San Francisco Bay Area Psychiatrist
Board Certified in both General and Child- Adolescent Psychiatry
Specializing in Evaluation, Treatment, and Consultation for Complex Cases
Measures I take to optimize care:
• Comprehensive Care: Personal, family and work issues are never excluded from my treatments.
• Care outside regular office hours: I provide care when needed, including on weekends and evenings. I also share my cell phone number with my patients.
• Coordination of care: I am well trained in treatment both with medication and psychotherapy.
I work differently from many psychiatrists. I believe that psychiatric conditions don’t exist in isolation. They are often complicated by personal and interpersonal issues involving relationships, family, school, medical illness, and/or employment. They often require psychotherapy in addition to medication.
I am certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (“board certified”) in both general and child/adolescent psychiatry, and hold advanced certification from the American Psychoanalytic Association. I have practiced for over 35 years. I am the author of seven books (one in press): the first three on the relationship between doctor/ therapist and patient as it relates to treatment success. My most recent books are about working with complex psychiatric and medical-psychiatric situations. I have a strong background and interest in medicine as it relates to psychiatric problems. Accordingly, I created and direct the Center for Collaborative Medicine, Psychiatry, and Psychology. This group involves collaboration between specialists in various fields of medicine and psychiatry, and has been meeting for over 10 years.
What I Offer:
Conventional Psychiatric Treatment and Beyond
I work differently from many psychiatrists. I can and do provide traditional medication management and psychotherapy for adults, children, and families. However, I generally take a comprehensive approach, making sure to include full consideration of the key issues impacting a patient’s life. My objective is to correct the problem, not just the symptoms.
Integration and Coordination of Complex Treatments
I work with my patients and their families to unravel their problems, identify causes, and discover the reasons these may not be resolving. Together we uncover and address the important psychiatric, medical, and family-social issues. I formally evaluate the presenting problems, confer with needed specialists, create and implement a treatment plan, and track results. This activity may include working in coordination with a neuropsychologist.
Collaboration with the Patient, Family, and Other Specialists
When a person’s psychiatric or medical-psychiatric situation is complicated, the opinion of a single professional working alone may be insufficient to determine the best and most comprehensive (long lasting) approach to treatment. In these situations, I find and work together with other specialists who can perform needed medical and/or psychological-neuropsychological testing. I assemble and coordinate a treatment team, according to my “Medical-Psychiatric Coordinating Physician Model.” with the patient and his or her family as integral participants. By working in this way, diagnostic accuracy is improved and treatment is most likely to be on target.
Consultation with Health Care Professionals
I am available to consult to other health care professionals, including physicians. These consultations may be brief or extensive depending on the situation. If you desire, I can temporarily join your treatment team. For more information about this collaborative model of working click on the “Medical-Psychiatric Coordinating Physician Method” or read about the “Collaborative Psychiatry-Neuropsychology” approach in my books.
