Insurance is Broken (and Other Lessons I've Learned the Hard Way)

Let’s be real: insurance is broken.

Not because people are lazy or trying to “game the system.” Not because clients aren’t doing enough. But because the system itself was never designed for the complexity of being human—especially when it comes to mental health.

If you’ve ever tried to use your insurance for therapy and walked away feeling confused, discouraged, or vaguely ashamed for not understanding the rules, nothing has gone wrong. You’ve just collided with a system that prioritizes categories over context and paperwork over people.

What makes this especially painful is that most people reach out for therapy during moments of transition—when their body, identity, relationships, or sense of self are shifting. Perimenopause. Menopause. Burnout. Trauma. Caregiving. Grief. The quiet unraveling that doesn’t show up on a checklist but still deserves care.

Insurance doesn’t know what to do with that.

It wants clear diagnoses, tidy timelines, and measurable outcomes. Healing rarely offers any of those on demand. Real change happens slowly, unevenly, and often in ways that don’t translate neatly into billing codes.

And when the system can’t make sense of your experience, it has a way of making you feel like the problem.

You’re not.