Habesha-Friendly Mental Health Resources
How Do I Find A Therapist?
You have been dealing with some concerns for some time. You’ve tried to handle the situation on your own, but things are not improving in the way you hoped. It may be helpful for an unbiased person to help you figure out how to handle the situation in the most effective way. But how do you find a therapist to help you? You have several options:
Options
If you have health insurance, you likely have coverage for mental health care included. This is often called Behavioral Health by insurance companies. If you want to use your insurance to help cover the cost of counseling, first check what kind of mental health or behavioral health coverage you have. There are two ways to do this. One option is to go to the website listed on your insurance card. Once there, you likely will need to create a username and password to log in and see what exactly your coverage is. You can also call the number on the insurance card and ask someone to explain what your coverage is.
Once you understand what counseling will cost you through your insurance and you decide that you feel comfortable with that cost, the next step is to find a therapist that takes your insurance. Again, there are a few ways to do this. First, you can use the insurance website. Go to the section often titled something like “find treatment provider” and then choose mental health or behavioral health provider. From there, you can specify location, gender, credentials, or specialization. You will get a list of providers that fit your preferences and it is now up to you to call each one and see who is taking new clients. One thing you can do to figure out who you might feel comfortable working with, is googling some of the providers to find if they have a website. Many therapists have websites that explain who they are, how they work, and what kind of services or specializations they offer you. You can even often see a picture of the therapist.
Often these providers are in private practice, meaning they do not work in a treatment center. This means that they do all their own scheduling, answering phone calls, and so on. Because they are in sessions most of their working day, you may need to call, leave a message, and wait for someone to call you back. Often these providers do not have a receptionist to help them attend to callers.
One perk about health insurance is that many of them provide phone health coaching at no additional out of pocket cost to you. Insurance health coaches help with things like weight management, stress reduction, stopping smoking, or other specific lifestyle goals designed to help you be a healthier and happier version of yourself. In addition to it already being included in your health premium, one of the best things about this is that you do it by phone at times that are convenient for you; there is no need to search for a nearby therapist or travel to an appointment. Why do insurance companies offer this? What’s in it for them? These health goals help keep the people they insurance healthier. By offering this preventative option, it helps them keep down more expensive medical treatments in the long run. To them, it costs less to offer this to you now in hopes of preventing more significant and expensive health problems later should you allow your smoking or stress to continue at the current level.
Do you have Medicare or qualify for Medicaid?
“Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 or older, certain younger people with disabilities, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant, sometimes called ESRD).”1
“Medicaid is a health care program that assists low-income families or individuals in paying for long-term medical and custodial care costs. Medicaid is a joint program, funded primarily by the federal government and run at the state level, where coverage may vary.”2
Both of these options also pay for counseling services. Once you are registered for one or the other you can do a search for therapists that accept Medicare and/or Medicaid
Good news! Many colleges and universities offer counseling services for free or at a low cost right on campus. Go to your university website and search for a counseling center. If your campus has one, you can usually find a list of the therapists and the contact number on the counseling center website. One tip – campus counseling centers will often get busy as the school year progresses. The sooner you contact the counseling center the sooner they will be able to fit you in. If for some reason the counseling center turns out not to be the best option for you, they can often help you find a nearby therapist who would be a better fit.
Ethiopian and Eritrean Referrals
| Name | Credentialing | Location | Place of Work | Area of Expertise | Contact Info |
| Edu Memhir | Clinical Medical Social Worker | Philadelphia | Dialysis | ||
| Lediya Dumessa | Clinical Psych trainee at Mississipi State | Mississipi State University | Providing supervised services through campus psych clinic and counseling services | ||
| Mender Misghina | Registered Nurse | Seattle | HMC Psych Unit | HMC Psych Unit | |
| Kamal Ahmed | licensed provider as of March 2019 | San Jose, California | |||
| Dr. Eleni Getachew | PsyD | Washington DC (Dupont Circle and Old Town) | (Private Practice) New Beginnings Therapeutic Center | Anxiety, Couples, Depression, Trauma/EMDR | 301-806-8495; info@dregetachew.com |