All of you is welcome here.

You’re looking for answers. Therapy has been helpful but it’s not enough. You’ve considered medications but you don’t want to be a zombie, gain weight, have sexual side effects, or be hooked on medications for years or longer. You want to address the cause. You want to feel like you again.

You want help for your child but you don’t want them to have side effects or get addicted to something. Your teen won’t go to the appointments because the prescriber doesn’t get who they are.

You want someone who knows what they’re doing, who follows the evidence but is also a great listener. You need a provider who works to understand the problem, consider new approaches to heal the causes of the problem and does not just reach for their prescription pad after 10 minutes.

Trusted Experience in Psychiatry

I am a board-certified child and family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, trained at the University of California, San Francisco and licensed in Virginia, Colorado and California. I have specialty training in addiction, substance use treatment, function medicine, personalized medicine, and integrative psychiatry. I conduct psychiatric assessments, diagnose mental health conditions, create treatment plans, and prescribe conventional psychiatric medications and integrative treatments to individuals of all ages.

I began working in mental health in 2000 and have been practicing psychiatry since 2012. Before prescribing I worked with adolescents in residential and wilderness programs, provided drug and alcohol counseling, and individual and group therapy to children and adults.

I love what I do and am honored to be part of the process with people who are looking for change. Although I am a prescriber, I do not meet with pharmaceutical drug representatives and I pursue evidence-based continuing medical education free from corporate sponsorship so that I learn what will help you, not what will make the pharmaceutical companies more money.

“Lis understood things early in treatment that other psychiatrists never got about me… She helped me feel heard and understood.”

My Approach to Psychiatric Treatment

This is your body and your process. I am committed to you feeling heard, cared for and supporting you in achieving your mental health goals. I am not committed to prescribing you medications. If it’s likely that you can feel better without using psychiatric medications, then we can talk about how to make that happen and I’ll be here if you need me down the road.

During the assessment I will be working to learn about you, your history, what is bothering you, what you have already tried, and what you want to be different. This process typically takes a two or three appointments. We will then discuss a wide variety of options to help you achieve your goals. From there, together we create a wellness plan that integrates a variety of options from conventional psychiatric medications to non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as nutritional psychiatry, complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) or supplements, exercise, specialty testing, sleep hygiene, spiritual practices, creative methods, social involvement, and psychotherapy with a therapist, psychologist, or licensed counselor. This complimentary approach to treatment serves to create a solid foundation for lasting change and efficient reduction in symptoms.

A good fit?

I hope to be a good fit for many but I understand that I will not be the perfect provider for all individuals. I work to listen, “read the room” and attune while also welcoming feedback. Medical trauma and health care provider trauma is common in mental health and I want to do what I can to help individuals have a positive experience and maybe also heal from previous experiences where they felt dismissed, ignored, or labeled. With that said, there are limitations to my work:

• I offer support to clients wishing to taper off of benzodiazepines but I do not start benzodiazepines or continue benzodiazepines as a form of treatment.

• I am a conservative prescriber, especially with medications that have the potential for misuse, like stimulants. See ADHD Treatment Notes

• I am only only as good as the information provided. If a client is not disclosing information about symptoms or problems in the rapport we share, I will be less effective.

• I am not a therapist. I offer supportive psychotherapy while working with clients as a prescriber. Patients make marked improvements while also engaging in counseling or psychotherapy compared to medication alone.

• As a treating provider, I am obligated to do a full assessment, share diagnostic information and recommendations for treatment, while also discussing the risks and benefits of all reasonable options.

• I am not a forensic specialist and will not be appropriate for some individuals who meet medical necessity for specialty psychiatry care; such as those with a history of murder or charged with pedophilia.

• Parents of child patients are often asked to start their own psychotherapy, engage in parenting skills training, couples therapy, or family therapy if and when indicated.

• I am not a medical provider. If a client has a health concern they will be asked to see a health care provider.

• Our clinic has a firm cancellation policy that may not be a good fit for some. We require any cancellation be communicated at least two full business days before the appointment to avoid the full fee.