Working with insurance companies is a complicated and time-consuming process. As an individual practitioner, I do not have the staff or infrastructure necessary to administer insurance claims. However, since I do not have to pay for the staff and infrastructure neccesarry to accept insurance, I can set lower rates. In many cases, a client with insurance who sees a counselor in their plan's network would pay a copay that is comparable to what I charge for a whole session. In effect, people without insurance can see me for about the same amount they would pay if they had insurance, and people with insurance can see me for about the same amount they would pay to see someone on their insurance plan, but without having to deal with the insurance company.

The two words mean pretty much the same thing. Some people think "counseling" sounds less ominous than "psychotherapy," and a case could be made that "counseling" is for more "healthy" problems like career decisions or marital conflicts, while "psychotherapy" is for more "illness-related" problems associated with a diagnosis like depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder. But they are used interchangeably by many people in the field of mental health care.