What is a psychiatric nurse practitioner?

Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNP) assess, diagnose, provide therapy and prescribe medication to treat the mental health needs of clients. PMHNPs are specialty providers with additional training in psychological and psychiatric treatments, including counseling and medications. A Psych NP is not a psychiatrist, but can prescribe any of the medications that are needed in the treatment of mental health issues.

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a widely researched treatment that helps people heal from issues such as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), anxiety, panic attacks, depression, phobias, grief associated with break-ups/divorce, death, physical injury, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, addictions and more. When something painful, un-expected or out of our control happens in our lives we may experience trauma. Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes and sometimes we have difficulty moving forward. If you find yourself feeling emotionally charged and have a hard time managing these feelings, EMDR therapy may be beneficial.

How often will I attend therapy?

We typically work with individual clients for 55 min sessions weekly or every two weeks, tapering down frequency as goals are reached and clients are able to utilize therapeutic tools on their own. Ongoing therapeutic relationships can be helpful at a maintenance frequency of every 3-4 weeks. This allows therapy to again be intensified if new life stressors occur or progress on initial goals begins to falter. Some individual clients prefer 90 min sessions to accommodate their verbal processing style or for EMDR. Length of sessions and frequency will be established together at your initial session with your therapist.

Can I stop taking my medicine once I am feeling better?

The combination of medication and therapy is known to be the best treatment for many mental health issues, including depression and anxiety. There is a common misconception that once you are feeling better you don’t need medication anymore. You should never stop taking medication without first talking to your prescriber. The goal is to be on the lowest possible dose of medication to maintain functioning. After at least 6 months of stable mood in addition to a consistent utilization of coping skills it is possible to discontinue medication use under the care of your prescriber. This is an individual decision and you and your provider will create a treatment plan to discuss goals for mood and medication usage.