Peace Begins at Home
Heyyy!!!
I'm Chanel. I'm the CEO and Clinical Director here at Altus. I personally want to thank you for caring enough about You to take care of You. I'm currently not seeing clients due to being on a medical leave. When I'm better, my openings will be limited. I tend to be full often due to spending more time growing the practice, developing other therapists, homeschooling Aliyah and honestly taking care of mySelf. I Live a lot, I Laugh alot, I Love a lot and I Cry alot. I'm a Pisces so it's kind of my thing. I've been on my own healing journey for just over the last 10 years and it's taught me so much that I incorporate in to my therapy and teaching other therapists. Mostly, I've learned the importance of relationships. Your relationship with YOURSELF being *in my Miss One (from The Wiz ) voice* "Numero Uno!" Any work we do together, starts there. How do you treat you? Do you listen to what you have to say? Do you respect yourself as a knowledgeable authority in your life? Are you safe with you? Do you trust you? How often do you prove this to yourSelf in action to oppose the ugly voices in your head and in your life that tell you otherwise? We then start to work on your relationships with others and the world around you. Both are necessary. No blame games, but we do work with and normalize accountability. No leaning in to labels, we only use them to frame, conceptualize and understand certain things about ourselves and others. No hiding. We learn to Love, appreciate and embrace all of ourself, even the parts we identify as no longer serving us as we actively work to outgrow them. Counseling in Detroit to help you thrive!
What Therapy with Me Is Like and What to Expect
The Beginning
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In our first meeting, we do what's called an intake. We go over your history and what is bringing you to therapy. We discuss previous experiences and any medical or life circumstances that could be affecting things. We talk about how you're feeling and where you are now and what changes you would like to see. We start some goal setting which carries over in to our next session.
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After we get an idea of the things that you want out of therapy, our next sessions move in to a more conversational space. As we begin to build our client-therapist relationship, we'll begin to learn and explore more things about you
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Who are You?
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Who do you want to be?
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What has went in to who you have been?
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What needs to go in to who you are becoming? etc.
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I am heavy on identifying the scripts and beliefs that are playing in the background of our decisions. We'll work on your day to day routines if those aren't where you would like them to be or if your current routines aren't really catering to who and where you want to be.
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You may also be given resources to help with your day to day including:
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy​
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Tapping/Emotional Freedom Techniques
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Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique
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Body and Mind Calming Techniques
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The Middle
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Next, we start to heal the past and develop your present/future which can include using:
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Guided Meditations
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Yoga
Maintenance
Once you notice that you are at your goals and feeling great about things, we move towards maintenance, which becomes talk therapy focused again.
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Session Lengths and Costs
In my experience, the way I help my clients is best done outside of rigid time constraints typical of therapy sessions and insurance coverage. When we work together, you can expect our sessions to be 90 minutes to 2 hours until we're in maintenance. Please set this time aside for you. If you are using insurance, know that they may cover the first hour, but they no longer cover the additional 30 minutes to an hour as of January 2023. You will have to pay out of pocket for the last 30 minutes to an hour. My rate is $150 an hour or $75 an hour if you have Medicaid or are Medicaid eligible. Half hours will be half of the hourly rate. You are also still responsible for your cost share (determined by your insurance company) for the first hour if you are using insurance. Please note that if you are not a previous client who has already reached maintenance, I will not do one hour sessions.
What Makes Me Different as A Therapist?
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
There are thousands of therapists out there ( not enough, but still). What makes me different?
I've Been There...
I'm not just an experienced therapist, I'm an experienced human and client. I've been a single mother. I grew up in survival mode in Detroit, raised by a bomb, young single mother who was figuring life out for herself too. I was a first generation college student. I've been verbally, physically, mentally and sexually abused and stalked. I've lost 2 brothers to gun violence. I've been the only one who looks like me, the only person my gender and the only person in my generation in certain spaces. I even deal with Anxiety and Bipolar Disorder. I spoke about my experiences and contributed to WebMd's Perspectives on Bipolar page here. I also speak about Bipolar Disorder in PsychCentral and Healthline. Trust me when I say I get how the whole world can be falling down and you're handling it "so well" from the outside looking in that people don't know how close you are to snapping. Or how much you just need to be heard and allowed to be angry, hurt, frustrated and whatever else you're feeling. Or how much you really do understand you may be doing great in someone else's book, but you know for you that "This aint it!" in more ways than one.
Retreats and Intensives
If you'd like to focus on yourSelf to work through a particular issue for a 3 to 7 day stretch, an intensive or retreat may be just the thing you need! Instead of meeting once a week and having life interrupt you in the middle, you can do 3 to 7 days of focusing on just you. This is a great option if you have some goals that you'd like to take the time to work through and come back ready to execute, if you have a single incident or trauma that you'd like to work through or if you're looking for clarity. There are a couple of options for this. We can do a Virtual Online 3 Day Intensive. We can do an in person 3 Day- Pure Michigan Lake/Dune Intensive. Through our partnership with The Brown Girl Yoga Sanctuary, we can do a 4 Day -Costa Rican Retreat for People of Color or a 6 -Day Costa Rican Retreat for People of Color. Retreats and Intensives are NOT for Complex Trauma. Retreats at The BGYT Sanctuary are for BIPOC men and women. Pure Michigan and Virtual Intensives are open to all. Also, if you are looking for a retreat or getaway without therapy, please consider a personal or themed retreat with BGYT. Let them know Chanel referred you and you'll get a discount where applicable.