Women's Psychiatry and Well-Being

Women's Psychiatry And Well-Being

Practice Specialty Areas

Assessment and management of psychiatric disorders or emotional suffering in women 18 year and older during:

  • Phases of the menstrual cycle
  • Pre-conception, pregnancy, postpartum
  • All stages of motherhood (from prenatal, into the developmental stages of childhood and beyond), both biological and adoptive
  • Grief after the loss of a child
  • Infertility journey
  • Menopausal transition, either natural or secondary to illness or treatments
  • Gynecological and breast cancer in all stages of care
  • Integration of professional and personal dimension
  • Role transitions

Clinical Services

  • Diagnostic evaluation and collaborative development of treatment plan
  • Medication management. When used, the goal will be regimen optimization aiming to reduce polypharmacy and adverse effects, allowing enough symptoms control to facilitate psychotherapy engagement
  • Talk therapy. Throughout the lens of a meaning -centered approach, the techniques used draw from: 
    • acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
    • meaning-centered psychotherapy (MCP)
  • Personal goals and clinical outcomes are monitored over time also with the use of validated measurements/questionnaires
  • Family meetings. Although specifically designed for women during the perinatal phase, the optional engagement of trusted family member chosen by you is valuable in all cases as part of the treatment planning and ongoing care
  • Direct clinical care or second opinion consultation directly to you or to your primary treating clinicians
  • On a case by case basis, if long term pharmacological support is indicated, the goal will be to assist in reaching enough symptoms control to allow maintenance management in the primary care or women’s health setting

Commonly addressed conditions

  • Bipolar Disorders
  • Depressive Disorders
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
  • Trauma-Related Disorders
  • Psychotic Disorders
  • Adjustment Disorders
  • Difficult integration of professional and personal dimension
  • Challenging role transitions

What we do NOT provide

  • Stimulant medications  (e.g. Adderal, Ritalin)
  • Buprenorphine for opiate use disorders
  • Treatment for active anorexia nervosa
  • Treatment for active substance use disorder
  • Conditions needing level of care higher than outpatient (typically this category includes but is not limited to recent discharge from psychiatric inpatient hospitalization)
  • Documents for emotional support or psychiatric service animals

Educational Services

Community and inter-professional education on :

  •  women’s mental health
  •  meaning-centered approach to care