Personalized, evidence-based care.

Treatment Approach

My aim is to comprehend current and past vulnerabilities and problems in order to facilitate growth. I assess all the factors contributing to you seeking treatment while validating and de-stigmatizing your experiences. In this way, we begin to visualize impediments to growth and integrate new skills to overcome them together. 

I take the time necessary to ensure a mutual understanding about how to move forward and beyond the problems with which you are faced. Our work is interactive and collaborative, and it may involve medications, talk therapy, or both. As a physician, I also assess the interplay of any medical conditions impacting one’s mental health, and I emphasize healthy habits of living such as exercise, nutrition and sleep.

Progress demands sincerity, patience and trust. I have the courage to say what needs to be said in order to foster positive change, and I would rather be respectfully honest than appease.

 

Specialties

  • Anxiety - Including Generalized Anxiety, Panic, Social Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and overwhelming work/life stress and expectations.

  • Depression - Working through a sense of hopelessness or low motivation, sleep disturbance, irritability, and/or inability to enjoy oneself.

  • Grief, Loss and Trauma - Transcending trauma (PTSD and Complex PTSD) and examining the experience of being changed by loss.

  • Relationship Issues - Exploring patterns of interaction and strengthening satisfaction in relationships.

  • Combination medication management and talk therapy - Utilizing evidence-based psychotherapy--and when appropriate--medications for a variety of psychiatric conditions.

  • Teen, College & graduate student mental health - School and career stressors, support around healthy relationships, existential concerns, coping with illness.

  • General expertise in: ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, personality disorders, neurocognitive disorders, complex medical and psychiatry conditions.

Appointment Types

 

Initial Diagnostic Psychiatric Evaluation

 

Comprehensive diagnostic psychiatric evaluation which includes an 80 minute assessment of current and prior symptoms, as well as a thorough review of your medical/psychiatric history, family, developmental and interpersonal history. Following the initial psychiatric evaluation, I will share my impressions, we will review tentative diagnoses and treatment options together. If we decide to continue our work after the first appointment, we will then set up a follow-up appointment.

 

Individual Therapy

 

I offer evidence-based psychotherapies for patients. I have been trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and supportive therapy. Therapy appointments are anywhere from 25-50 minute sessions and may be in tandem with medication management. I do not subscribe to one ideological school of therapy, but instead base therapy on the presenting needs of the patient.

 

Medication Management

 

Following an initial psychiatric evaluation, I can prescribe, adjust, and monitor the risk, benefit, and side-effect profiles of psychiatric medications by regular follow-up appointments, together with talk therapy. Follow-up appointments can be scheduled in 25 minute time slots for adolescents and adults. We meet within a frequency that works for you.

 

Family / Couples Therapy

 

A structured approach to assess and treat families (and couples) of any constellation across multiple dimensions of relational functioning. We examine the overall health of the relationship, pinpoint distress, and modify specific dimensions to improve functioning.

 

Second Opinion Evaluation

 

I am available upon request to review the overall utility and appropriateness of your current medications. These consultations are typically performed in close collaboration with a referring clinician.

Insurance

I am an out-of-network psychiatrist for all insurance plans. Payment is due at the time of service. Please contact me to discuss the fee schedule. If your insurance includes out-of-network benefits, it may reimburse a portion of the fees.  If you choose to request out-of-network reimbursement, I recommend calling your insurer and asking the following:

  • What are my out-of-network mental health benefits?

  • Do I need a pre-authorization, and if so how do I get it?

  • How many mental health visits a year am I approved for?

  • Do I have a deductible, and if so how much?

Use the commonly used codes below when discussing out-of-network benefits with your insurance company:

  • Initial Evaluation: 90792 (80 minutes)

  • Medication management appointment with psychotherapy (25 min): 99213 or 99214 (depending on complexity) + 90833

  • Medication management appointment with psychotherapy (50 min): 99213 or 99214 (depending on complexity) + 90836