Frequently Asked Questions
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Therapy with Maddie is collaborative, compassionate, and deeply tailored to your unique needs and style. As a relational therapist, Maddie believes the heart of the work begins with the therapeutic relationship — you’ll truly get to know them, and they’ll get to know you.
Maddie brings a balance of warmth and directness to sessions, holding space for both care and challenge. They believe that growth is often messy and happens best when we allow all parts of ourselves to show up. In therapy with Maddie, tears, laughter, and even anger are welcome — every emotion has a place here.
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Therapy sessions are traditionally 50 minutes across the industry, but Maddie offers flexibility to better meet your needs. You can choose from standard 50-minute sessions, extended 80-minute sessions for deeper work or couples therapy, or intensive sessions ranging from 2 to 3 hours for clients who want to dive into focused, extended healing. Every session is tailored to your goals and preferences, creating space for the pace and depth of work that feels right for you.
Maddie typically recommends weekly therapy for the first 2–3 months to allow time for assessment and to establish a strong therapeutic foundation. After that period, you and Maddie will revisit your needs together. Sessions may continue weekly, shift to bi-weekly, or move to a PRN (“as needed”) status when ongoing therapy is no longer necessary.
As a social worker, Maddie believes it is unethical to prolong weekly or bi-weekly sessions when they are no longer needed or desired. The goal is always to support your growth, autonomy, and overall well-being — not to keep you in therapy longer than is helpful.
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Maddie feels comfortable working with a wide range of topics, but they are especially passionate about the areas below:
Childhood Trauma — Maddie has extensively researched, worked with, and taught other practitioners about the lasting impacts of growing up in emotionally explosive or unpredictable homes. They bring both deep knowledge and compassion to this work, helping clients understand and heal from early experiences.
Anger — Maddie loves working with anger and views it as a powerful messenger rather than something to be suppressed. Using an attachment-based approach and therapeutic modalities like Internal Family Systems (IFS) and sand tray therapy, they help clients explore the underlying needs and emotions their anger is expressing.
Gender and Sexual Identity Exploration — As a lesbian and genderqueer therapist, Maddie is deeply committed to supporting LGBTQ+ clients. They began their therapeutic career at Out Youth, a nonprofit serving LGBTQ+ teens and transgender adults, and they continue to provide affirming, knowledgeable care for clients exploring identity, sexuality, and self-expression.
Cultural and Ethnic Identity — As an Indigenous and Puerto Rican therapist, Maddie brings a personal understanding of how culture, heritage, and identity shape our lived experiences. They have a deep love of working with clients from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds and believe it can sometimes feel easier to connect with someone who shares similar identities.
Polyamory & Ethical Non-Monogamy — Maddie has extensive knowledge of and experience within the polyamorous and ENM communities. They provide an affirming, nonjudgmental space for clients navigating these relationship structures.
In addition to these passions, Maddie also has significant experience working with anxiety, mood disorders, and dissociation.
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Therapy can be a powerful support when you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, disconnected, or simply ready for something to shift. Beginning the search for a therapist can feel daunting, so Maddie is proud of you for taking this first step toward caring for yourself.
You don’t have to wait until things feel “really bad” to reach out. Therapy offers a compassionate space to explore your emotions, strengthen your relationships, and reconnect with yourself — both past and present — no matter where you are in your journey.
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For the privacy and protection of Maddie’s clients, the exact office location is not shared publicly. In-person sessions are held in the Hyde Park neighborhood in north/central Austin. To get a better sense of the space, you can visit the “Inside Tend Within” page for more details and photos.
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Maddie is excited to get to know you and support you on your journey. Once you request a free phone consultation, Maddie will reach out within 24 hours. If it feels like a good fit after your consultation, you can typically schedule your first session within a week and begin your work together.
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Session Rates
Individual Therapy
50 minutes — $170
80 minutes — $280*
Parent Coaching Sessions
50 minutes — $190
*For appointments involving minors with parents present (not family therapy), the rate is also $190.
Couples Therapy
50 minutes — $200
80 minutes — $300
Walk & Talk / Nature-Based Therapy
50 minutes — $190
80 minutes — $280
Assessment & Documentation Fees
For established clients, assessments are sometimes recommended to support diagnostic clarity. These may include:
Administering and scoring evidence-based assessment tools
A differential diagnosis interview
A comprehensive assessment summary, which you will have access to
The fee for these assessments is $180.
Fee Adjustments
Maddie reviews fees periodically to reflect changes in training, specialization, and inflation. Rates are evaluated once per year and will not increase more than once within any six-month period. The most recent fee adjustment was in October 2025.
Note: Sliding scale clients are not affected by these standard rate adjustments.
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For documentation such as letters of support for gender-affirming surgery, HRT access, ESA assessments/letters, or other supporting documents, there is a $100 documentation fee.
Maddie recognizes the unique obstacles that queer and trans folks often face when seeking gender-affirming care. To help reduce barriers, Maddie offers documentation services — including letters of support — and can typically provide these after a single session.
These services are available to support the community and will remain accessible even when Maddie is not accepting new therapy clients.
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At this time, Tend Within Counseling & Coaching is a private pay practice. However, many of our clients are still able to get partial reimbursement for therapy through their insurance. To make this process easier, we can provide you with a superbill to submit to your insurance company. We’ve also partnered with Mentaya, a platform that helps you quickly check your out-of-network benefits and can even submit claims on your behalf — saving you time and effort.
Because Maddie is a fully licensed clinician, some insurance companies are more willing to reimburse for out-of-network sessions. While we cannot guarantee coverage, we’ll do our best to support you in exploring your options.
We choose not to work directly with insurance because they often require a formal diagnosis and treatment plan, which can limit your privacy and flexibility in therapy. Trauma therapy, in particular, is often deep, long-term work, and insurance companies sometimes restrict coverage for ongoing care.
By remaining private pay, we can focus entirely on your needs rather than a diagnosis or insurance limitations. This allows us to create a safe, collaborative space where your healing process can unfold at its own pace.
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Your appointment time is reserved just for you. Maddie understands that life happens and schedules can change, and they do their best to be flexible while also maintaining a consistent schedule for all clients.
Late Cancellations: Any session canceled less than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment time is considered a late cancellation and will be charged the full session fee.
No-Shows: If you are 15 minutes or more late without notice, it will be considered a no-show and will also be charged the full session fee.
One-Time Courtesy: Maddie understands that unexpected situations come up. As a courtesy, she typically offers one free late-cancellation “pass” per client. Please note that this courtesy does not apply to no-shows.
If you believe your circumstances warrant an exception, Maddie encourages open communication and will review these situations on a case-by-case basis.
This policy helps ensure that your therapy time is honored and that other clients have access to available session times.
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As a social worker, Maddie holds an ethical responsibility to help make therapy as accessible as possible. Because of this, they offer a limited number of sliding scale spots for clients who need financial flexibility.
At this time, all sliding scale spots are currently full. However, if you’d like to be considered when one becomes available, you’re welcome to be added to the sliding scale waitlist.
Please reach out directly if you’d like more information or to request to be placed on the waitlist.