Pricing

• 15-minute introductory phone call: free

• 30-minute appointments (follow-up appointments only): $200

• 60-minute appointments (consultations, new patient appointments, and follow-up appointments): $400

• Phone calls after the initial appointment will be charged as follows:

  • 0-15 minutes: $100

  • 16-30 minutes: $200

  • 31-45 minutes: $300

  • 46-60 minutes: $400

I am happy to provide a superbill for you to send to your insurance company for reimbursement.

Service area

• Virtual appointments: anywhere in California or Arizona

• In-person appointments: located at Ethera (19712 MacArthur Blvd; Suite 110; Irvine, CA 92612)

Prescribing controlled substances requires at least one in-person appointment.

Types of appointments

15-minute introductory phone call

Before I see you for an appointment, we’ll talk on the phone to answer any questions you have and help you assess whether I would be a good fit for your needs. This is important so that you know whether you feel comfortable with me and whether you’d like to have an appointment. This is also a chance for me to refer you to someone else before you spend any money if I don’t think I’ll be able to help you.

Consultations

Consultations are one-time 60-minute appointments in which we meet to answer a specific question. At the end of the appointment, instead of prescribing for you, I instead communicate recommendations with another provider. These types of appointments are most commonly initiated by other doctors, usually a primary care provider. They will then continue prescribing for you.

Psychiatric medication management

Psychiatric medications seek to rebalance chemicals in your brain to improve your mental health. I can help by recommending, prescribing, and refilling these medications for you. Initial appointments are 1 hour so that I can get to know you and help you make an informed decision about whether to try a medication and which one to choose. You can choose whether you would like subsequent appointments to be 30 or 60 minutes.

If you already have medications from another psychiatrist that you would like to keep the same and you just need to see someone new because of moving locations, I am generally happy to keep things the same and take over prescribing for you unless I believe the medication plan is unsafe for any reason. I will still require a full hour for our initial meeting so that I have enough time to get the appropriate information from you before prescribing.

I will always let you choose whether or not to be on medications. I will give you the honest pros and cons of each option we are considering and let you make the final decision, but if you are unsure, I can choose for you, as I know the options can be overwhelming. The most common types of medications I prescribe are antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, and stimulants.

Psychotherapy

Rather than strictly following any particular school of therapy, I use a combination of techniques from supportive, psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, and internal family systems therapies. The choice of technique is personalized to the individual patient and the scenario they find themselves in. For example, some patients just need to vent to someone for an hour a week, and I am happy to listen and support. Other patients are trying to make a life decision and need someone to help them organize their thoughts, in which case I may take a more active approach or offer homework suggestions. Therapy can be as often or infrequent as you like. Many people prefer weekly therapy sessions for deeper work or monthly sessions for lighter work, but it is up to you.

I also require one-hour initial appointments, but after that you can decide whether you would like subsequent appointments to be 30 or 60 minutes.

Combined medication management and therapy

I am happy to provide both medication management and therapy so that you do not have to see both a psychiatrist and a therapist separately. The actual decision to do medication management and/or therapy is more fluid in reality. It’s okay if you’re not sure what you want! We can figure that out together.