COMMON QUESTIONS

This page answers common questions about working with me in an integrative psychiatry setting. It is designed for prospective clients who want clarity on approach, structure, and expectations before beginning care. For a more detailed overview of services, you can visit the Services page.

Who Do You Serve?

I enjoy working with adult clients

who are creatives, who have technical minds, those who are thinkers and founders, who are particular, curious, sensitive, and motivated. I particularly admire individuals who have blended courage, vulnerability, and authenticity to describe their sense of self in the world, defining or redefining themselves to live as they do today. Those who carve their own path. I have extensive experience working with the LGBTQI community, as well as people of color, and those who have made the US a second home.

Many of these patterns are explored in more detail in the specialty sections of the site.

Fear of Medications

Clients often express fear of weight gain, losing their sharpness or personality, other side effects.

Many have taken numerous medicines in the past, without results, and with much lost time. I have taken medicines, I know this struggle, and I promise that I listen. I will offer traditional and integrative options, to suit your values. You can learn more about how I approach medication and integrative care on the Services page. Your comfort is my priority, and you are collaboratively involved in each step of the process. A choice is only a solution if it meets your goals and expectations, without issue.

Around two thirds of my clients have met their goals – without side effects. There is always a fresh solution.

We don’t pause at good enough.

What About Diagnoses and Labels?

Your complete medical, personal, and family history comprises myriad complex data, filtered through your perspective.

I think dimensionally – while I consider diagnoses, syndromes, and heuristics, I am more interested in spectrums – and how a unique history and symptom clusters appear for individuals as many details are considered, how those clusters collide, intersect, and direct – which salient priorities rise above all and announce themselves – and what that tells me about the circuitry that underwrites your unique domain.

 I’m interested in your signature, your blueprint – and a comprehensive plan to help you align with the results you envision.

This approach is described in more detail on the Services page.

How Often Do We Meet?

After an initial evaluation, visits of 25 or 50 minutes (depending on complexity) happen approximately monthly (every 4 to 6 weeks, occasionally more or less often), as is appropriate for your current interventions

Visits provide monitoring, education, evaluation of change, progression, and momentum. They are not “med checks” – visits involve significant education in every area of health in which you have interest

I reach beyond psychiatry into health promotion and disease prevention, and foundational health habits

Written protocols and resources are available and provided on all topics

Clients who are complete with their process and feeling well enjoy visits every 3 months to check in

Visit structure and follow-up care are part of a broader treatment model outlined on the Services page.

Can I Use My Insurance?

Bay Area Psychiatric is out-of-network with commercial and government insurance plans, including Medicare. If you have a commercial PPO plan, you are eligible for reimbursement, by submitting a “superbill” I automatically provide.

Please contact my office for current rates and CPT coding, and an explanation of how to inquire of your insurer the amount they will cover.

Many who choose to seek reimbursement are surprised to find that the process is relatively simple and the benefits higher than assumed.

There are advantages to being seen out-of-network:

Access: Appointments can last as long as they need to and can be as frequent as necessary
Privacy: your chart is completely confidential and will never be released without your permission; it is not subject to audit
Being out-of-network allows me to invest more resources in you, with activities many practices forego:
- Time to study and write new treatment protocols
- Attendance at several scientific meetings yearly
- More between-visit communications with clients, and shared knowledge and cases with colleagues
- Expert consultation retained with three senior clinicians for my practice in various areas of medicine

More detailed discussions of ADHD, mood, anxiety, sleep, trauma, and autism spectrum conditions are available in the Specialties and Insights sections.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Who Do You Serve?

I enjoy working with adult clients

Fear of Medications

Around two thirds of my clients have met their goals – without side effects. There is always a fresh solution.

We don’t pause at good enough.

What About Diagnoses and Labels?

I’m interested in your signature, your blueprint – and a comprehensive plan to help you align with the results you envision.

​

This approach is described in more detail on the Services page.

How Often Do We Meet?

​Can I Use My Insurance?

​Bay Area Psychiatric is out-of-network with commercial and government insurance plans, including Medicare. If you have a commercial PPO plan, you are eligible for reimbursement, by submitting a “superbill” I automatically provide.

 I’m interested in your signature, your blueprint – and a comprehensive plan to help you align with the results you envision.

Can I Use My Insurance?

Bay Area Psychiatric is out-of-network with commercial and government insurance plans, including Medicare. If you have a commercial PPO plan, you are eligible for reimbursement, by submitting a “superbill” I automatically provide.