Frequently Asked Questions

The Feeling Good Institute is a treatment and training organization with a mission to improve lives through effective therapy. We are both a treatment center and community for therapists looking for advanced training in CBT.

Feeling Good Institute therapists practice an evidence-based form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), developed by David Burns, called Team-CBT. Team CBT is a highly-effective form of cognitive-behavioral therapy that is warm, data-driven, effective in less time, and continuously improving. Learn more about TEAM-CBT here.

Feeling Good Institute therapists help individuals, couples, children and adolescents with a broad variety of challenges. We strive to foster a climate that is welcoming to all people. Common concerns include: depression and low self esteem, anxiety and stress, relationship concerns, habits and addictions, and more.

Our therapists can meet with you both online and in-person. They can only practice in the states/province they are licensed in. Online TEAM-CBT treatment by a Feeling Good Therapist is currently available in the following US States and throughout Canada

• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• Washington
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

In-person TEAM-CBT treatment by a Feeling Good Therapist is currently available at our centers located in:

• Silicon Valley / Mountain View, CA
• New York, NY
• Terrace BC, Canada
• Herzliya, Israel

If you reside in a different state or country, you can find local providers trained in TEAM-CBT here. Clients also frequently travel to our locations in Mountain View, CA and New York City, NY to participate in our Intensive Therapy program

FGI stands against discrimination. We believe in acceptance, inclusion, and equality. Discrimination against people based on identifying status (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, ability status, country of origin, religion) is harmful and not tolerated. We understand the need for formative feedback and learning, thus we will make every effort to invite community members to humbly learn and grow when missteps occur. Hate speech, discriminatory practices, or harmful interventions (defined by clinician’s governing board) may result in removal from this training opportunity. This includes public statements or behaviors made outside of the trainings. We maintain the right to deny or revoke access to this training space if safety of the community cannot be maintained because of a person causing harm to others. In the case that this policy is invoked, we will follow guidelines to offer a learning opportunity and then determine whether safety of the community can be maintained or if the person will be removed from the training space. Guidelines include steps such as talking with the person, providing opportunities to learn (e.g., addressing the harm, renouncing a problematic statement or behavior), and consulting with other trainers.

TEAM-CBT Therapy, created by world-renowned author and therapist— Dr. David Burns is a framework for conducting a highly effective form of evidence-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to drive faster change and relief for patients. TEAM stands for Testing, Empathy, Agenda setting (paradoxical), and Methods. Each step of this approach has been studied and shown to improve therapy results.

TEAM-CBT Therapy is not a new “school of therapy.” It is a framework that helps therapists effectively understand and treat a broad range of concerns. TEAM-CBT Therapy is based on years of research and clinical experience. Read more

Fees vary based on the experience level and specialized training of the therapist as well as the going rate for therapy in your area. After you get matched or select a therapist, you can view their fee on their profile page.

When considering the cost of therapy, we recommend you consider the overall cost of care vs. just the per therapy hour rate as therapy that is more effective in less time will typically cost less overall.

Our therapists charge more than average due to their specialized knowledge, skillset and increased effectiveness. We offer a lower fee clinic at several of our locations.

Under the Affordable Care Act, all insurance plans must cover mental health care. So, if you have health insurance, it should provide some coverage for mental health treatment. We will be considered an “out-of-network” provider, which means that your insurance company may reimburse you directly for a portion of the fees paid. Your therapist can provide you with documentation of the care received that you can submit to your insurance company.

We recommend you contact your plan prior to our first session to ask about your "out-of-network" psychotherapy benefits.

Patients are entitled to receive a Good Faith Estimate of potential costs after completing a consultation with their chose therapist. Learn more about the Good Faith Estimate here

Online therapy, also known as teletherapy, video therapy, or e-therapy is treatment with a therapist via online video meetings. It allows you to access high quality care at your convenience from wherever you are.

Online therapy at Feeling Good Institute helps people who are struggling with anxiety, depression, relationship problems, addictions, and more. Our therapists are highly skilled at an empathic and warm proven-approach of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that helps with a broad variety of challenges.

Online Therapy sessions at Feeling Good Institute are very much like in-person sessions, only you meet online via a secure video meeting. It’s easy to get started:

• Get Matched with a therapist that is best for you and book a free 15 min phone consultation.
• We'll email you a link to connect with your therapist’s office room.
• Meet via our HIPAA-compliant, encrypted video conferencing platform. All you need is a computer with a webcam.

Yes! Our technology is fully HIPAA-compliant. All your data is encrypted to protect your data while it is stored or transmitted electronically. PCI-level controls are implemented to ensure that the information you process is equivalent or better than some financial institutions.

Research on online therapy has found it to be effective with a diverse client population and a number of mental health concerns (Backhaus et al., 2012). The benefits of online therapy include reducing barriers to accessing mental health care, reducing costs associated with the provision of psychological services, and increasing frequency of contact and engagement in therapy (Hilty et al., 2013).

Intensive therapy is designed to provide longer and more frequent therapy sessions over a shorter time span to accelerate your recovery. It is one-on-one, not group therapy, and is tailored to your individual needs.

Common concerns that are a good fit for Intensive Therapy include social anxiety, phobias, panic attacks, generalized anxiety or worries, depression, low self-esteem, procrastination, and concerning habits. 

Unfortunately, our Intensive Therapy Program is not set-up to replace crisis services or hospitalization; Persons who are a good fit for our Intensive Therapy program are eager for help, but are stable, and desire new skills and further symptom relief. Also, we are not a medical facility, thus we are not able to provide detox services or accept patients who are actively dependent on substances.

The format for our Intensive Therapy Program is designed to meet your specific needs and address your treatment goals. Our most common model for video-based therapy is twelve hours of treatment booked over the course of two weeks. For example, you might have 90-110 minute sessions three times per week spanning two weeks. For clients who choose to seek in-person services in our Mountain View, CA or New York City offices, you might be offered to consolidate the treatment into a shorter visit (e.g., 3-5 days). Patients will also complete appointments for assessment, prior to booking the treatment, and may be offered follow-up sessions. 

Intensive Therapy is provided via video therapy in many US states and throughout all of Canada. We also have physical offices for in-person treatment in Mountain View, CA (approximately 45 minutes South of San Francisco) and New York, NY (Upper East Side) and a few other locations.  It is common for folks out of state or living internationally to visit one of these appealing travel destinations for treatment. Licensing laws in the USA and Canada prevent our therapists from working with patients across state and international borders. Your Coordinator will help determine the options available based on your location and needs. 

Intensive Therapy is usually a good fit for individuals ages 12 and older. Services for adolescents may not be available in all of the US states. 

Schedule a Free 15-min consult with the Intensive Therapy Manager. This meeting will start the process of learning about your goals and determining if an intensive may meet your unique needs. If both parties agree that Intensive Therapy may be a good fit, then coordination steps continue as described below. The following steps vary for adults (age 18+) and adolescents (ages 12-17) due to the involvement of parents/guardians in arranging treatment for adolescents. 

Adults
 
After the free 15-minute consultation, the second step (fee of $390) is to complete a 50-minute goal-setting session. Set-up services (e.g., treatment planning, assignment to best fitting counselor) are also included in this fee. For Step two, half of the charge may be refunded if a person decides, within 24 hours after the goal-setting meeting, not to pursue the treatment. The third step is a paid 50-minute meeting (variable fees) in which the client meets with the assigned counselor to do a final review of the established treatment plan, finalize scheduling, and get treatment started!.

Adolescents
After the free 15-minute consultation, the second step (fee of $490) is to complete a 45-minute goal-setting meeting with the adolescent and a separate 45-minute meeting only with parent(s)/guardian(s). Set-up services (e.g., treatment planning, assignment to and consultation with best fitting counselor) are also included in this fee. For Step two, the set-up services ($195) may be refunded if the family decides, within 24 hours after the goal-setting meeting, not to pursue the treatment. The third step for adolescents is a paid 50-minute meeting (variable fees) in which the adolescent and parent(s)/guardian(s) together meet with the assigned counselor to confirm the treatment plan, finalize scheduling, and get the treatment started!  

We encourage interested persons to carefully consider the finances available for this form of treatment. The outcomes can be profound, however the investment is significant. Each clinician sets their own fees. Costs vary depending on the clinician you work with and the total hours scheduled. The coordination services will help match you to an available provider and clarify the fees. On average, intensives booked for 12-18 hours range between $2400-$4500 USD. Clients in Canada are more likely to be able to access lower fee providers. Clients working with clinicians located in New York, California, or similar markets, can expect a range of $3000-$8000 for 12-18 hours of treatment. In limited cases there may be an opportunity to work at a reduced fee with one of our supervised mental health interns who have already completed a Masters degree in a mental health field. 

Under the Affordable Care Act, all insurance plans must cover mental health care. So, if you have health insurance, it should provide some coverage for mental health treatment.

We will be considered an “out-of-network” provider, which means that your insurance company may reimburse you directly for a portion of the fees paid. And we have opted out of Medicare. Your therapist can provide you with documentation of the care received that you can submit to your insurance company.

Our experience has been that most insurance companies do not reimburse a large portion of Intensive Therapy services. Please inquire with your insurance company to find out whether they will reimburse multiple hours per day of treatment in an outpatient Therapy setting.

Clients arrange their own travel and accommodations in the local area.

California location: 2660 Solace Place, Suite, D2, Mountain View, CA 94040.

New York location: 341 East 79th Street, Suite #302, New York, NY 10075

No. The entire course of Intensive Therapy is tailored to your needs, and you meet with your provider without other patients involved. If you would benefit from adding group therapy, we can help you find supplemental groups.

Intensive Therapy is highly effective for adolescents who are motivated to make changes and able to clarify specific goals during our coordination process. This approach is often appealing to adolescents because it’s fast-paced and built on skill-building, not endless talking. Adolescent treatment often includes considerable involvement of parent(s) or guardian(s) who may be asked to complete separate hours of treatment that align with the adolescent’s needs (e.g., practicing communication skills, enforcing limits). Hours booked for an adolescent, but not completed due to refusal to engage, will be offered to parent(s) or guardian(s) as parent-coaching sessions.

We offer live online multi-week courses, live online daylong workshops, in person daylong workshops (post COVID), 1-2 hr live online and on demand webinars, and coming in 2021 asynchronous training opportunities. All of our trainings offer CE credit for those eligible. Our trainings are for mental health professionals as well as trainees or students in a mental health field.

For a full list of Feeling Good Institute sponsored trainings, go here.

We recommend that you start with our "Comprehensive Live Online CBT Training for Therapists" course. It is a 12-week course that provides an overview of the TEAM-CBT model. This is the best place to start if you want to learn all aspects of TEAM-CBT efficiently. After taking this course, you are eligible for Level 1 TEAM-CBT certification. It is typically offered four times per year. There is a parallel course for those who work with children and adolescents. Some beginners also like to start with the shorter courses, such as the CBT Methods course.

For therapists who are already very familiar with the TEAM-CBT model, we recommend the Advanced TEAM-CBT Training Course Towards Level 3 Certification.

Full attendance and completion of appropriate evaluation forms are required in order to receive CE credits. The attendance policy as set forth by the CE boards is that therapists must attend 100% of the training in order to receive CE credit. This includes daylong and weekly courses as well as hour-long webinars.

Live online multi-week courses: We are permitted to allow participants a maximum of one makeup per multi-week course. If a session is missed, the participant may make up only one session by watching the recording and submitting a brief written summary to the instructor. Unfortunately, we are not permitted to give partial credit for any courses.

Refunds are available for cancelations outside of a 14-day window prior to the beginning of a training event or course. All refunds are subject to a $50 processing fee. Within a 14-day window prior to the beginning of a training event or course, no refunds are available. For cancelations within this window, credit may be applied towards a future similar training within a year of the original purchase date.

You will receive a CE survey via email within 48 hours of course completion. You must complete the CE survey within 5 days of course completion in order to receive CE credit, after which you will receive your Confirmation of Attendance Certificate via email. If you haven't received the survey within 3 days of course completion, followed by the certificate, please contact your instructor, or certification@feelinggoodinstitute.com It is your responsibility to complete the CE survey within the 5-day window to receive CE credit.

RingCentral Meetings is our primary tool for our live online trainings. Downloading RingCentral meetings (you don't need an account) is highly recommended well before any of our trainings to prevent the last minute rush on setup prior to a training.

Feeling Good Institute cannot confirm for you whether or not your licensing board will accept our CE credits. You must check with your individual licensing board to confirm. Here is our current information regarding board approval:

Continuing Education Accreditation

*The Feeling Good Institute (FGI) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Feeling Good Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Feeling Good Institute Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0175.  FGI is a NAADAC Approved Education Provider. NAADAC Provider #149212. The Feeling Good Institute (FGI) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6750. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. FGI is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Feeling Good Institute, #1442 is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Feeling Good Institute maintains responsibility for this course. Ace provider approval period: 05/30/2021-05/30/2024.  Feeling Good Institute, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0678. A certificate of attendance will be emailed to attendees who attend 100% of the training within a week of completion of the workshop survey. Individuals with disabilities requiring special accommodations please contact Dr. Maor Katz at maor@feelinggoodinstitute.com.

Please direct all questions to: certification@feelinggoodinstitute.com

Who can apply for TEAM-CBT Certification?

TEAM-CBT Certification is not open to the general public. Certification is intended for licensed mental health and medical professionals. Individuals who are pursuing licenses (e.g., students, trainees) or are working as  counselors without a license (e.g., certified personal or professional coaches, faith-based organization counselors, counselors in countries without licensing requirements) are welcome to apply for certification at levels 1-3. Trainer levels (4 & 5) are reserved for individuals who hold licenses in mental health or medical fields.

TEAM-CBT Certification only indicates a completion of training in a specific subset of therapy tools, known as TEAM-CBT. Certification does not substitute for comprehensive training in mental health or clinical treatment and it does not constitute and/or cannot replace licensure to practice.  

How do I apply for Team-CBT Certification?

Calculate your Units for TEAM-CBT training received using the Certification Units Table. Review the Certification Requirements to determine number of Units and other requirements for each level. After you have met full criteria, apply online here.

How do I pay the application fees?

Application fees can be paid online. If you are using a paper-based application, you can choose to follow the instructions on the application to submit a check or credit card information.

How long will it take to process my application?

Application processing requires between 2-4 weeks. When your application has been processed you will receive an email confirming your application status. Unfortunately, we cannot send out confirmation emails when applications are first received.

How can I find TEAM-CBT training opportunities?

Level 4 and 5 TEAM-CBT Trainers offer training groups both live and via web-based video format. A list of Feeling Good Institute sponsored trainings can be found here. Level 4 or 5 Trainers, not affiliated with Feeling Good Institute, may also offer trainings that count toward Certification.

Training received by a TEAM Trainer (in individual or group format) does not constitute clinical supervision; that is, neither the Trainer or Feeling Good Institute assume responsibility for your clinical work. Feeling Good Institute is not responsible for the quality of the clinical treatment you provide. Certification is only a documentation of training received. It is not the equivalent of licensure in any medical or mental health field.

Where can I find home study (asynchronous) courses?

Feeling Good Institute will launch asynchronous learning opportunities in 2021. Additionally, a listing of home study courses taught by David Burns are offered by the Institute for Better Health and will count toward certification. Note these are not hosted by Feeling Good Institute. Please direct questions about these courses to the hosting agency.

If I attend a training group led by someone who is not Level 4 or 5 TEAM-CBT Certified, can I count the hours?

We encourage all persons to form practice groups to improve their TEAM-CBT therapy skills. However, in order to maintain quality control of TEAM-CBT training, only groups led by Level 4 or 5 Trainers can count toward certification. Exceptions may be granted if the leader is pursuing Level 4 Certification and is receiving consultation from a Certified TEAM-CBT Trainer.. If you are interested in starting a training group, and would like mentorship, you are welcome to contact any Level 4 or 5 Trainer to seek consultation. To get a list of Trainers who are currently offering consultation email certification@feelinggoodinstitute.com

Will Feeling Good Institute visit my clinic or area to offer a workshop?

Dr. Burns may be contacted via his website to inquire if he will provide a workshop in your area. Contact admin@feelinggoodinstitute.com to inquire about Feeling Good Institute hosted trainings.

What is the Ebook and where can I purchase it?

The Ebook is Dr. Burn’s interactive psychotherapy training manual. You can order it using this form on his website. Questions about the Ebook or purchasing process should be directed to Dr. Burns through his website.

What is the Therapist Toolkit and where can I purchase it?

The Therapist Toolkit is David Burn’s package of assessment and treatment tools for TEAM-CBT Therapy. You can order it on his website at this link. Questions about the Therapist Toolkit or purchasing process should be directed to Dr. Burns through his website.

Where can I access the Brief Mood Survey (BMS) and Evaluation of Therapy Survey (ETS) forms?

These forms are only available in the Therapist Toolkit. The Therapist Toolkit is exclusively for sale from Dr. Burns and can be purchased via the order form via his website.

Is Certification dependent on my scores on the BMS and ETS?

We believe that testing with clients is an important way to understand your client’s progress and improve your relationship with your client. Your scores on these forms do not impact whether you receive certification.

I work in a setting where it is difficult to use testing. Can I still pursue certification?

We believe that testing is an integral part of TEAM therapy. We also understand that clinicians may experience limitations that may make routine testing or the use of the BMS/ETS difficult. Exceptions can be requested by emailing certification@feelinggoodinstitute.com

When will my referral information be posted on the Feeling Good Institute website?

Referral information is updated every 1-2 months. Depending on the time you submit your application, it may take up to 2 months to have your information posted on the website.

Who do I contact with additional questions?

Please direct questions to certification@feelinggoodinstitute.com

In order to join as a Feeling Good Institute Therapist, you need to have received Advanced TEAM-CBT Level 3 Certification or above, have a Master's or Doctoral degree in a mental health field, and have gone through our application process and been verified by a TEAM-CBT trainer as an effective therapist.

Please fill out this form, to get the application process started.

There are many benefits to joining Feeling Good Institute. Here are the top 3 benefits therapists tell us:

• Being welcomed and plugged into a warm and supportive community that is dedicated to learning and excellence in effective therapy.
• Professional growth through access to weekly trainings, consultation groups and more.
• Getting time back to focus on client care with marketing support, referrals and a practice management service