What can I expect if I make an appointment?

For the first visit, we will spend about 45-55 minutes reviewing your mental health history, your current concerns, and discussing options for medications or medication adjustments. The following visits will be shorter, 20-25 minutes, to check in and ensure the medications are helping and not causing other unwanted issues.

Will medication change my personality? I don’t want to be a zombie.

This is a concern for so many people. This stems from old representations of mental illness in television, books, and films, where the medications available at the time resulted in people seeming zombie-like. The medications I recommend focus on managing symptoms - like feeling nervous, feeling overly emotional or intrusive thoughts - resulting in people reporting feeling more “like myself” when the medications are therapeutic. The goal is for you to feel like you are functioning at your best.

I’ve heard psych meds take a long time to work?

It’s true that most psychiatric medications have a delay in people noticing the therapeutic benefit. Also, for most people, it is very gradual. So do not expect to wake up the day after starting a new med and feel 100% better. Depending on the problem and the medication, I advise people to expect to notice small changes within a few weeks and be reflective. Often the therapeutic benefit is noted when folks realize the intensity of their symptoms have been gradually less and less.

How often will I see you?

Whenever I recommend a medication change, I usually want to follow up with the person in 1 month or less. Once you are feeling well and stable, the follow up visits are every 3-6 months.

Will I be on these drugs forever?

Depending on the symptoms we are trying to manage, most of the data suggests maintaining therapeutic medication for 6-12 months. That means that for 6-12 months, you are relatively symptom free. People have more success with stopping psychiatric medications when they are weaned over a period of a few weeks - this helps your body and mind adjust to not having it in your system.

What do I do if I have a crisis?

Because I am a solo practitioner, I do not have any on-call support for urgent or emergent issues that develop outside my office hours (Monday through Thursday 9am to 4pm and Friday 9am to 12pm). You are advised to use your local Mental Health Crisis Response Teams, the Mental Health Crisis Line - call 988 or text 741741, and your primary care provider or 911 for medical issues / emergencies. Metro area crisis lines are listed below.

Washington County 651-275-7400

Anoka County 763-755-3801

Ramsey County 651-266-7900

Hennepin County 612-596-1223

For other counties, click here.