Dr. Lusk sees Hawaii children, adults, couples, and families by secure video under her Hawaii state psychology license.
Currently accepting new clients
Request a Hawaii appointmentHawaii does not take part in PSYPACT®. Dr. Della S. Lusk is licensed in Hawaii, and clients in the islands are seen under that state license rather than through an interstate agreement. Beyond that difference the work is what it would be anywhere: ordinary people bringing difficulties that have outgrown their own management, from a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to a family in Hilo for whom specialty care has always meant a journey.
Island geography makes traveling to an appointment a real obstacle even where the distance looks modest on a map. A virtual hour can be kept from Honolulu, Kailua, Kīhei, or somewhere a good deal quieter, so long as you are physically in Hawaii when it begins. Continuity then depends on your telling us before you leave the islands, because a Hawaii license does not travel to the mainland with you.
These are the concerns Hawaii clients bring most often. Each is met with a personalized treatment plan, and the suitability of any testing is judged case by case.
Persistent worry and the quiet avoidance of ordinary situations are treated with graded practice, designed with you and rehearsed in the hour. The bodily side, tension and shallow sleep, gets the same attention as the thinking.
Low mood narrows a life by degrees rather than all at once. Treatment attends to sleep and activity first, then to the habits of thought that hold a mood in place, without hurrying anyone past what the year has cost.
Moving between languages, cultures, and family expectations is a clinical matter in its own right and not a footnote to one. Sessions may be held in English or in Spanish, and the pace is yours to set.
Partners attend together by video, which suits a household split across shifts or across islands. The work is on the argument that keeps recurring, and on the request each partner is making underneath it.
Bereavement, and the strain of caring for someone through a last illness, both bring people here. Sorrow needs room, and so do the practical decisions that crowd in beside it and often push it aside.
Dr. Lusk carries out psychological evaluations for diagnostic clarity, for learning needs, and for related referral questions. What can sensibly be administered by video is determined in consultation, never assumed at the outset.
Care here is client-centered and unhurried. The early sessions map out your history, household dynamics, and goals so the resulting plan is built with you, not around you. For Hawaii clients, we give particular thought to the logistics of care. We understand families may be spread across more than one island, and that seeing a specialist in person can sometimes mean a flight. These realities inform how we work with remote professionals, college students, and parents alike. Our primary method is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), applied with a steady focus on cultural awareness from the very first hour. Because meaningful change takes time and steady effort, we do not offer a quick fix. Instead, we collaborate on sustainable coping strategies that hold their value long after the weekly meetings conclude.
Hawaii clients work with Della S. Lusk, Ph.D., our Clinical Director, who is licensed in Hawaii and works with clients at every age the practice treats, as well as with couples and families.
Clinical Director · Bilingual Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Lusk is licensed to practice psychology in Hawaii by the Hawaii Board of Psychology, license no. PSY-2093, and practices under NPI 1295925386. Care here rests on that state license rather than on an interstate agreement. Appointments are by secure video.
Dr. Lusk sees Hawaii clients under her Hawaii state psychology license. She is a bilingual Licensed Clinical Psychologist of more than twenty-five years' experience, holds an A.B. from Smith College, and completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology–San Diego, an APA-accredited program. Individual, couples, family, and group therapy are all available, along with psychological evaluations, in English or Spanish.
Request an appointmentFull biographies, training, and areas of expertise are listed on our providers page. You can also read Dr. Lusk’s licensure and credentials in full. You are welcome to ask any clinician directly about their qualifications and experience.
Hawaii does not participate in PSYPACT®, and no compact privilege is involved in this work. Appointments rest instead on Dr. Lusk's Hawaii state psychology license, which authorizes her to treat people located in Hawaii. That is a different legal basis from the one covering her work in participating states, and its boundary is a narrower one. Where psychology participation stands elsewhere can be checked at psypact.gov.
The practical consequence is that you must be physically in Hawaii at the time of each appointment. If you travel to the mainland, or a student goes back to a family home in another state, tell the office before the next session. A Hawaii license does not authorize care in those places. Depending on where you are going, we may be able to continue under a different authorization, or we may need to pause until you are home.
Participating jurisdictions are published by the compact commissions and can change. You can review current psychology participation at psypact.gov, find the relevant psychology licensing board through the PSYPACT® board directory, or check counseling privileges at CompactConnect. If you are not sure which applies to you, call (844) 774-7997 and we will confirm before you schedule.
We work with students and employees of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Pacific University, Chaminade University of Honolulu, and Brigham Young University–Hawaiʻi. A weekly hour survives a commute that would otherwise have ended it, and it keeps the work clear of the campus itself.
Clients join us from Honolulu, Hilo, Kailua, Kāneʻohe, Waipahu, Pearl City, and Kīhei, and from other places across the islands where a private room and a steady connection are all that an appointment requires.
It is, where that psychologist also holds a Hawaii license, as Dr. Lusk does. Hawaii is not a PSYPACT® jurisdiction, so the compact plays no part here at all. Her Hawaii license is what authorizes the care, and it applies to appointments you attend while you are physically in the islands.
Individuals at any age this practice treats, along with couples and families. People come with anxiety, low mood, grief, relationship strain, acculturation, and the ordinary difficulty of a transition that has stopped yielding to ordinary effort. Where a concern is outside our scope, we will say so straight away and try to name a better starting point.
Tell us before you go. The Hawaii license covers appointments held while you are in Hawaii and nowhere else. Depending on where you are traveling, there may be another authorization under which the work can continue; if there is not, we pause and pick the hour up when you return, which is better than proceeding on a session nobody can authorize.
Dr. Lusk provides psychological evaluations. The instruments chosen depend on the question being asked, and so does the extent to which any of it suits a remote format; both are worked out in consultation before anything is scheduled. Ask the office and staff will walk you through the stages one at a time.
Listening, mostly, and history. Dr. Lusk will want to know what has brought you now, what has already been tried, who else is in the household, and what a better month would look like. Consent and privacy are covered in the same hour, and you should leave it with a working idea of what treatment would involve.
We accept all major credit and debit cards, and we gladly accept HSA, FSA, and HRA cards so you can use pre-tax dollars toward your care. Our practice generally operates out-of-network. This allows us to protect your privacy, keep care highly personalized, and avoid insurance-mandated session limits.
Our rates are sent in a fee agreement when you schedule an appointment. Please check with your insurance company regarding your out-of-network benefits. As a courtesy, we will submit claims on your behalf upon request, and any reimbursement will be sent directly to the insured. Call (844) 774-7997 or email info@psychotherapy.com if you have questions.
Our services are by appointment only, during normal business hours. Evening, weekend, and early morning appointments are sometimes available for established clients.
Telephone (844) 774-7997 or write to info@psychotherapy.com. Our office will check that you will be in the islands for your appointments, answer whatever you want to ask about the fee, and arrange a first hour with Dr. Lusk.
We do not offer crisis, walk-in, or inpatient services of any type, and this page is not a substitute for emergency care.
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This page provides general information about telehealth psychotherapy and psychological services. It is not medical or psychological advice, does not create a clinician–client relationship, and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Whether a particular service is appropriate for you is determined with a clinician during a confidential consultation. Telehealth authorization depends on your physical location at the time of each appointment; participating jurisdictions are published at psypact.gov and, for counseling, at CompactConnect. Arizona Behavioral Health Associates, P.C., 710 N Beaver Street, BLDG 4, Flagstaff, AZ 86001-3139 · (844) 774-7997
