How I think about treatment

As a physician, I start from the understanding that mind and body are connected. Many psychiatric symptoms have medical contributors, and many medical illnesses show up looking like psychiatric ones. So my evaluations are thorough: I take a full history, and when it’s warranted I order labs, consider brain imaging, or do a neurological exam to make sure we aren’t missing something treatable.

I work collaboratively. That means I ask for your feedback on what’s helping and what isn’t, and we adjust. For children and teens, I pay close attention to early development and family context, because those shape how a person responds to stress today. I practice evidence-based medicine, and I’ll walk you through what the research actually says, where it applies, and where it doesn’t. I don’t prescribe when the risks outweigh the benefits.

What I evaluate and treat

Visit types

Comprehensive diagnostic evaluation · 90 minutes

Our first meeting. We go through your current symptoms, medical and psychiatric history, past treatments, family and social background, and what’s happening in your life now. For children and teens, parents come to this appointment. I may need a second visit to finish the evaluation if there are records to review, labs to check, or other providers to speak with. At the end, I give you my diagnoses and recommendations, which can include therapy, medications, and practical behavioral steps. There’s no obligation to continue; we decide together whether working together makes sense.

Follow-up visit · 25 minutes

Regular check-ins to review how treatment is going: whether diagnoses need refining, whether medications need adjusting, how you’re tracking toward your goals, and what’s getting in the way. Most people in this track also have a therapist, or their condition has stabilized enough that we meet infrequently.

Talk therapy, with or without medications · 50 minutes

Therapy here is active, not passive. The goal is real psychological change: better resilience, steadier self-esteem, and lasting ways of handling thoughts and emotions. If we decide together that medication would help, I can provide combined treatment. Modalities I draw on include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic psychotherapy, mentalization based therapy (MBT), supportive parenting for anxious childhood emotions (SPACE), and parent management training (PMT).

Single-day TMS (ONE-D protocol)

For depression, anxiety, and OCD that hasn’t responded to medications, or for people who prefer not to try medications, I offer an accelerated TMS protocol: a full course of transcranial magnetic stimulation completed in a single day, using an FDA-cleared stimulation method. No weeks of daily clinic visits. Ask me about it during your consultation and I’ll tell you whether it may be appropriate.

A note on prescriptions

I write prescriptions and refills during scheduled appointments. Keeping track of refills is something we share responsibility for, so please bring it up during visits rather than through the pharmacy when possible. Brief check-ins between appointments aren’t charged; longer calls, emails, letters, and forms that take more than a few minutes are billed in 15-minute increments.

Conditions and areas served