Services

• • Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
  • Most out of state Blue Cross Blue Shield plans
  • United Healthcare
  • Iowa Medicaid
  • Amerigroup
  • Iowa Total Care
  • Medicare (in some locations or via telehealth)
  • Medica
  • Crime Victims Compensation Funding
  • Health Partners (some plans require a preauthorization from Health Partners
  • Private Pay
  • Intern appointments if you do not have insurance coverage we can accept.

Therapy at Heart and Solutions is, at its core, personal centered and strength based.  As a strength-based counseling agency, our team is well practiced at seeking, identifying, highlighting and building on the strengths of our clients and their families.  Because we are person-centered as our base, we believe that every client has their own healing solutions within them.  To bring these internal healing solutions to the surface, our team provides the necessary components of empathy, validation and unconditional positive regard.  We believe that these three components are the sunlight, water, and soil to a seed’s ability to sprout, bloom and thrive.  Therapy is a safe space with a supportive counselor who is on your side and wants to support you in your individualized journey of healing and growth!  Therapy does not make you whole or “fix,” you, it provides the space and opportunity for you to become the beautiful version of yourself that you were always meant to be.

Not even the greatest writers and speakers were born with communication skills.  The best negotiator on the planet was born with no conflict resolution skills at all and no human has ever been born knowing how to regulate their emotions or choose productive behaviors.

At Heart and Solutions, we believe that none of us are born with the anger management, emotional identification and expression, conflict resolution, listening, following directions, aggression reduction skills expected of children and adults.

The only way that any human gets competent at any of these skills is through role modeling and opportunity to practice and succeed at the skill.  This is where BHIS is beneficial and often necessary.  If a child is having difficulty following directions at school, we do not believe this is a “bad,” or “naughty,” child.  We believe that this is a child getting their needs met through less productive techniques.  We believe that given the role modeling, opportunities to practice and succeed at the skill, any child is able to build this skill and so many others necessary for success as an adult.

BHIS counselors can meet with children ages 4-18 and their families in-home, at school or in the office.  We provide opportunities to practice and build these skills in the form of games, art activities and service projects.  Our BHIS counselors utilize the 7 Cs of Resilience to build these skills in the children we support.

If BHIS is a cast for a broken leg, therapy is an antibiotic for any internal infection resulting from the injury.  Many of the children and families that we support utilize both BHIS and therapy to build their actionable skills and their mental health skills in unison.  

If therapy is the “why,” of how change happens, BHIS is the “how.”  BHIS targets the visible, audio changes that others may observe.  For example, if a child is angry and kicks the dog, BHIS would focus on kicking a pillow or singing a song instead of kicking the dog.  Therapy would focus on helping the child to identify the emotions they are feeling, think through any irrational thoughts that may have led to kicking the dog, and process out their options internally prior to taking action.  
Consistent therapy services are a requirement for most MCO BHIS authorizations because working on our behavioral health and our mental health are equally important to our success and together they are far more effective than apart.

Telehealth is a service available for both therapy and for BHIS.  Telehealth allows for confidential, convenient and social distanced counseling services.  At Heart and Solutions, we utilize Doxy.me, a HIPAA compliant video conferencing service to provide counseling services via video call.  Some clients prefer to conduct telehealth counseling over the phone with no video conferencing component.  This method is extremely effective as well.  Telehealth removes barriers such as transportation, childcare, privacy concerns, time to and from appointments.  Many clients utilize their lunch breaks to invest in their mental health and are able to benefit from weekly therapy sessions without missing any work or family time.  Many schools allow for counseling through telehealth for their students as this allows for the student to benefit from their mental health or behavioral health counseling in a way that limits how much school the student misses.  Telehealth can be combined with face-to-face counseling for convenience and social distancing while still maintaining the benefits of meeting in-person with your counselor.  

Whether you are beginning therapy or BHIS, or both at Heart and Solutions, your first appointment at Heart and Solutions will be a diagnostic assessment.  This is a systemized way for you and your family to express your goals and needs for counseling and to work with the counselor to create a customized plan of action for counseling.  Your counselor will ask you questions during this assessment about what symptoms or challenges you are facing, what success would mean to you and questions about your background and support.

For BHIS services, an assessment called a reauthorization is scheduled for every 6 months of services.  This assessment is an insurance requirement that we submit to the insurance company when requesting a new preauthorization for BHIS services.

For therapy services, an asse

When contacting the agency to sign up for services, please have the following information available:

• • Full legal name
  • Date of birth of the client
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Social security number of the client and the guarantor
  • Insurance information for the client
  • Full legal name and address of the primary insured

At Heart and Solutions, your confidentiality is of the utmost importance.  All of our billing and communication software is fully encrypted and HIPAA compliant.  We will never confirm or deny that we are working with you or with a member of your family without your expressed written consent.  We place extreme importance and focus on the protection of your privacy. 

At Heart and Solutions, we offer a wide variety of services for all ages and family members.  Our offices are staffed with professional counselors specializing in a variety of age groups.  Many of our wonderful clients start with one family member and expand the support out to the rest of the family.  

For example: The school may refer a child or adolescent for our in-home behavioral health counseling services and for our in-school, in-office or to participate in telehealth (by phone or computer).  While we are working with the family, we may find that mom, dad, guardian, foster parent, grandma, grandpa, step mom, step dad or siblings are facing challenges of their own and can benefit from added support.  A family may come in to the office all at one time and each member of the family meet with their own individual counselor in the office.  This minimizes the amount of time that a family needs to dedicate to counseling as everyone may have their own individual sessions in the same hour.

At each Heart and Solutions assessment, we inquire about spiritual and cultural factors that we should be aware of so that we can best support you and your family.  We respect each individual’s spiritual and religious beliefs.  We recognize that religion and spirituality can be very different for each individual person even within the same family.  Our mental health and behavioral health counselors hold a wide variety of personal spiritual and religious beliefs.  You can rest assured that our counselors are trained and prepared not to let their own beliefs impact their support of your beliefs.  Our counselors follow an ask and support model and are careful to provide support and intervention in keeping with the religious or spiritual values that you have shared with us.

Sometimes one family member wishes to engage in therapy and their family is hesitant to try it. In these situations, we recommend showing your family member the photo, bio and video of the therapist or counselor you will be meeting with as well as photos of the office that they will be visiting. Often motivation to attend counseling sessions can be initiated by asking what we call “the miracle question.” This question: “If you woke up tomorrow morning and by a miracle, your life was exactly the way you would want it, what would be different?” The answer to this question can be set as a goal for counseling which can be extremely motivating. Explaining that the first meeting is an assessment and the following 3-5 sessions are focused on building rapport and really just getting to know the counselor and feel comfortable can be helpful as well. We ask anyone with hesitation to try counseling for 4 sessions before deciding if it is right for them. We find that most people, with hesitation, find therapy or behavioral health counseling beneficial and comfortable within 3-5 sessions.

At Heart and Solutions, all of our processes and procedures are designed around the professional counseling codes of ethics set forth by the American Counseling Association (ACA), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT). All of our therapists are BHIS counselors are committed to uploading these codes of ethics and protecting your right to fair, considerate, ethical treatment without discrimination.

To get started please call us at (800) 531-4236 today! Our friendly administrative team is happy to answer any question you might have and get you on the road toward reaching your goals!