Services

Initial Consultation

The initial consultation is an in-person appointment. Before we meet, I ask patients to complete an intake questionnaire covering their history, current concerns, and what they're hoping to get from the evaluation. I review any prior records — previous evaluations, school or neuropsychological testing, medical history — before our first appointment.

During the consultation, I start with your own account of what's brought you in. I then conduct a structured psychiatric interview covering mood, anxiety, attention and executive functioning, developmental history, sleep, physical health, medications, family history, and prior treatment. For children and adolescents, I meet separately with parents or caregivers as part of the evaluation. For adults, I may request collateral information from a partner, parent, or other provider with your consent. I order laboratory or other diagnostic testing when it's clinically indicated.

The goal of the initial evaluation is a basic understanding of your goals and how your brain works and a treatment plan you actually understand.

Diagnosis

I use diagnostic categories as a starting point, not an endpoint. Traditional psychiatric diagnoses are useful for communicating and for insurance purposes, but they don't map cleanly onto how the brain actually works. I'm an advocate for the Research Domain Criteria framework developed by the NIMH, which approaches mental health by linking behavior, cognition, and neurobiology rather than relying solely on symptom checklists. In practice, this means I'm more interested in understanding the underlying mechanisms driving your experience than in finding the right label for it — and it means my treatment recommendations follow from that understanding rather than from the diagnosis alone.

For many patients I see, the clinical picture involves neurodevelopmental conditions — ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and related learning and attentional profiles — often layered with mood, anxiety, or other presentations. Many have been evaluated before. I try to offer something more than a repeat of what they've already been told.

Medication Management & Therapy

Ongoing care consists of medication management appointments — either 25 or 45 minutes depending on clinical complexity. The longer appointment incorporates insight-oriented, problem-solving-focused therapy alongside medication management. I draw from an eclectic mix of modalities depending on what a given patient needs. Appointment frequency is determined by where you are in treatment: more frequent during initiation or titration, less frequent once things are stable.

I also make referrals to a wide range of therapies — CBT, DBT, ACT, mentalization-based therapy, somatic experiencing, mental health occupational therapy, and physical therapy, among others — and I coordinate with outside providers as part of ongoing care.