Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Elizondo, Psy.D..
Hi Lindsay, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I got my license as a clinical psychologist in 2019 and started at a group practice shortly after. When COVID hit in March, all of my clients went to telehealth overnight. I never expected to start my own private practice so soon after being licensed, but telehealth and some other factors made this more possible. I’ve been running my own private practice primarily through telehealth ever since!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It was difficult initially to figure out my niche and how to market that well. Therapists in general are introverted folk and don’t tend to love promoting ourselves. Similarly, it can be hard to keep boundaries around money. Usually therapists get into the field because we want to help people and remove obstacles to doing so, even if that means lowering our hourly rate to see somebody. There is certainly a time and place for this, especially in a society where many people don’t have insurance and the insurance companies themselves don’t compensate therapy in the same way they do other medical services. It took some time to figure out my approach to pricing my services in a way that felt fair and sustainable to both myself and my clients. This ended up looking like taking a few different insurance plans, maintaining some slots on my caseload for sliding scale, as well as private pay.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I have found I really love working with women who don’t feel like they fit societal molds in one way or another. Often this looks like being neurodivergent, LGBTQIA+, or having a history of religious trauma. When it comes to how I work, I specialize in relational psychodynamic therapy, which essentially means I look a lot at our relationships and emotions–how our relationships with early caregivers impact our past and present, as well as how our emotions (expressed or unexpressed) play out in our daily lives. I also practice EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), which I have found to be an enormously helpful approach to heal from trauma. In this method, unprocessed traumatic memories get reprocessed in a way that they become an integrated part of our Lives, and are no longer disruptive to our daily functioning.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
On the one hand, I was quiet, self-sufficient, and a high achiever in school. Yet I can’t help but think of how part of this was due to being socialized as a girl to be tame and well-behaved. As I got older, I experimented more with my silly, fun, rebellious side. An important part of my adulthood has been reclaiming or “rewilding” my feminine spirit. I learned a lot about this from Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women who Run with the Wolves, and highly recommend it! I actually have a tattoo sleeve inspired by this book.
Pricing:
- $215/session, limited sliding scale spots available
- I accept Aetna, Carelon Behavioral Health, and Qwest
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lindsayelizondopsyd.com
Image Credits
1. Joe Pieken
2. Zencare
