---
title: "About Alafiora: The Practice, the Psychologist, the Fees, and How Care Actually Begins"
description: "Everything about how Alafiora runs, in one place: what the practice is and what the name means, who the psychologist is, what sessions cost and how payment works, the policies that govern care, where sessions are held, and what happens between a first read of this site and a first session."
url: https://www.alafiora.com/about-this-practice
practice: Alafiora LLC
author: Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, licensed psychologist
license: https://www.alafiora.com/website-terms-of-use
copyright: © Alafiora 2026
note: >-
  Educational content, not treatment. Reading it establishes no clinical
  relationship. Every personal account on this page is fiction, written by
  Dr. Lapite-Garrett from her own clinical knowledge and expertise; she uses AI
  as a drafting tool and approves every word. No client information of any kind
  was used to make them.
---

# About This Practice

**Alafiora · The Practice · Solo · Private Pay**

### An overview of how this practice actually runs, and where each part of it is set out in full.

[Begin with a First Session](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=OPJJzQ94) · [Begin with a Consultation](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=68bi61zK)
Choosing a psychologist means deciding several things at once, and most practice websites answer only one of them. What the work is like is a different question from what it costs, which is a different question again from what happens if a session has to be cancelled, or whether a psychologist can come to a house rather than a room in a building.

Alafiora treats love obsession and love addiction, compulsive sexual behavior and sex addiction, and sexual trauma, as one interconnected system rather than three separate specialties. All of those answers exist here and none of them is buried. Reading the one that is actually the deciding factor is faster than reading a single page that tries to be all of them at once, which is why they are separate pages rather than one long account.

---

## Eleven Pages, Four Groups | How This Section Is Organized

The pages below are grouped by the question they answer rather than by importance, because which one matters most depends entirely on who is reading. Someone who needs to see the fee schedule before anything else and someone weighing whether their story will be understood are both in the right place, on different pages.

Nothing here requires reading in order, and nothing on this list requires a decision.

**What this practice is, and who holds it.**
The account of the practice itself, the psychologist behind it, and the people who actually arrive here.
- /the-practice
- /meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther
- /clients-served-here

**What it costs, and how paying works.**
Every figure in full, including the federal cost-estimate notice, superbills, and the ways to pay that are not a credit card.
- /rates-and-fees
- /payment-options
- /good-faith-estimate-gfe
- /concierge-psychology

**How care runs, and where.**
The terms a client is actually agreeing to, and the geography of where sessions can be held.
- /practice-policies
- /where-alafiora-practices

**What to read before deciding.**
The two pages written for someone who has not decided yet, and is not being asked to.
- /getting-started
- /faq

---

## A Solo Practice, and What That Changes | Why Every Page Here Describes the Same Person

There is one clinician at Alafiora. [Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett](https://www.alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther) is a licensed psychologist and the founder of the practice, and there are no associates, no rotating providers, and no case handoffs. The person who reads a client's history in a first session is the person still holding it two years later.

That is why these pages can be this specific. A practice with a clinical team has to describe an average of what its clinicians do; this one describes what one person actually does, which is also why the fee schedule, the policies, and the availability on these pages are the real ones rather than a range. Alafiora is private pay and bills no insurance, so no diagnosis reaches a third party unless a client authorizes it directly.

Licensure in additional states is underway. What that means today is set out on [Where Alafiora Practices](https://www.alafiora.com/where-alafiora-practices), which names only the states where care is actually available now.

[BEGIN WITH A FIRST SESSION]

---