Elissa Baldwin Murphy, PhD, LCSW

Welcome to my practice! My goal is to help you to grow and recover parts of yourself or your family that may feel fractured or lost. My individual work with adults is informed by psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories, using a developmental, relational and attachment focus. This can help you and your loved ones to understand and feel more in control of patterns or behaviors within yourself or in your relationships. With children and families, we will focus first on resolving the most pressing concerns/behaviors, and then on longer-term strategies to promote growth for you and your child. If you are a parent or caregiver, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that over the course of our work, you may reach your own potential as an individual or parent more fully. I am also available for parent-only consultations, and work with parents and their children from infancy through adulthood. WORKING TOGETHER After an initial phone consultation, we will meet several times to get to know one another before making a plan for therapy. We will usually first focus on your most pressing concerns, while thinking about longer-term ways to promote lasting growth. If you are a parent or caregiver, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that over the course of our work, you may reach your own potential as an individual or parent more fully. SUPERVISION & CONSULTATION Dr. Murphy provides clinical supervision to clinicians from any discipline, focusing on work with adults, children, adolescents, emerging adults, and parent work from a psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective. She is a psychoanalytic psychotherapy supervisor with the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas, and is open to forming small supervision groups. Please contact me for more information or availability. ABOUT ME Elissa Baldwin Murphy, PhD, LCSW is a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst and clinical social worker in private practice in Durham, NC where she sees adults, children and adolescents and their parents/caregivers, and provides psychodynamic supervision. Dr. Murphy is a graduate of the NCSU School of Design (BLA), the UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work (MSW), the Smith College School for Social Work (PhD) and the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas (Certificates in Child/Adolescent and Adult Psychoanalysis). She is trained as a Circle of Security Parent Facilitator and holds a certificate in Advanced Clinical Supervision from the Smith College School for Social Work. Dr. Murphy serves as faculty member and Curriculum Chair for the PCC, is an active member of the PCC Anti-Racism Task Force, coordinates an ongoing study group on Race & Psychoanalysis within the PCC, and has been a lecturer and/or research advisor at the PCC, the Smith College School for Social Work, and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work. She is a member of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis (ACP) and serves on the board as a Councilor. INSURANCE AND FEES Costs of Treatment*: $150-225 per session * I have some limited availability to accept some reduced fee clients, in an effort to make psychotherapy and psychoanalysis available to all. Please speak with me about payment plans or reduced fees, and we can decide how to proceed depending on your individual needs, financial situation and frequency of treatment. ***At this time I my reduced fee spots are full. * I am available to provide treatment as an "out of network" provider with most insurance companies. I will provide you with regular statements which you may choose to submit to your insurance company for partial reimbursement, but you are responsible up front for the full fee. Depending on your insurance plan, the costs of therapy can vary from comparable to significantly different for an in- versus out-of-network provider. * At this time I am not accepting clients with BCBS insurance, in or out of network. I am in-network with the NC State Health Plan insurance through Aetna. Understanding your health insurance coverage can be tricky, and downright confusing at times. It is important to remember that health insurance can often help curb the costs of various forms of medical care, but often does not cover all expenses, so understanding your plan from the beginning can help you to plan ahead. It is my ethical responsibility to recommend a plan or course of treatment that I believe will best help you, regardless of your insurance coverage/limits. If you are considering using your health insurance to cover therapy, your health insurance company will periodically require me to submit a diagnostic code and dates of service to them. This process can sometimes feel like an intrusion, although health insurance can also make costly treatment accessible for some individuals and families. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS How long does therapy take? Sometimes I provide short-term consultation to individuals or families over several sessions, while others choose ongoing therapy. Keep in mind that some patterns develop over long periods of time, and every person is unique in the time it takes to recognize problematic patterns, un-learn them, and then to re-learn more effective ways of being. How frequently should I come? Understanding yourself and changing deeply rooted habits takes time, commitment, and practice. Some clients find several consultation meetings to be helpful. For others, especially children and healthy adults seeking deeper self-understanding, more intensive treatment or psychoanalysis can be beneficial. What should I expect in the initial visits? ​We will meet for several sessions to get to know one another, and to discuss your history and what brings you to therapy. When I have gathered enough information to make a recommendation for you or your family (usually 6-8 meetings), we will discuss my impressions and how we might work together. By this time, you will have a sense of whether I am the right therapist for you to work with. Questions Specific to Child/Adolescent Treatment Do parents get to be involved? Yes - in fact, I believe working with caregivers is so important that I usually do not work with a child UNLESS caregiver(s) are involved in treatment, though the configuration may vary depending on circumstances and the age of your child. Sometimes I work with caregivers only, who would like to strengthen and learn new skills or help support their child at home via parent guidance. What exactly is "play" therapy and how does it help children? Play is not only one of the best communication tools many children possess, it sets them at ease and meets them on their own turf. Rather than communicating with words and intellect, play provides an opportunity for children to tell a therapist about themselves in the language they speak best, and allows me a creative space within which to make therapeutic interventions.