Worth It counseling+consulting

09/04/2026

📣 WHAT YOU CAN DO
If you have SelectHealth:
Contact SelectHealth and ask how Policy #03, “Incident to Qualified Healthcare Professional Services,” will affect your ability to access behavioral healthcare after November 1. Tell them you do not want policies that unnecessarily reduce your access to qualified, supervised mental health professionals.
If you’re a parent:
Have you struggled to find a therapist for your child or teenager? Tell that story. Policymakers and insurers need to understand what “provider shortage” actually looks like for families.
If you’re a Utah mental health professional:
Read the revised policy. Contact your SelectHealth representative. Explain specifically how it will affect your practice, your associates, your trainees, your waitlist, and your patients.
If you’re a Utah resident:
Contact your Utah House representative and state senator. Ask them to investigate whether insurance reimbursement policies are unnecessarily restricting Utah’s supervised behavioral health workforce and worsening access to mental healthcare.

09/04/2026

We’re Growing! 👏🏻 WORTH IT counseling + consulting is looking for clinicians who believe relationships matter.

We’re expanding our team in📍 Lehi, Utah, and are looking for counselors who are passionate about helping adults and couples build healthier relationships, improve communication, navigate intimacy, and create meaningful change.

We are committed to helping you build a practice that reflects your strengths while being surrounded by a collaborative, supportive team.

What you’ll find at WORTH IT:

🔳 A relationship-focused private practice with over 15 years serving Utah
🔳 Luxurious office space
🔳 Administrative and billing support so you can focus on clinical work
🔳 Flexible scheduling
🔳 Clinical supervision available
🔳 Freedom to build a caseload around your interests
🔳 Opportunities to create groups, workshops, and specialty programs
🔳 A team that genuinely enjoys learning, collaborating, and supporting one another

We’re especially excited to connect with clinicians interested in couples counseling, s*x therapy, EMDR, IFS, EFT, Gottman Method, attachment work, and neurodivergence.

We’re building more than a group practice. We’re building a place where clinicians can do meaningful work, continue growing, and help people create stronger relationships with themselves and the people they love.

If that sounds like you, we’d love to connect. 📧 Send your resume to [email protected] | or apply at worth-it.com/careers/

And if you know someone who would be a great fit, we’d be grateful if you’d share this post.

WORTH IT is hiring a Mental Health Counselor or Intern. This is an in-person part- or full-time position. See the full listing here. Use the form on this page to apply.

09/03/2026

🚨 UTAH FAMILIES NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.

A new SelectHealth behavioral health policy is scheduled to take effect November 1, and we are seriously concerned about what it could mean for access to mental healthcare in Utah—especially for children and teenagers.

Here’s the issue:

Utah already licenses associate mental health professionals—including ACMHCs, AMFTs, and CSWs—to provide mental health treatment under required clinical supervision.

These are not people practicing independently without oversight.

They are licensed clinicians working under supervision as they complete the clinical experience Utah requires before independent licensure.

This is how we build Utah’s mental health workforce.

But SelectHealth’s new requirements could make it substantially more difficult for behavioral health practices to use these clinicians to serve SelectHealth members, including by creating an additional barrier around initial evaluations and treatment plans.

And that means access to care could get even harder.

This isn’t just an insurance billing issue.

It’s a patient access issue.

It’s a children’s mental health issue.

And it’s a Utah workforce issue.

Finding a therapist for a child in Utah is already incredibly difficult. Families can wait MONTHS for someone who treats children.

Teenagers aren’t much better off. Many therapists don’t treat minors at all.

And we’re talking about this in a state where su***de was the second-leading cause of death for Utah youth ages 10–17 in 2023.

In Utah’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey:

➡️ 22.9% of high school students seriously considered attempting su***de.
➡️ 9% reported attempting su***de during the previous year.

This is not the time to create additional barriers between young people and mental healthcare.

There is also a long-term consequence people need to understand.

Utah requires emerging therapists to complete thousands of hours of supervised clinical experience before becoming independently licensed.

If insurance policies make it financially or administratively impractical for clinics to employ supervised clinicians:

Fewer associates get hired.
↓
Fewer appointments are available now.
↓
Fewer clinicians complete the path to independent licensure.
↓
Utah’s therapist shortage gets worse.

We absolutely support clinical oversight.

We ARE clinical supervisors.

But Utah already has a licensing agency and Behavioral Health Board responsible for determining who is qualified to provide mental health treatment and what supervision they require.

So we have questions.

Why should an insurance reimbursement policy create a more restrictive system than Utah’s licensing framework?

What clinical evidence demonstrates that this additional restriction is necessary?

Did SelectHealth evaluate what this will do to waitlists and network adequacy?

Did they specifically examine the impact on children and adolescents?

And what happens when a teenager needs help NOW, an appropriately licensed and supervised therapist has an opening—but insurance requirements create another hurdle before treatment can begin?

📣 WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you have SelectHealth:
Contact SelectHealth and ask how Policy #03, “Incident to Qualified Healthcare Professional Services,” will affect your ability to access behavioral healthcare after November 1. Tell them you do not want policies that unnecessarily reduce your access to qualified, supervised mental health professionals.

If you’re a parent:
Have you struggled to find a therapist for your child or teenager? Tell that story. Policymakers and insurers need to understand what “provider shortage” actually looks like for families.

If you’re a Utah mental health professional:
Read the revised policy. Contact your SelectHealth representative. Explain specifically how it will affect your practice, your associates, your trainees, your waitlist, and your patients.

If you’re a Utah resident:
Contact your Utah House representative and state senator. Ask them to investigate whether insurance reimbursement policies are unnecessarily restricting Utah’s supervised behavioral health workforce and worsening access to mental healthcare.

And please SHARE THIS.

Most Utah families will never hear about an insurance reimbursement policy until it affects someone they love.

They deserve to know before November 1.

We need more access to responsible, supervised mental healthcare in Utah.

Not more barriers.

— WORTH IT counseling + consulting

09/03/2026

If you are a provider that accepts SelectHealth, or a person with SelectHealth, please reach out to your reps ASAP! They are making changes that will create significant bottlenecking in behavioral health treatment and continuity of care. It will also disproportionately negatively impact children and teens. This is what I sent:
Dear [SelectHealth Representative],

I am writing regarding the revision to SelectHealth Policy #03, “Incident to Qualified Healthcare Professional Services,” particularly its impact on associate clinicians and graduate-level trainees.

We support appropriate clinical oversight and share SelectHealth’s goal of safe, high-quality behavioral healthcare. However, we are concerned this policy creates barriers beyond Utah’s established licensure and supervision framework and may significantly reduce access to mental healthcare—particularly for children and adolescents.

Utah Licensure and DOPL Oversight

Utah already has a comprehensive regulatory framework governing mental health practice and supervision. Utah law specifically recognizes clinical supervision of Certified Social Workers (CSWs), Associate Marriage and Family Therapists (AMFTs), and Associate Clinical Mental Health Counselors (ACMHCs). Mental health therapy includes evaluation, diagnosis, treatment planning, and psychotherapy.

These are licensed professionals practicing within a scope established by Utah law and subject to DOPL requirements for supervision, training, ethics, and eventual independent licensure.

DOPL and the Behavioral Health Board are charged with establishing professional scope of practice, competency, and supervision standards. While SelectHealth may establish reimbursement and credentialing requirements, we are concerned when an insurance policy effectively creates a substantially narrower clinical practice model than Utah’s licensing framework permits.

If SelectHealth has determined that Utah’s supervision requirements are insufficient to protect members, we would appreciate understanding the clinical basis for that determination.

Commercial Insurance and “Incident To”

We are also concerned about applying a Medicare “incident to” framework to commercial behavioral health contracts. “Incident to” originates within Medicare Part B reimbursement and does not necessarily govern commercial arrangements in the same manner. CMS has also modernized behavioral health policies to allow broader use of general supervision for certain behavioral health services.

We request clarification regarding the regulatory or clinical basis for applying these restrictions to SelectHealth commercial behavioral health services.

Impact on Children and Adolescents

Our greatest concern is access to care.

Utah already has a significant shortage of clinicians who treat children and adolescents. Families seeking therapy for children frequently encounter waiting lists of several months; six-month waits are not unusual. Many therapists do not treat minors at all.

Associate clinicians and supervised trainees substantially increase available appointments. Restricting this workforce does not reduce the number of children needing mental healthcare—it reduces the number of clinicians available to treat them.

This is particularly concerning given Utah’s youth mental health statistics. Su***de was the second-leading cause of death among Utah youth ages 10–17 in 2023. Utah’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 22.9% of high school students seriously considered attempting su***de and 9% reported attempting su***de during the preceding year.

Children and adolescents also have less ability than adults to navigate limited access. They depend on parents, insurance networks, school schedules, transportation, and clinicians willing and qualified to treat minors. Policies that reduce provider capacity therefore disproportionately affect an already vulnerable population.

The Initial Evaluation Requirement Creates a Bottleneck

We are particularly concerned about requiring an independently licensed, SelectHealth-credentialed clinician to complete the initial evaluation and treatment plan before a supervised clinician can continue treatment.

A clinic may have an appropriately licensed ACMHC, AMFT, or CSW with immediate availability while its independently licensed clinicians are at capacity. Instead of beginning treatment, the patient must wait for an additional provider simply to enter care.

For a child or teenager in distress, this is not merely an administrative inconvenience; it is delayed access to mental healthcare.

Meaningful oversight does not require the supervisor to personally conduct every initial evaluation. At WORTH IT counseling + consulting, supervisors remain actively involved through consultation, review and approval of diagnoses and treatment plans, documentation review, co-signatures when applicable, risk consultation, and direct observation when appropriate.

Impact on Utah’s Behavioral Health Workforce

Graduate training and associate licensure exist because clinicians must obtain supervised clinical experience before independent practice. DOPL already regulates this progression.

If supervised services become financially unviable, agencies will have fewer opportunities to employ and train emerging clinicians. The long-term result is fewer clinicians progressing to independent licensure and an even smaller behavioral health workforce.

Request for Reconsideration

We respectfully ask SelectHealth to reconsider this policy and clarify:

1. The basis for applying Medicare “incident to” requirements to commercial behavioral health contracts;
2. Whether ACMHCs, AMFTs, and CSWs may conduct initial diagnostic evaluations within their Utah-authorized scope when appropriately supervised;
3. Whether a credentialed supervisor may review, approve, and/or co-sign an associate clinician’s assessment and treatment plan rather than personally conducting the evaluation;
4. How the policy applies differently to licensed associate clinicians versus graduate student interns; and
5. Whether SelectHealth has evaluated the impact on provider capacity, waitlists, children and adolescents, and Utah’s behavioral health workforce.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these concerns with SelectHealth leadership.

Our goals are aligned: members should receive timely, ethical, high-quality mental healthcare with meaningful clinical oversight. Our concern is that this policy may unintentionally reduce access to qualified clinicians—particularly for Utah’s children and adolescents, who can least afford additional barriers to treatment.

We sincerely hope SelectHealth will reconsider this policy before its November 1 implementation and collaborate with Utah behavioral health providers on an alternative that preserves both clinical accountability and access to care.

Thank you for your consideration.

Warmly,

Aimee Mortensen, CMHC, CST, CST-SIT
Founder & CEO
WORTH IT counseling + consulting

09/03/2026

What’s the one thing every trucker has to have on the road?

☕ Coffee
🎧 A good playlist
🥤 An obnoxiously large drink
🧢 Your favorite hat
🍔 A go-to truck stop meal
🛏️ A comfortable sleeper
📱 Someone to talk to
😴 A nap whenever you can get one

Or is there something we missed?

Drop your answer in the comments — and tell us the ONE thing you refuse to hit the road without. 🚛

09/01/2026

Therapy doesn’t have to and should not be reserved for the moments when everything falls apart.

We understand the value of preventative care with our physical health. We schedule our yearly dental appointments and physical check ups without a second thought. We pay attention to things early, get routine checkups, address concerns before they become emergencies, and learn how to care for ourselves over time.

Mental health can and should work the same way.

Therapy isn’t only for a crisis, a diagnosis, or a life-altering event. It can also be a place to pause, reflect, and address patterns while they’re still manageable, before the breakdown.

Maybe you’re noticing more stress than usual.
Maybe the same relationship patterns keep showing up.
Maybe you’re navigating a transition and want support before you feel overwhelmed.
Or maybe nothing is particularly “wrong”, you simply want to better understand yourself and strengthen the tools you already have.

Preventative care means you’re paying attention.

Therapy can be part of that kind of care, too.

08/31/2026

Tomorrow is the start of a new month. And no, you don't need to completely reinvent yourself.

You don't need a 27-step morning routine, a perfect mindset, or a list of 47 things you're going to “fix” about yourself (even though it would be nice if it were that simple).

But you could use the next 30 days to make a few small changes that your future self will be grateful for.

Try choosing ONE:

→ Go to bed 30 minutes earlier at least 4 nights a week.

→ Take a 10-minute walk without your phone and let your nervous system breathe.

→ Spend 5 minutes a day journaling—especially about what you're feeling instead of what you're supposed to be feeling.

→ Set one boundary you've been avoiding.

→ Have one honest conversation you've been putting off.

→ Practice saying “no” without over-explaining yourself.

→ Schedule the therapy appointment you've been thinking about for months.

→ Spend less time consuming content that makes you compare your life to someone else's.

→ Practice one coping skill until it becomes something you can actually reach for when you're overwhelmed.

→ Have one screen-free hour before bed a few nights a week.

→ Reconnect with someone you trust. Not because you need something from them—just because connection matters.

→ Notice your inner dialogue. When you catch yourself being cruel to yourself, practice responding the way you would to someone you love.

→ Do one thing each week that brings you joy simply because you enjoy it.

Thirty days may not solve everything. But thirty days of sleeping a little better, speaking to yourself differently, setting healthy boundaries, moving your body, asking for help, and paying attention to what you actually need? That could really change a lot.

08/24/2026

We've always used technology to make life easier. That's just part of human nature. But what happens when we start using it to try to make relationships easier?

The APA's recent research and reporting around AI and mental health points to something therapists are increasingly seeing: people aren't only asking AI to summarize information or write a grocery list. They're using it to process emotions, seek companionship, navigate relationships, and explore intimacy. Why is this happening? Well...

AI is available at 2 a.m.
It doesn't judge you.
It doesn't get defensive.
It doesn't say, “We've already talked about this.”
It doesn't leave the conversation because it needs something too.

For someone who feels lonely, misunderstood, socially anxious, or emotionally exhausted, that can feel incredibly comforting. But there's something important we shouldn't lose sight of:

Healthy relationships require reciprocity.

You don't just get to be understood, you have to understand someone else.

You don't just get validation, you have to tolerate disagreement.

You don't just get connection, you have to practice repair.

And you don't just get to be vulnerable, you have to risk being vulnerable with someone who has their own feelings, needs, boundaries, and imperfections.

AI can absolutely be a useful tool. But if it becomes the place where we process every emotion, resolve every conflict, and fulfill every relational need, we should probably pause and ask what we're giving up in exchange for convenience.

So…are we using AI to support our relationships, or slowly replacing the parts of relationships we find hardest?

08/19/2026

The Lindsay Clancy case is devastating. And it has brought postpartum mental health into a very public, and very difficult, conversation.
We want to be careful here: this post is not an attempt to diagnose Lindsay Clancy, determine her criminal responsibility, or speculate about an ongoing legal case. Her defense has argued that she experienced severe postpartum mental illness, including postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors dispute that characterization. Those questions belong in the courtroom.

What we can talk about is maternal mental health.

Because postpartum mental health conditions are common, serious, and still far too often misunderstood. ACOG estimates that about 1 in 5 people experience a mental health condition during pregnancy or the postpartum period, and many conditions remain underdiagnosed or undertreated.

And postpartum psychosis is different from the “baby blues” or even typical postpartum depression and anxiety. It is rare but extremely serious, occurring in approximately 1–3 out of every 1,000 births and potentially involving hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, disorganization, and a loss of insight. It is a psychiatric emergency.

Perhaps one of the most important things we can learn from difficult cases like this is that maternal mental health deserves attention before there is a crisis.

Ask the new mom how she's actually doing.
Don't assume that because she's functioning, smiling, breastfeeding, going to appointments, or caring for her baby that she's okay.

Don't dismiss frightening changes as “just hormones” or “just being tired.”

And don't wait for someone to perfectly articulate, “I need help.”

Sometimes the most loving thing we can say is:
“You don't have to pretend you're okay with me.”

08/14/2026

The words s*x and intimacy are often used interchangeably, but they aren’t the same thing, and that distinction matters.

S*x can be intimate. But intimacy doesn’t require s*x.

Intimacy is feeling known, safe, seen, understood, and emotionally connected to another person. It can look like:

• Telling your partner what you’re actually feeling
• Laughing together until you can’t breathe
• Holding hands in the car
• Feeling safe enough to say, “I need you”
• Sharing your fears, dreams, and insecurities
• Repairing after an argument
• Sitting together in comfortable silence
• Remembering the little things
• Cuddling without the expectation that it has to lead anywhere
• Being able to be completely yourself without performing

The Gottman Institute describes intimacy as a deep sense of knowing and being known, and emphasizes that emotional intimacy and s*xual connection are related, but distinct. In fact, their work highlights that emotional safety and connection can create a stronger foundation for physical intimacy.

So if your relationship is struggling s*xually, the question isn't always, “How do we have more s*x?”

Sometimes the better question is:

“How connected do we feel outside of s*x?”

Because you can have s*x without feeling deeply intimate, and you can experience profound intimacy without having s*x at all.