FAQs

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I generally treat kids and young adults - people between the ages of 12 and 30 years old - experiencing symptoms related to mood (depression and/or hypomania), anxiety, ADHD, or OCD. 

I may treat patients younger than ages 12 on a case-by-case basis. 

If you are an adult above the age of 30 years old - please consider reaching out to my colleague Dr Param Saghal - https://www.rootpsychiatry.com. Other excellent providers include: 

Everest Goldstein: https://everestpsychandwellness.com

If your child is younger than 12 years old, some excellent child psychiatrists with an integrative functional background include: 

Callie Emery (https://www.callieemerymd.com) 

Nancy Shosid (https://www.drnancyshosid.com) 

Amelia Villagomez (https://peterkmorrison9.wixsite.com/website) 

I am currently in the process of credentialing with a select number of insurance companies.  I do often a number of sliding scale spots for patients. (See the section about "Services and fees.") I am also able to provide low-cost lab work through LabCorp that tends to be about the same profile or even less than the cost of labs through insurance companies. 

Some insurance companies have me listed as in-network, because I used to work on inpatient psychiatric units. However, I am not currently able to take insurance. (This may change in the upcoming months.) 

Both of these specialities - women's reproductive psychiatry and GI - are tremendously important and very much tied into mental health. 

However - both of these specialities require a great deal of specific knowledge within those topics. For this reason, I do not currently offer hormonal testing (such as the DUTCH test). In these cases I recommend seeing a specialist such as Dr Dawn LaGrone (a fellow psychiatrist who has conventional and functional/integrative experience) who specializes women's mental health: 

https://www.dawnlagronemd.com/conditions-treated.html

Similarly for patients with prominent GI symptoms - including possible IBS, Crohn's, Celiac disease, or just unexplained nausea, reflux, digestion issues, variable constipation/diarrhea - I do recommend Oshi Health. They provide virtual and on-site GI care that integrates conventional and functional medicine. (And they take insurance!) 

https://oshihealth.com

If a patient has an existing integrative/functional provider, and is experiencing more persistent psychiatric symptoms - including persisting mood issues (including depression or hypomania), anxiety, ADHD, OCD - I am happy to work alongside your other provider and help address those symptoms. 

Generally speaking, as a psychiatrist, I am best equipped to treat psychiatric conditions. If you are more interested in general medical care (either internal medicine or pediatrics) from an integrative or functional perspective, here are some recommendations: 

Internal medicine: 

https://therestorecenter.com

Pediatrics: 

https://shinepediatrics.com

I do see PANS/PANDAS cases when those patients are also being treated by another provider who is well-versed in PANS/PANDAS assessment and management.

(This is because appropriate management of PANS/PANDAS  requires extensive knowledge of immunology and infectious disease, and while I do have some knowledge of these topics, ( would prefer patients begin by seeing providers who are experts in PANS/PANDAS for primary management.) I am able to  collaborate  with other providers who are managing PANS/PANDAS workup and treatment, to assist in management of psychiatric symptoms that may not be improving sufficiently. 

If you are looking for care for your child who may have PANS, the Neuroimmune Foundation has a PANS provider directory that can be emailed to you from this link: 

https://neuroimmune.org/patient-and-family-resources/pandas-pans-doctors/

 I work in tandem with some of the Texas providers, including Shabana Mohammed. (https://www.smhealinghands.com)

Another group of providers who have expertise in PANS are at NeuroNutrition Associates: 

https://neuronutritionassociates.com

(Another excellent resource from the Neuroimmune Foundation: a site to share with the PANS/PANDAS cynic: https://neuroimmune.org/get-involved/pans-skepticism/) 

No - I run a small private psychiatric practice with limited resources and availability.  Our regular office hours are M-Friday 9am -5 pm, but I am typically only able to see patients M-Th, from 8:30am-3pm CT (excluding major holidays). 

I generally work with patients who are experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or ADHD. I also work some with patients experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of OCD. However, if you are a patient with a currently higher acuity condition (more severe symptoms, more medically unstable, or higher risk of self-harm or harm of others), then I am not the most appropriate health care provider for you, as you may require closer monitoring or more frequent interventions than I am able to provide. If it is determined that I'm not the best fit, we will make efforts to refer you to other providers who may be more appropriate.

I do hope that as my circumstances change one day (ie - her kids get older and more independent!) that I will be able to take on patients with more acute illness, but this is not the case at the moment. 

I generally focus on medication and lifestyle management with patients. While I've had some training in and experience with a number of therapeutic modalities, I find that generally speaking it is best for patients to work with therapists who are knowledgable, skilled, and the best fit (modality-wise) for that patient - be it DBT, CBT, expressive arts, family systems, etc. 

I am able to see patients virtually who live in the state of Texas. 

Generally speaking, I do not offer disability assessments. In rare instances with existing patients with severe, non-refractory mental illness (who I have seen for over a year), I may consider completing disability paperwork. 

I am comfortable treating substance use disorders when they are co-occuring with other mental illness, and mild to moderate in severity. However, I am not the best option for persons with severe substance use disorder (in part, because as mentioned above, my office hours are limited). 

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