Treatment Approach

This section will give you a brief introduction to my treatment approach, so that you can have a better idea of what your treatment entails.

In general, I offer personalized, prompt service that has your best interests in mind. I think of psychiatric treatment as a collaboration between two people for great benefit. It is that working relationship that ultimately can transform suffering. Starting with this principle, I have structured my initial patient evaluations to create a safe space for that collaboration. I usually conduct my initial evaluations over two to four separated sessions of 45 minutes each. In all cases, I mold my initial approach to match your particular needs and schedule.

I typically begin an evaluation by allowing you the open opportunity to discuss the kinds of things that are bothering you and some of your past history; eventually, I start bridging those items into a more formal psychiatric diagnostic evaluation. By the end, I will have a good idea of who you are and can contextualize your symptoms within your whole life. Sometimes an evaluation may take an additional session to wrap up lingering loose ends. During that evaluation time you can see if you are comfortable working with me, I can get a sense of the nature and extent of your struggles, and we can determine an effective treatment strategy.

As I am a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, my treatment recommendations can include psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, or both psychotherapy/psychoanalysis and medications expressly designed to treat your symptoms. At this point in the evolution of my practice, with RARE exception, and to give the most in-depth care possible, I recommend patients to be seen once or more times weekly. Often for people coming with long histories of extended, once-weekly psychotherapy treatment and medication trials I offer psychoanalysis to treat deep-rooted character struggles. Increased session frequency up to five times per week, although a significant financial and time burden, can sometimes be the treatment necessary to unlock these deep struggles and promote personality change.

All of my visits span 45 minutes in length, regardless of treatment modality. Rarely would I ever recommend or provide you medications alone in a brief session format. Sometimes, things are not always exactly clear, and it may take more than a few sessions to determine the cause of the particular symptoms you are having, and in these instances I will offer an extended consultation to shed more light and contact on the problem to best understand things better. In some cases where I don’t think I can meet your needs or if you require more specialty psychiatric care, I will refer you to another provider.