The Long Island Institute of Sex Therapy (LIIST)

“UPDATE - Rosara has personally reached out to me and the issues described below have been resolved. I look forward to working with her more as my therapist in the future. I have had two sessions with Rosara, and she's been helpful so far. Rosara told us after our first session that we will be receiving the receipts so we can run them through our insurance companies. I have not received the receipts so I followed up by calling her office twice. Every time I was told by the lady who answered the phone that they would be sent to my email address, but it has been a week, and I still have not received them. This is getting increasingly frustrating as I just don't understand why a simple matter like this can take so long. They should hire more/more capable staff to handle these issues, in my opinion.”

“I have been Rosara's patient for four years now. She is a truly amazing therapist. I am a transgender, polyamorous, kinky, queer woman, who's life is filled with numerous complexities to work through. She has helped me grow *so* much as a person through the therapy I've undertaken with her. I had seen therapists before, both as a child and then again as an adult. None of them had close to the amount of empathy, insight, or ability to gently but effectively guide me as Rosara has shown. For what it is worth, I am one of her sliding scale clients. I cannot speak to how she normally handles rates and insurance and so-on, but I can say that as an economically struggling minority of limited means, her willingness to work with me foregoing significant financial transactions has been *incredibly* appreciated ”

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with Dr. Torrisi through the sexuality classes she leads for adolescents, and I can’t imagine a person more well-suited to the work of sex therapy and education. Dr. Torrisi brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her practice, but more importantly, she is a kind, empathetic presence for people working through challenging situations. Dr. Torrisi provides a safe, welcoming, inclusive space for people from a wide variety of ages and experiences. I highly recommend her practice.”

“I am a NYS licenced psychologist who had a private practice for 17 years. My husband and I saw Rasara Torrisi, PhD once in 2017. Although she appears to be well educated and from what little time she spent talking with us about our issues, I was very unhappy with her overall services. First, although her bio in the Psychology Today registry says she has a sliding scale, she does not. She charges what I believe to be an exorbitant fee of $250, justifying it by saying she is a specialist. I specialized in treating OCD in children, having taken extensive training in the area but wouldn't dream of charging anything over $120 and I took many of the big insurances. I also reduced my rates according to patient's situations and saw a number of patients for free. She takes only one, insurance, one that is not among the top or most common carriers. We saw her for 60 minutes. However, the first 15 were spent filling out paperwork. Thus we paid her $62.50 to write while she sat in her chair and ignored us. I find this unconscionable. I typically left the paperwork in the waiting room with a first name or initials on a sticky and asked patients to come 15 minutes early so we wouldn't waste treatment time. Other options I used were mailing the papers or leaving them in an envelope in the waiting room to pickup before the session. I was also dismayed to discover Dr. Torrisi failed to hand out and obtain our signature detailing HIPAA rules and regulations, a clear infraction of the law. What I will say is Dr. Torrisi is good at marketing. She has twice been voted "Best Sex Therapist on LI." However, one should be aware that the voters can be anyone: friends, family, colleagues, students and so on. Winning this title does not mean that patients think she's the best. On the plus side, her curriculum vitae suggests she has been involved in some important research and is prolific in this area and that of speaking at conferences. Post Script: In response to Dr. Torrisi's response to my initial review. At no time was I informed paperwork was available on the internet. In addition, during the session, we spent several minutes discussing her fee and she was absolutely unyielding to any efforts on my part to negotiate a reduced fee. At the very end of the session, I stated I was quite angry with her inflexibility regarding what I considered an outrageously high rate. As we were walking out the door, she did say something to the effect of "what would you be willing to pay?" In terms of a "sliding scale," this term generally means a scale of fees, taxes, wages, etc., that varies in accordance with variation of some standard. Although the three therapists who comprise the "Long Island Institute of Sexual therapy" do have varying fee's, Dr. Torrisi, as a practitioner in this group does not. She will refer you to one of the other two therapists who have lower fees, although I was not clear of the basis of their fee variation. She and I have very different ideas about the fiduciary end of treating people struggling with emotional pain. Finally, I think Dr/ Torrisi does not understand the meaning of the expression "pro bono." It means undertaking work without charge. Treating a patient for "free" while requesting they volunteer for an hour of their time is not treating for free but rather using a bartering system. This would be unethical for a psychologist because it creates a dual relationship between the patient and the psychologist. A psychologist could lose his or her license for such behavior. Dr. Torrisi might want to check with the licensing board for social workers to determine if this practice is, in fact, appropriate within the bounds of her license.”