Most insurance plans are not built to pay for couples therapy. That is a coding problem rather than a coverage problem, and almost no practice in this county will explain it before you book. This page covers how the money actually works, how to check any therapist’s certification claim in Florida, and which licence can still see you when you leave the state for the summer.
Quick answer: Couples therapy at FC PsychExperts runs 50 to 80 minutes with both partners and a licensed clinician, and the client is the relationship rather than either person. Focused work often shows change in 8 to 12 sessions. West Palm Beach couples usually come into the Jupiter office at 210 Jupiter Lakes Blvd, and secure video is available anywhere in Florida. One partner can start alone. Insurers pay couples work as family psychotherapy under CPT 90847, which needs one partner to be the identified patient carrying a billable diagnosis, so many plans do not cover it as a standalone service. Fees and insurance options are confirmed when you call. The practice was founded in 2008 by Dr. Cathy Colet. Call (561) 834-5849.
Health plans do not buy relationship work. They buy treatment of a diagnosed condition in one person. That single sentence explains almost every surprise bill in this category.
Carriers pay the work under CPT 90847, whose official descriptor is family psychotherapy (conjoint psychotherapy) with patient present, 50 minutes. Or CPT 90846, the same service without the patient present.
Family psychotherapy is covered as treatment of a specific person’s condition. Medicare describes it as family counseling whose primary purpose is treating a patient’s condition. Florida Medicaid puts the same rule in Rule 59G-4.052. The claim carries one partner’s name and diagnosis.
The code that describes it, ICD-10-CM Z63.0, reads problems in relationship with spouse or partner. It records a reason for a visit rather than a disorder. CMS has written that Z code claims are not generally used for payment purposes.
Is CPT 90847 covered for a member with a covered behavioral health diagnosis, and what is my out-of-network benefit for it?
It happens, and it ends the benefit. If neither partner will carry a diagnosis on the claim, there is no insured route to couples therapy.
That is a reasonable thing to refuse. A behavioral health diagnosis enters a medical record, and someone in a custody matter, a security clearance process or a licensed profession may have real reasons to think about it first. Decide it on purpose rather than at the claim stage.
Medicare covers family psychotherapy only where the purpose is treating the beneficiary’s own condition. Relationship difficulty on its own is not a listed indication in any Medicare policy we reviewed.
Sessions run 50 to 80 minutes with both partners and a licensed clinician. The client is the relationship rather than either person, and 1 partner can start alone.
| Situation | What the work looks like |
|---|---|
| Focused communication and conflict work | Change often shows within 8 to 12 sessions, then check-ins |
| Rebuilding after a breach of trust | Longer, usually 3 to 6 months, on a staged plan |
| One partner unsure about staying | Discernment counseling, 1 to 5 sessions, described below |
| Premarital, unmarried, engaged, co-parenting after separation | Same format, different focus |
Progress gets reviewed together at set points rather than drifting. Fees and insurance options are confirmed when you call. Many insurers do not cover couples therapy as a standalone service, for the reasons above. The office will tell you plainly what applies to your situation and can provide a superbill where reimbursement is possible. A superbill is an itemised receipt carrying the CPT code, the diagnosis, the dates and the clinician’s licence details. It is an industry convention rather than a federally defined document, and whether your plan reimburses anything against it depends on your out-of-network benefit.
Since 1 January 2022, under the No Surprises Act, any provider must give an uninsured or self-pay patient a written Good Faith Estimate of expected charges.
Ask every practice you call for a Good Faith Estimate. The answer tells you something about the office before you ever meet the clinician.
Florida law is direct about where care happens. Under Fla. Stat. 456.47(5), any act that delivers a health care service is deemed to occur at the place where the patient is located at the time the act is performed. Your therapist’s licence has to match the state you are sitting in, not the state the therapist is sitting in.
The reverse is in the same statute. A clinician licensed elsewhere can treat you while you are in Florida only after registering with the Florida Department of Health under 456.47(4)(a), and that registration comes with a hard limit: under 456.47(4)(f) a registered out-of-state provider may not open an office in this state and may not provide in-person health care services to patients located in this state.
Florida joined PSYPACT effective 1 July 2023, and 38 jurisdictions participate. A doctoral-level licensed psychologist can apply for authorisation to practise telepsychology across the other participating states. This is the only mental health credential with a working interstate route out of Florida right now.
The Counseling Compact went live on 30 September 2025 and is issuing privileges in 9 states as of August 2026. Florida enacted it in 2022 and is a member state, but Florida is not yet issuing or accepting privileges, and the Board still tells licensees to watch for updates.
The Social Work Licensure Compact has passed in 35 states. Florida is not one of them. Two bills tried this year and both died on 13 March 2026: HB 13 cleared the House 115 to 0 and then died in Senate Rules, and SB 74 died in Health Policy.
There is no operational interstate compact for the profession anywhere in the United States. Continuity across a state line means a second licence or a handoff.
All 4 of those will change. The dates are on the page so you can see how fresh they are. Sources: Fla. Stat. 456.47, PSYPACT, the Counseling Compact, the Social Work Licensure Compact.
I am in Florida from November to May and in another state the rest of the year. Which state will you be licensed to see me in on 15 July?
If the answer is a shrug, you have a seasonal therapist. That can still be the right choice when you plan for it: finish a defined course of work between November and May, or arrange a handoff before you start. What does not work is discovering it in June, mid-course, after a disclosure that took 4 months to reach.
Three questions. It tells you whether the clinician you are about to hire can legally keep seeing you once you leave Florida. Nothing is stored and nothing is submitted.
Discernment counseling is a short, defined protocol for couples where one partner is considering ending the relationship and the other wants to save it. It is a different product from couples therapy with a different goal.
It was developed by William J. Doherty, PhD, Professor Emeritus in Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, and the structure is published rather than improvised.
Couples therapy tries to solve the problems. Discernment counseling answers whether you are both willing to try.
Florida’s ground for dissolution is that the marriage is irretrievably broken, under Fla. Stat. 61.052(1). One party must have lived in Florida for 6 months before filing, under Fla. Stat. 61.021. Under Fla. Stat. 61.19 no final judgment may be entered until at least 20 days after the petition is filed, unless the court finds the delay would cause injustice. Simplified dissolution, for couples who qualify, comes from Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.105 rather than from the statute. A 5-session discernment course fits inside that window.
Almost every couples page in this market names a method. Method claims and credentials are different things, and the difference is public.
Florida publishes every mental health licence and every disciplinary order. Search the specific person you would be seeing, not the practice owner, on the Florida licence verification portal.
| Letters | What it means |
|---|---|
PY prefix | Licensed psychologist. Independent practice, plus psychological testing. The only credential with a working interstate route out of Florida |
LMHC | Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Independent practice |
LCSW | Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Independent practice |
LMFT | Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Independent practice |
| Registered intern | Registered mental health counselor intern, registered clinical social worker intern or registered marriage and family therapist intern. Must be supervised |
Under Fla. Stat. 491.0045 an intern registration is valid for 5 years, and the Florida Board states it cannot be renewed. An intern must stay under supervision the whole time. Interns are often excellent clinicians, they are frequently the reason a lower-fee slot exists anywhere, and everyone licensed today was one once. They are also not interchangeable with an independently licensed clinician, and a practice listing its therapists without credentials is making it hard for you to tell which you are getting. Florida law requires the full title on promotional material, and there is no authorised abbreviation for an intern, so a card reading RMHCI is shorthand rather than a credential.
Three bodies certify the methods this market advertises. Each publishes a directory, and each draws a line the marketing tends to blur.
The Gottman Institute separates Levels 1, 2 and 3 training from the Certified Gottman Therapist credential. Certification requires a master’s or doctorate, a minimum of 1,000 hours of postgraduate therapy experience, all 3 training levels, licensure, and the ability to practise independently of a supervisor.
The Institute’s own rule is that someone who completed training may say they completed Level 1, 2 or 3 and that they use the method. They may not describe themselves as a Gottman Therapist or a Certified Gottman Therapist. Check any such claim on the Gottman Referral Network, where certified therapists are marked.
ICEEFT certifies EFT therapists. A Certified EFT Therapist needs a graduate degree in a mental health discipline, full licensure where they practise, and at least 3 years of post-degree clinical experience, plus supervision and reviewed session video.
Emotionally focused in a bio means the clinician uses the ideas. The ICEEFT directory tells you who holds the credential.
AASECT certifies sex therapists, and the bar is specific: at least 90 clock hours of sexuality education coursework, 60 clock hours of sex therapy training, and 50 hours of supervision with an AASECT-certified supervisor over a minimum of 18 months.
It is a private certification rather than a state licence, and treating intimacy as a topic is not the same as holding it.
Dr. Cathy Colet is licensed in Florida as a psychologist, licence PY9058.
The number is published here so you can verify it rather than take our word for it. Ask every practice you call for the licence number of the person you would actually be seeing. A practice that will not give you one has told you something.
Two situations. We say both of these on the phone rather than after you have booked.
We ask what brought you in, whether there is an open court case, and whether both of you feel able to speak freely in the same room. If the answer to the last one is no, we say so and point you to individual work or a safety route instead of booking a joint session.
Those 3 questions take about 4 minutes and they decide whether couples therapy is the right product for you at all.
Couples therapy assumes 2 people who can each speak honestly and neither of whom will be punished for it afterwards. Where that assumption fails, the format itself creates risk.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline states its position directly: they do not encourage anyone in an abusive relationship to seek counseling with their partner. Their reasoning is that abuse is a pattern rather than a relationship problem, that joint counseling cannot correct an unequal power structure, and that what gets said in the room can be used later.
Clinicians distinguish between violence that comes out of arguments escalating, where both partners feel responsible and both want it to stop, and a pattern where one person uses fear and control and takes no responsibility for it. On the second pattern the Gottman Institute’s own review is blunt: no one has found a treatment that stops characterological domestic violence, and the guidance is separation and safety. Whether structured joint work can ever help the first pattern is debated among clinicians. The second one is not debated.
If any of this is your situation, do not book a couples slot to find out.
We screen for this before a first joint session. If it comes up we will say so and help you find the right route, which may be individual work for one or both of you.
Your treating therapist does not write opinions for your case.
Dr. Colet is court-appointed across Florida’s 1st, 15th, 17th, 19th and 20th Judicial Circuits. The 15th is Palm Beach County. If you are a party in a local family law matter where this practice could be appointed or retained to evaluate someone, starting couples therapy here can create a conflict that costs you the therapist, the evaluator, or both. So we ask on the first call whether there is an open case, and we check. If there is a conflict we say so before any appointment.
And a rule we apply that costs us work: no custody recommendation, no letter, no summary with a conclusion in it. A clinician who has spent months building an alliance with both of you cannot then produce a neutral opinion about either of you, and opposing counsel will spend 10 minutes of cross-examination making that point. Court opinions come from a separate evaluation by a separate clinician. Court-ordered therapy, which works differently, has its own confidentiality rules and its own page.
Jessica brings more than 2 decades of relationship-focused clinical work to the couples she sees, and she leads the couples work here. Her approach is relational and strengths-based: slowing the pattern down, naming the need underneath the complaint, and building better ways to say it and to hear it.
Works with: married and unmarried couples · premarital · after an affair · co-parenting couples
Practising since 2008 and the founder of the practice, Dr. Colet supervises all clinical work. Her background in family law means couples who are separating or co-parenting get guidance from someone who knows how Florida family courts work in practice.
Member of: American Psychological Association · Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
The practice runs 2 Florida offices and sees couples by secure video anywhere in the state.
Both formats are the same clinician, the same session length and the same confidentiality.
Many plans do not cover it as a standalone service. There is no CPT code for couples therapy, so carriers pay the work as family psychotherapy under CPT 90847, which requires one partner to be the identified patient carrying a billable diagnosis, and the claim is processed as treatment of that person’s condition. Relationship distress on its own is ICD-10-CM Z63.0, a Z code, and CMS states that Z code claims are not generally used for payment purposes. Fees and insurance options are confirmed when you call, and the office can provide a superbill where reimbursement is possible.
Yes. Since 1 January 2022, under the No Surprises Act, any provider must give uninsured or self-pay patients a written estimate of expected charges. If you book at least 3 business days ahead it is due within 1 business day. If you book at least 10 business days ahead, or ask without booking, it is due within 3 business days. If your final bill lands materially above the estimate there is a federal dispute process, and you have 120 calendar days from getting the bill to start it.
Focused work often shows change in 8 to 12 sessions, then check-ins. Rebuilding after a breach of trust typically takes longer, usually 3 to 6 months on a staged plan. Discernment counseling is 1 to 5 sessions. Sessions run 50 to 80 minutes and progress is reviewed together at set points.
It depends on the credential. Florida law says a health care service happens where the patient is located, so your clinician needs a licence covering the state you are sitting in. A licensed psychologist can practise across PSYPACT states and Florida has participated since 1 July 2023. A Florida licensed mental health counselor cannot use the Counseling Compact yet, because Florida is an enacted member that is not issuing privileges. Florida has not joined the Social Work Licensure Compact at all, and two 2026 bills died on 13 March 2026. There is no compact for marriage and family therapists. Ask any practice which state they will be licensed in on 15 July before you start.
It is a short protocol for couples where one partner is leaning out and the other wants to stay. It runs 1 to 5 sessions, the first is 2 hours and later ones 1.5 hours, and each session includes joint and individual time. It decides between 3 paths: staying as you are, moving toward separation, or committing to a defined period of couples therapy. It was developed by William J. Doherty, PhD at the University of Minnesota. Couples therapy tries to solve the problem. Discernment counseling answers whether you both want to try.
Start alone. One partner can begin, and an individual session helps you get clear on what you want to say. The office can also arrange a 15-minute call with the hesitant partner so they can ask their own questions before agreeing to anything. If one of you is leaning out of the relationship entirely, discernment counseling is built for that and asks for 1 session to begin with.
Look it up on the Gottman Referral Network. The Institute separates Levels 1, 2 and 3 training from the Certified Gottman Therapist credential, which requires a master’s or doctorate, 1,000 hours of postgraduate therapy experience, all 3 training levels, and licensure. Someone who completed training may say they completed a level and that they use the method. The Institute’s own rule is that they may not describe themselves as a Gottman Therapist or a Certified Gottman Therapist. ICEEFT certifies EFT therapists and AASECT certifies sex therapists, and both publish directories.
A registered intern is pre-licensure. Under Fla. Stat. 491.0045 the registration lasts 5 years, the Florida Board states it cannot be renewed, and the intern must remain supervised throughout. Many are very good clinicians and they are often the reason a lower-fee slot exists anywhere. They are also not the same as an independently licensed therapist. Ask for the licence number of the specific person you would see and check it on the state portal.
First couples sessions are usually available within the same week. Call (561) 834-5849 Monday to Friday 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM or Saturday 9 AM to 4 PM, or send the form on this page and the office calls back within 1 business day.
Your clinician sets a confidentiality agreement at intake and you will know the rules before you start. Most couples clinicians work under a no-secrets policy, meaning something disclosed in a one-on-one portion that affects the relationship may be brought into the joint work. Discernment counseling is structured differently and includes protected individual time by design. Ask which policy applies before your first session.
A short call with our office. One of you or both. We answer fees and scheduling, we ask whether there is an open court case, and if a different route fits you better we will say so on that call.
Mon-Fri 7:30 AM-4:30 PM · Sat 9 AM-4 PM. A member of our office calls you back within 1 business day. You can also reach us through the contact page.
FC PsychExperts has been practising in Palm Beach County since 2008, and this is one of all 5 of our therapy services.
If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988, or call 911 if someone is in immediate danger. For domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800.799.7233, or text START to 88788.