ESAD Pro Series

Honestly, that’s a very good question. Being “in the biz,” we’re aghast at the rampant fraud, deception, and ethical flexibly found online.

So, whether you do business with us or someone else, here are a few shopping tips to stay safe:

1. Make sure you can speak with them on the phone.
2. Do you know who owns the firm? Our founder, Chaz Stevens, is a very well known civil rights advocate.
3. Do they have a published ethics policy? What’s their ethos?
4. Do they have a physical location?
5. Do they have therapists located near to you?
6. What safeguards are in place to protect your financial information?
7. Do that have a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement in place to secure your protected health information?

Place order.

Order online 24 hours / 7 days a week. Ordering is simple and easy, and we accept all credit cards and Paypal. ESAD employs cutting-edge technology, protected by Symantec, ensuring your information is kept confidential and safe.

Take online exam.

We’re going to need to know a few things about you before connecting you with a licensed mental health professional. We’ll ask questions about your lifestyle and mental health history. Our exam is fully compliant with US law (HIPAA).

Speak with clinician.

Connected with a licensed mental health professionals to start your assessment. It’s just like going to the doctor, without the hassle of going to the doctor. Coast to coast, in Canada, and across the globe, we’re ready to go.

Typically, cases (orders) are completed in five business days, Monday-Friday, excluding weekends and holidays. For clients needing faster processing, we offer guaranteed day-definite electronic letter delivery.

With Klarna, you can shop now and pay later.

Spread your purchase into easy monthly payments with instant financing. Apply at checkout in four simple steps, and receive an instant approval decision.

Here’s how it works:

• At checkout, select Klarna (Slice it) as your payment option and continue
• Enter simple information and know instantly if your purchase has been accepted
• Receive a confirmation email outlining your purchase, due date(s), and other useful information
• Download their app to receive payment reminders

This is what your ESA letter needs to have:

• Mental health professional’s letterhead and signature, as well as date of issuance
• Mental health professional’s license type, date of license, license number, and the state that issued the license
• Confirmation that an emotional support animal is a vital part of your life
• Description of how the animal will help the condition (though they do not need to perform a task specifically for your condition)
• Your name and details about your pet (type, breed, name, etc.) is not required but may be included

Making an informed decision

In 2018, property owners, their lawyers, and the Federal Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD) are scrutinizing emotional support animal letters, ensuring their legitimacy; in particular, under close study is the client/therapist relationship.

ESA letters are under much closer review

When queried by property-owners — and querying is becoming a general rule of thumb — many emotional support animal letters are now denied due to the letter’s lack of reliability.

Pro-tip: letters are much more than just the list noted above.

Reliability, in this case, can be understood as “was the therapist in a position to know?” Was the therapist located nearby? How many sessions took place? What was the nature of the therapeutic relationship?

To be clear, our assessment letters, without any additional sessions, not constitute a relationship.

This holds true for every letter purchased online, or in person, that was based strictly on assessing one’s disability.

About those readily available cheap letters

Letters with zero client/therapist interaction? Instant letters? Letters written by an out-of-state provider? Once, perhaps able to fly under the radar; now they’re problematic.

Our business emerges from the simple idea of helping clients live happier, healthier lives. We believe if an emotional support animal is necessary to alleviate the functional limitations associated with an emotional disability, then a client may benefit from therapeutic counseling.

We refer to this as the “assessment + session” model, and our job is to make an introduction, orchestrate an assessment, and help “brew a therapeutic relationship.”

It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Unfortunately, mental health care is not cheap, and since any additional sessions aren’t covered under your original ESA housing assessment, additional fees will apply.

Don’t get scammed

If you answered yes to any of the items listed below, there’s a very good chance you were scammed, and your letter will be rejected.

• Led to believe that a “registration” was all that you need to fly and live with your pet
• Bought an expensive “registration kit”?
• Diagnosed with a disability from an out of state mental health professional
• Diagnosed without speaking to a mental health professional
• Diagnosis based on an online only questionnaire

Our therapists are licensed, but not all people who call themselves “online therapists” are licensed (same goes with in-office therapists). Exercise caution when seeking help from sites that offer “free online therapy.”

Here are some ways you can verify their authenticity:

• Upon request, we will provide your therapist’s license number.
• Psychology Today provides credibility for licensed therapists.
• You can ask your therapist to help you understand what their license means and how to verify it. Don’t worry, they won’t be offended. Therapists understand the need to protect yourself as a consumer.

Does online therapy work?

In-office therapy works better for some people, but online therapy is an equally viable treatment and works for the vast majority of clients.

Here are two studies you may find interesting:

• Linda Godleski, M.D.; Adam Darkins, M.D., M.P.H.; John Peters, M.S. (2014) Outcomes of 98,609 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Patients Enrolled in Telemental Health Services, 2006–2010
• Andersson, G., & Cuijpers, P. (2009). Internet-based and other computerized psychological treatments for adult depression: A meta-analysis. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 38(4), 196-205.

Sadly, if you shop online for an emotional support animal letter, there’s a really good chance you’re going to get scammed, spending money on worthless documentation that won’t hold up in any court of law, let alone at the airport or with your housing provider.

And to make it worse, many states now make it a crime (aka using your bogus paperwork) to misrepresent an emotional support animal:

• Fines up to $1,000
• Jail time
• Community service hours
• Revoke your right to own an assistance animal

We’ve shopped around and honestly would not buy an ESA letter from an online vendor. So, as you review our price list, please keep in mind:

1. Our service focuses on the mental health assessment and therapeutic care of an individual, not “certifying a dog.” An ESA letter is based on one’s mental health care needs, not registering a dog.
2. To combat the rising systemic tide of fraudulent online vendors, Federal and state ESA laws are dramatically tightening, making it more time-consuming and costlier for a consumer to acquire emotional support animal letters of recommendation.
3. If you think you can spend $22 on “quality mental health care,” like those dirt cheap letters you can easily find online, we wish you the best of luck. Once you submit a bogus dirt-cheap letter readily found online, and that accommodation request is (rightly) denied, you just raised one heck of a big red flag — and one tough obstacle to overcome.

One way or the other.

You’re not buying a letter from us, you’re engaging with a licensed clinician who will clinically assess/treat your emotional support needs. And if that professional believes you’d benefit from having an assistance animal to help reduce the effects/symptoms of your disability, then the clinician would be able to issue the proper documents.

We’re not cheap, we understand — however, it takes zero talent to be the cheapest product on the market. We have 1,100+ ESAD clinicians across the globe, we’re fully HIPAA-compliant, our highly-trained experts are available live to answer your questions, so, in the end, you will truly get what you pay for; one way or the other.

Whether we issue to you an ESA letter, a completed form, or both .. doesn’t change our process to assess your needs for the assistance animal.

We do it right.

We have rock-solid ethics, a great ethos, and amazing reviews.

In health.

In a word, no.

There are three general categories of animals who may be considered as “assistance animals.”

1. Therapy animals: These animals are usually evaluated and registered by an agency and provide emotional support to individuals who need them. They are often used in hospitals, nursing homes and in school reading programs such as Reading Educational Assistance Dogs.

2. Service animals: These animals have been specially trained to perform tasks their owner can’t do on his or her own. Guide dogs for the blind are perhaps the most well known in this category. Service animals are not required by law to wear vests or have any form of identification.

3.Emotional support animals: These animals are not always explicitly trained, but serve as a comfort to individuals with a documented mental health condition. There is no restriction for the breed of emotional support animals because all domesticated animals can serve as ESAs.

An ESA is not like a Service Animal. SAs have access into the public space. An ESA only penetrates no-pets-allowed housing and on airline flights. A Service Animal performs a task, is often highly trained and penetrates the public space.

Eighteen states, including Virginia, Colorado and California, have laws that criminalize fraudulent representation of a service animal. These violations are usually misdemeanors, but repeated violations can result in jail time. West Virginia is not one of the 18 states, however, businesses could pursue a trespassing charge if a second incident occurs.

You can ask us to provide evidence that we’re fully HIPAA compliant. This is relevant even if a site does not require health insurance.