Psychiatry is the practice of medicine as it relates to mental health. It includes diagnosing medical conditions such as such as anxiety, depression, sleep problems, bi-polar disorder, stress and more, as well as creating comprehensive treatment plans which may include prescribing medications.
The way we approach psychiatry is integrative, meaning that we bring a lifestyle-based focus to your health and wellness, with medicine as a supporting, rather than as a primary agent of healing and change. Part of an integrative consult is exploring how your lifestyle can aid your healing and growth process for specific conditions. We integrate nutrition, mindfulness, exercise, relational and social interaction, physiological considerations such as sleep, stress, and eating patterns, supplements, coordinating with your therapist, and more, to help you with your concerns.
Part of psychiatry is what we call med-management, checking in on medications you may be taking to evaluate if they are still needed, effective, or can be slowly tapered out. If you haven’t had a psychiatric visit in over a year and take a mental health medication, or if you originally had a mental health medication prescribed by a primary care provider, we recommend making an appointment for re-evaluation to check what you are taking, at what dose, if it is fully effective, and if it is still the right approach. Primary care physicians are not mental health experts and may mis-diagnose an issue, prescribe a medication when a different one may be better, or not follow up to monitor the effects of the medication over time. We will help you check on if you should continue with that medication or dose, considering that many medications lose some of their efficacy over time.
Our psychiatric team is one of the best. We take the time to get to know you (none of this 15 min ‘pill mill’ stuff!), do longer and more detailed, in-depth, consults, and take the time to reflect on the best option for you. Then, we stay in touch with you, and are available for follow up contact as you notice the effects of treatment.
Psychiatry can be done well, or not well, and too often, the latter is true due to short consults, knee-jerk prescribing, and little to no follow up with you regarding your care. Austin Professional Counseling has always only worked with the best psychiatrists in Austin, making sure the medication side of care is done right, and now we are building our own internal program to better coordinate with the counseling and therapy we provide. You can still come in to just see your prescriber–you don’t have to be in therapy with us to benefit from our careful approach to medication.
Our integrative psychiatric practitioner is Adrienne DiRaddo Feehan, PMHNP. Adrienne is a talented and experienced psychiatric nurse who will help you consider supplements, lifestyle modifications, and prescribe medication if needed to help resolve your mental health issue. Our head of department is Dr. Robin May-Davis, who is our supervising physician. Adrienne charges $250 for hour-long intakes and $175 for 30 min follow ups. We currently accept Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO as the only insurance option for psychiatry. To schedule with Adrienne, please call our main office at 512-469-0535 or email us at admin@austinprofessionalcounseling.com. She can often accommodate same-week appointments.
Austin is a town that is into health, wellness, nature, and a natural lifestyle. It makes sense, therefore, that many in Austin have aversions to mental health medication. We understand. We aim for a healthy, natural lifestyle as well. In our integrative approach, medication is only recommended when needed and then administered carefully. Keep in mind that the side-effects of many mental and emotional health issues are worse than the side-effects of most medications used in mental health. It’s worse for your health, immune system, and lifespan to try and white-knuckle your way through lifelong anxiety, or through major depressive episodes. Relationships can suffer from untreated ADD. Some conditions really benefit from medication and neuroscience helps us understand when that is the case.
One benefit of pairing medication with counseling when it is necessary to do so, is that it helps your mind learn to live free of the issue you are experiencing. Once your mind adjusts to a new way of moving through life, it can often hold those gains even as the medication is phased out. We try to help you get off the medication as soon as possible.
Certain psychological issues can be difficult to overcome without also treating physiology and the body. Here at the Wellness Center, we examine your issues both physiologically and psychologically, giving you the best chance to fully understand and correct them. Supporting the body, which works hand in hand with the mind, is key to the fast and effective treatment of many psychological issues. For many, once your mind learns to live and function without the problem, the medication can be eased out and many of the gains made in counseling remain.
While you may have heard or read some negative things about mental health medication, engaging in a proper, managed process of taking medication for mental and emotional health alleviates many potential drawbacks and increases positive outcomes. Medication is an imperfect tool like anything else, but done correctly and in the right circumstances as needed, the combination of medication with counseling offers the best and fastest treatment for many mental health issues.
Our integrative psychiatric practitioner is Adrienne DiRaddo Feehan, PMHNP. Adrienne is a talented and experienced psychiatric nurse who will help you consider supplements, lifestyle modifications, and prescribe medication if needed to help resolve your mental health issue. Our head of department is Dr. Robin May-Davis, who is our supervising physician. Adrienne charges $250 for hour-long intakes and $175 for 30 min follow ups. We currently accept Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO as the only insurance option for psychiatry. To schedule with Adrienne, please call our main office at 512-469-0535 or email us at admin@austinprofessionalcounseling.com. She can often accommodate same-week appointments.
