About The X-Studio: A Mental Health Cooperative
Xiomara A. Sosa, Founder and Executive Director
The X-Studio: A Mental Health Cooperative is a nonprofit that provides an alternative business practice model for graduate students and postgraduate students seeking practicum/internship experience and clinical supervision experience while providing reduced-cost mental health services to community members in need.
In partnership with Mental Health Counselor Interns (MHCI) and Licensed Professional Counselor-Associates (LPCA) and other provisionally licensed clinicians, we provide clients with access to free or affordable mental health care.
A Mental Health Counselor Intern is a counselor and therapist in training completing their practicum or clinical internship under the watchful eye of a supervisor and with the guidance of their professors. Student interns must complete their internship to receive their postgraduate degree, and can offer reduced-cost sessions for all modalities. Please note that student interns will consult with their supervisors and potentially their professors about clients in a confidential manner.
A Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (LPCA) is a provisionally licensed counselor/therapist who has completed a master's degree in counseling, passed necessary national examinations, and is working towards full licensure by accumulating supervised clinical counseling hours. LPC-A’s can offer reduced-cost sessions for all modalities.
Our clients cannot afford market rates for counseling and therapy, are uninsured or under-insured, or have a low annual household income.
Underinsured people are people who have health insurance that does not include affordable in-network mental health benefits. They have a high deductible and/or a copay higher than $30 per session for individual therapy (or higher than $80 per session for couples or family therapy).
We do not accept insurance because our main objective is to bypass the insurance industry. The X-Studio’s purpose is for clients who are either uninsured or under-insured.
While some clients can use their HSA or FSA money to pay, the X-Studio providers will not submit to an insurance company on your behalf or provide you with a superbill.
At this time, we are not accepting Medicaid or Medicare.
Client Membership
Each client joins The X-Studio as a member. Their lifetime membership enables them to access affordable mental health services such as counseling, therapy, and more.
An X-Studio Lifetime Membership enables clients to see a mental health provider in our network at a reduced cost per session, as long as they are still in need of low-fee mental health services.
There are no recurring fees from The X-Studio. We only charge the one-time $65 membership fee, which we use to support our nonprofit cooperative for graduate students and provisionally licensed mental health providers.
Once a client has submitted their membership application, they will submit their one-time $65 membership fee to The X-Studio via debit, credit, check, etc., upon receipt of our invoice. Then we’ll contact the client to schedule their intake session.
You can take breaks from counseling/therapy, and you won’t have to pay the membership fee again.
The X-Studio is a nonprofit organization. We use the funds we receive from their one-time membership fee to sustain our operational costs, maintain our website, pursue potential grants and other avenues of funding, and support the next generation of mental health professionals.
Clinical Mental Health Counselors in private practice can charge upward of $150 per session. The X-Studio is a network of mental health providers working toward their professional careers who want to offer free or lower rates to those in need while doing so.
We’ll never ask for a client’s financial records because we trust that if they are seeking our services, it’s because they can afford to pay our rates and they can’t afford to pay more.
Please note that if their financial situation changes for the better, or they obtain health insurance that covers counseling/therapy, they may no longer qualify for The X-Studio’s rate.
If they would like to work with a couples counselor/therapist, they and their partner just need to pay for one X-Studio membership. Similarly, if they would like to work with a family counselor/therapist, they just need to pay for one X-Studio membership on behalf of the family.
The X-Studio relies on the membership fee to help us facilitate as much reduced-cost counseling/therapy in our community as possible. While we won’t refund a membership fee if a counselor/therapist is not the right match, clients are welcome to see any other counselor/therapist in our network without paying an additional fee.
Their X-Studio membership will be theirs for a lifetime, regardless of which provider they see.
If, for some reason, they are unable to set up an appointment with their new counselor or therapist, we will refund their membership fee as long as they request it within 10 business days of submitting the payment.
The X-Studio is a non-profit mental health cooperative (co-op) that provides an alternative business practice model for graduate and doctoral students, and to postgraduate students who are provisionally licensed and are seeking practicum internship experience or clinical supervision experience while providing no-cost and reduced-cost mental health services to the community.
Our mission is to provide an alternative to the long-standing business service model available in the mental health profession to new clinicians by introducing a co-op model different from the solo and group practice model and providing no-cost and reduced-cost mental health services to the community.
Our vision is a more democratic, streamlined, supportive, non-toxic, professional path toward independent mental health practice for Mental Health Counselors - Interns (MHC-I) and Licensed Professional Counselor-Associates (LPC-A) while serving the community.
In partnership with MHC-Is and LPC-As, we provide community members in need with free and affordable mental health care. We work together to achieve common goals.
Our network of graduate and doctoral students and of post-graduate students who are provisionally licensed is dedicated to providing no-cost and reduced-cost in-office and telehealth mental health care to community members. They serve individuals, couples, families, adolescents, children, and young adults who are unable to afford mental health services due to financial challenges, low or lack of income, high insurance deductibles or co-payments, or because they are under-insured or uninsured.
Our co-op is made up of the next generation of mental health professionals who gain knowledge, certification, and licensing through higher education, training, and experience. Each member specializes in a unique niche, population, community, issue, or mental health condition.
We work towards a more democratic, streamlined, supportive, non-toxic, professional path toward independent mental health practice for MHC-Is and LPC-As.
We are not a group practice or multiple brands operating under a parent company or group. We are a cooperative (co-op).
We help guide the next generations of practitioners in alternative options so that they can pursue their path toward becoming independent mental health clinicians in a sustainable way that minimizes burnout without solo practice isolation or group practice politics.
We are doing so by providing an alternative to the long-standing business service models available in the mental health profession and introducing this mental health cooperative model.
The mental health cooperative model is a business model where it is owned by member-owners. We are democratically controlled by our member-owners, and unlike the traditional group practice model, each member has a voice in how the business is run, and each member can interact and practice as an independent and autonomous practitioner with the benefits that come along with membership in the co-op.
The Cooperative Principles
Voluntary and open membership
Democratic member control
Member's economic participation
Autonomy and independence
Education, training, and information
Cooperation and collaboration among co-op members
Concern for and service to the community
Financial sustainability as practitioners