FAQ
Common Questions
A few things couples often want to know before reaching out. If yours isn’t here, just ask — I’m happy to talk it through on a free consultation.
I’m Rich Chen, a bilingual (English/Mandarin) Licensed Mental Health Counselor. I work with Asian and interracial couples across New York, entirely online.
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Yes — this is a big part of who I work with. Interracial couples often carry an extra layer that doesn’t always get talked about: two different sets of family expectations, different assumptions about how love and respect get shown, and sometimes different ideas about what a relationship is even supposed to look like. I help couples make sense of those differences together, rather than treating one partner’s world as the default.
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Yes, I work in both English and Mandarin. When you can speak in the language you feel most yourself in, the things that are hard to put into words become a little easier to reach — and nothing important gets lost in translation. This tends to matter most when partners have different first languages, or when one of you simply feels more at home in Mandarin.
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Yes — this comes up often in my work, and I treat it as central, not a side issue. The pull between honoring your family and protecting your own relationship, navigating in-laws, and balancing what’s expected of you with what the two of you actually want — these are real pressures, and they deserve real space in the room. Being bilingual and having grown up between cultures myself, I understand this terrain firsthand.
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Very much so — high-achieving, dual-income couples are much of my practice. When you’re both giving so much to demanding careers, it’s easy for home to quietly become another place of stress instead of the place you recover. To make that easier, I hold early-morning and late-evening hours, so we can meet around your work and your kids rather than on top of them.
Fees & insurance
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I don’t bill insurance directly — I’m an out-of-network provider. What that means in practice is that you pay for sessions directly, and each month I give you an itemized “superbill” you can submit to your insurance company. Depending on your plan’s out-of-network benefits, they may reimburse part of the cost. It’s worth a quick call to your insurer to ask what your plan covers for out-of-network outpatient mental health.
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For a lot of couples, it comes down to privacy and focus. Paying directly means your care isn’t shaped by insurance requirements, session limits, or a diagnosis on file — our work stays driven entirely by your goals. Many people find that trade-off well worth it. And a limited number of sliding-scale spots are available if cost is a genuine barrier.
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Couples sessions are $220 for 60 minutes, and individual sessions are $180 for 50 minutes. I provide a monthly superbill for out-of-network reimbursement, and I keep a few sliding-scale spots open for those facing real financial hardship.
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In my experience, yes — and the research on virtual therapy generally backs that up, finding it comparable to meeting in person. Many couples actually find it easier: no commute, no scheduling scramble, and you’re doing the work from home, where a lot of the real moments between you actually happen. My whole practice is online, across New York.
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I hold sessions early in the morning and late in the evening (7–11am and 7–11pm EST) — deliberately, because the couples I work with tend to have full days and, often, young kids. The goal is for therapy to fit into your life without becoming one more thing to juggle.
What brings couples in
Still wondering if we’d be a good fit? That’s exactly what a first conversation is for. Reach out for a free 30-minute consultation — online, in English or Mandarin.
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Yes — and you’re describing something a lot of couples reach at some point: the slow drift from partners to co-managers of a household. I work with Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which is built for exactly this. Rather than just fine-tuning your scheduling or communication, we get underneath the distance to the feelings that have gone quiet, and help you find your way back to being each other’s person. It’s some of the most rewarding work I do.
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That push-and-retreat pattern is one of the most common — and most painful — cycles couples get stuck in. One of you reaches harder to connect; the other pulls back to cope; and each move quietly makes the other worse. A lot of my work is helping couples slow that cycle down enough to see it clearly, and to hear what’s actually underneath the raised voice and the silence. Once you can both see the pattern instead of blaming each other for it, everything softens.
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It is — and it’s some of the most important work couples do together. Rebuilding after infidelity isn’t about rushing past the hurt or pretending it didn’t happen; it’s about making room for the pain, understanding honestly how you got here, and slowly rebuilding safety between you. I help couples move through that carefully, at a pace that doesn’t reopen the wound, using an approach designed to restore real emotional connection.