I'm a Board Certified Psychiatrist with more than 18 years of experience caring for patients in a variety of settings, including outpatient clinics, hospitals, emergency rooms, and intensive outpatient programs. I've also spent several years leading a psychiatric department.
Through all of these different roles and experiences, I have always kept in focus the importance of the individual relationship that is central to effective care.
I take a patient centered approach. I believe good psychiatric care begins with understanding what is going on and what matters to you. An accurate diagnosis can sometimes be challenging to come to, but is essential to understand symptoms and guide accurate treatment. At the same time, a diagnosis is only part of the picture. Your experiences, relationships, physical health, sleep, stressors, psychological patterns, values, and circumstances can all influence how you feel. I consider all of this in in my evaluations.
Sometimes treatment is relatively straightforward, and our focus is on relieving symptoms and maintaining good functioning. At other times, symptoms persist despite reasonable treatment and we need to keep investigating what may be contributing while trying different treatment options.
Medication can be enormously helpful when prescribed responsibly and monitored appropriately. At the same time, medications alone are not always enough. As part of my comprehensive approach, I bring a therapeutic lens to psychiatric care by remaining curious about psychological patterns, internal conflicts, defenses, and other stuck points that may be contributing to suffering.
When appropriate, I integrate psychotherapy into our sessions to help patients better understand and navigate these issues. When more in-depth psychotherapy would be helpful, I can assist in identifying an appropriate therapist and collaborate with them as part of your overall treatment.
I don't begin treatment with a predetermined medication agenda. I view treatment as collaborative, taking seriously your experiences, preferences, values, and goals, while bringing in my clinical experience, medical knowledge, and judgment about what is likely to be helpful and safe.
Even when improvement takes time, I try for you to leave our sessions with more clarity about what might be happening and a thoughtful plan for what to do next. As treatment continues, I track symptoms and pay attention to whether what we're doing is actually helping. . Sometimes that means giving a treatment enough time to work. Other times we may adjust medication, reconsider the plan, or look more closely at other factors that may be getting in the way.
If progress remains limited despite appropriate treatment, I'm also comfortable discussing other approaches, including collaboration with other clinicians, specialized psychotherapy, or additional treatment modalities.
My goal is not to make treatment more complicated than necessary. It is to provide the level of thought and attention your particular situation requires.
If this approach sounds like a good fit, please feel free to reach out for a brief conversation.
