Services & Specialties

This premium assessment service incorporates skilled clinical interview with objective testing data to enhance structure and increase reliability/accuracy in clinical/legal situations for children, adults, and elders. Psychological/neuropsychological testing supports clinical and legal rationale for understanding the experience of neurodevelopmental disorders, medical disorders, parameters of policy/law/ethics, intelligence, learning disorders, personality disorders, maladaptive coping, brain injury, dementia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and ADHD.

Benefits and purpose of psychological/neuropsychological testing include:

Our clinical and health psychologists provide a multiplicity of psychological evaluations such as:

Emotional/Mental Disability, Learning Disability, and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Evaluations

Medical / Pre-Surgical Evaluations

Legal

Process of the Psychological Evaluation

The evaluation takes place in four stages:

1. Diagnostic Interview: to obtain history, review concerns, and to discuss the reason for the evaluation, to determine what testing will be done, and review informed consent, sign patient agreement, and review evaluation procedures.
2. Testing: may take place in one session, in several 1- or 2-hour appointments, or other arrangements based on your or your child’s needs
3. Scoring, interpretation, and professional report writing by the psychologist
4. Feedback: to provide feedback about testing results, diagnostic impressions, and disposition and treatment recommendations, about 1-3 weeks after the completion of the testing process

Financial obligations with testing

Most health insurance covers psychological testing that is medically necessary. Many insurances cover testing without prior authorization, however, some insurance require pre-authorization for payment. In some cases, your insurance will only pay for a portion of the testing service and therefore you will be responsible for what is not covered. Testing in legal situations is not covered by health insurance. If parents disagree with the results of the assessment conducted by the school district, they have the right to ask for and obtain an independent educational evaluation (IEE) at public expense.

Individual modality creates a supportive patient-centered experience providing in-depth personal contact and diagnosis-specific content. Participants gain the opportunity for confidential discussion regarding personal health concerns. Treatment of anxiety, depression, insomnia, mood disorders, psychosis, delirium, alcohol/drug misuse, cognitive decline/dementia, social role changes, bereavement, grief & loss, sexual functioning, activities of daily living, women’s issues, relationship issues, stress, sexual addiction. Our psychologists with advanced training in psychopharmacology may also consult on medication options and its management.

Group visits have been proven not only cost-efficient but also to increase provider and patient satisfaction with care. Group Modality treatment provides a venue for education and teaching of specific skills, encourages participant questions and interaction, stimulates active coping, increases participant and provider cohesion, and creates a sense of communal support within participants.

To a large extent, children’s problems are embedded in overall family context. The child is shaped by family and school, and in turn the family and school is shaped by the child. Therefore it is important to intervene with the child’s problems addressing the family and school systems. Cognitive and behavioral therapy applied to environmental factors effectively manage various aspects of the child’s life. Respondent principles (behavior is acquired through classical conditioning) or respondent principles (behavior is maintained by its consequences) can easily be applied by parents and teachers alike as part of the therapeutic plan. Examples of problems commonly addressed by our child and family specialists include; Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), conduct disorders, child fears, school withdrawal, Anorexia, Bulimia, Autism, Schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, depression, enuresis/encopresis, and tics.

Medication can have a therapeutic effect on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior. Our psychiatrists prescribe psychotropic medications to treat emotional/behavioral disorders. Our psychiatrists and advanced practice psychologists who are involved in the practice of psychopharmacology provide diagnostic assessments, medication/drug therapy or medication recommendation (psychologists), medication management, and medical consultations with primary care physicians. Our psychiatrists and psychologists assist in the process by recommending clinically desirable treatment effects, certain classes of medications, specific medications, dosages, or other aspects of the treatment regimen. Our psychiatrists and psychologists involved in practicing clinical pharmacology can provide information that may be relevant to a prescribing professional e.g. primary care physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant. As part of the therapeutic process our psychiatrists and psychologists may express concerns about treatment, refer patients for medication consults, direct patients to referral or information sources, or discuss with patients how to address their concerns about medication with the prescriber. Our psychiatrists and psychologists provide fully integrated care within our treatment team so that our patients can come to our office for all of their mental health needs.

In addition to providing unified psychiatric care at our clinic, our psychiatrists can provide the following services:

• Stand-alone psychiatric care for patients who do not want or need to see a therapist
• Patients who already have a therapist of their own in the community but who want to see a psychiatrist

Couples and relationship therapy focuses on developing the necessary skills for effective, open communication, mutually satisfying sexual intimacy, and enjoyable time for companionship within the relationship. It addresses issues with frequent and continual arguing, lack of communication, blaming others for problems, marital separation, divorce, extramarital relationships, avoidance, deficiencies in problem solving, difficulty maintaining trust or ch0osing abusive/dysfunctional partners.

We aim to treat disorders that are present and achieve healthy aging. We provide care that strives to promote health by preventing and managing diseases and disabilities. Services incorporate the fundamentals of aging, caring for self and others, health conditions, and social/legal/ethical issues.

Fundamentals of Aging:

Caring for Self and Others:

Health Conditions:

Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues:

This service facilitates learning to modify and control involuntary physiological processes such as heart rate, muscle tension, blood pressure, and vasculature. Treatment is helpful with chronic pain, tension headaches, migraine headaches, seizures, neuromuscular disorders, gastrointestinal problems, and bladder problems.

The care a patient experiences as a result of a team of primary care and behavioral health clinicians, working together with patients and families, using a systematic and cost-effective approach to provide patient-centered care for a defined population. The behavioral health provider functions as a member of the primary care team to address the full spectrum of problems that the participant brings to their PCP. Working in this setting normalizes the need for behavioral health support and reduces stigma of accessing behavioral health services.

This care may address mental health and substance abuse conditions, health behaviors (including their contribution to chronic medical illnesses), life stressors and crises, stress-related physical symptoms, and ineffective patterns of health care utilization. Treatment of anxiety, depression, insomnia, mood disorders, psychosis, delirium, alcohol/drug misuse, cognitive decline, social role changes, bereavement, sexual functioning, activities of daily living. The services can also include psychopharmacology consultation and medication management.

We employ a biopsychosocial approach to medical problems that emphasizes the importance of understanding human health and illness in their fullest contexts. Our approach systematically considers biological, psychological, and social factors and their complex interactions in understanding health, illness, and health care delivery. We utilize psychological and behavioral methods in context of clinical medicine to help control diabetes, cardiovascular disease, pain disorders, tension/migraine headaches, cancer, spinal chord injuries, chronic vomiting, neurodermatitis, psoriasis, ulcers, epilepsy, COPD/asthma, obesity, health anxiety (hypochondriasis), psychophysiological disorders (e.g. irritable bowel, incontinence, medication misuse). We motivate patients to instill and maintain healthy behavior through lifestyle changes (i.e. decreased tobacco use, reduced overeating, increased physical activity, and treatment adherence). We promote health and manage disease through increasing knowledge, self-monitoring and skill development. We empower patients to develop control over complex biological, psychological, social, and environmental interaction to promote distress tolerance, health and well-being.

Is the use of telecommunication and information technologies (e.g. video conferencing) in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve access to our services. Most insurance does not cover telemedicine (there may be some exceptions) therefore this is usually a ‘cash pay’ service.

Our multidisciplinary behavioral health services focus on maintaining independence, mental/physical functioning and quality of life for older adults. We empower elders and healthcare facilities to utilize behavioral, social and medication approaches to care in efforts to maintain and maximize quality of life/well-being for seniors. We address functional needs for elders by partnering with medical and rehabilitation teams aiding in the process of overcoming treatment barriers (depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, life role transition, and chronic pain). We also work with long term care patients providing strategic interventions to address feelings of anger, sadness, guilt, and grief associated with loss of life roles and decline. In the process, we collaborate with patients, families and healthcare providers to identify powerful and effective experiences in illness management. We help create healthcare moments of capability, tolerance, growth, and recovery.

In the treatment process, we pay careful attention to accurate diagnosis, appropriate dosing, side effects, drug interactions, pertinent drug pharmacokinetics, best practices in cognitive/behavioral therapy, and utilize objective psychological/neuropsychological testing. We consistently conduct medical and behavioral assessment at regular intervals to consider the appropriateness of prescription and behavioral treatments. In regards to medication use, we practice a safe and effective ‘minimum necessary’ approach to pharmacological care. We utilize practical evaluation processes that allow for monitoring of medication effectiveness and potential adverse events. Our behavioral and medication therapies are designed to complement each other and closely adhere to Medicare ‘medical necessity’ and OBRA standards for nursing homes and long term care facilities.