one particular pathology and becoming research experts or academics in that diagnosis or one intervention. Different programs lie on a continuum of how much research is required of trainees. In Dr. Fajardo’s case, she did pursue research training in addition to her clinical studies and contributed to publications on suicide prevention. That research has been featured in Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior (SLBT). In addition, she was already involved in research at The University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. That research has been published in The Journal of Pediatrics, and focused on mothers and fathers who had a child with a prenatal health diagnosis. In addition, psychological assessment (cognitive and emotional testing) is the unique provenance of psychologists, whether they be PhD’s or PsyD’s. That means that only psychologists are qualified to write reports and interpret raw data from psychological testing. Dr. Fajardo does have training in psychological assessment and does have experience with test administration, interpretation, and report writing.

In the field of mental health, Psychiatrists possess an MD or more rarely a DO and are medical doctors who prescribe psychoactive medications. Only psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners (NP) are experts in psychiatric medications. Some psychiatrists also provide psychotherapy, and while they may have some training in psychotherapy that was not the primary focus of their training.

Social workers who provide psychotherapy often have a LCSW, or Licensed Clinical Social Work degree. In some states, this degree is also referred to as an LICSW (Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker). Social work, as a field, takes a more community-minded view than any of the degrees mentioned above, which are more focused on the individual. This means the training likely focused more on the environmental context or interplay between the client and things like structural racism and sexism. This degree is usually a Master’s as opposed to a Doctorate. It is fewer years of training and study than a doctorate, and often focuses on the community and support services or barriers to services therein.

Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) holds a Master’s Degree in counseling. This is fewer years of study than a doctorate and is focused on counseling versus research.

A Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist also holds a Master’s Degree which is focused on marriage and family also with usually no mandated program of research.

Ideally, being in therapy is a long-term collaboration with a highly trained expert in human emotions and relationships. You want to find a therapist who you like and who likes you, who you respect and who respects you, and who you feel comfortable with. Dr. Fajardo’s approach is highly engaged, egalitarian, and compassionate and caring. There is also a high level of transparency in her approach – you won’t be feeling like she is holding back or hiding thoughts about diagnosis or treatment approaches from you.

The reason it’s important to hire a therapist is because friends and family, while they may sometimes mean well, are not capable of being objective enough about you (in other words, they don’t possess enough emotional distance from you to be unbiased about you) and they also are often too burdened with things in their own lives to give you the proper attention and emotional space to focus solely on yourself. That is what a therapist is for.

Friends and family sometimes lack professional expertise and can sometimes end up making things worse by telling us to, “get over it” “move on” or worse. Sometimes family are great supports, and sometimes we need to set boundaries to protect our own mental health with them.

This is an important question that you want any therapist you hire to be able to answer. Dr. Fajardo’s theoretical approach is both Integrative (rooted in Paul Wachtel’s work in Cyclical Psychodynamics, which is a research-informed practice of CBT and psychodynamic theory) and Feminist. Dr. Fajardo at times utilizes third wave psychotherapy models such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is especially useful when clients are trying to release harmful relationships.

Even more than this, research demonstrates strongly the mind-body connection and that your physical being has a huge effect on your mental health. That is why we are so supportive of functional medicine and complementary and holistic approached to mental health. We have a network of practitioners whom we can connect you to to complement your psychotherapy.

Spring Psychology accepts all major credit cards and cash. No checks are accepted.

Dr. Fajardo wants you to feel like working with Spring Psychology is a good fit, which is why the first three sessions are framed as a “consultation period” where you can see how our discussions go. If after that time either we or you feel this is not a good fit, we will provide you with referrals if you request that. Honestly, there is no substitute for just sitting down and talking together to see if this is the right therapeutic relationship for you.

Absolutely. And we can discuss what that looks like for you to support you specifically, individually, and personally.

With the advent of PsyPact, Dr. Fajardo can see patients via telehealth in 35 states. Patients can be seen in person in NYC or New Jersey if that is requested. Most of our patients are currently desiring telehealth to cut back on commute times to and from sessions, but we can accommodate in person appointments in New York City if you would prefer that.

Dr. Fajardo is licensed in New York, New Jersey, has a Florida telehealth license, and also has a license called a PsyPact. The PsyPact allows Dr. Fajardo to virtually work with patients in 35 states in addition to New York. That equals 36 states in which Dr. Fajardo can see patients.

To summarize, Dr. Fajardo can work with patients in the following states:

NY, NJ, AL, AZ, AR, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, MD, MN, MO, NE, NV, NH, NC, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, and WY.

Given that Dr. Fajardo has completed training at the best programs across the USA, she has a wide professional network and can make referrals in the states where she has professional connections for psychiatry, functional and complementary medicine, and beyond.