Choosing Psychiatric Care: A Guide to Your Options and Next Steps

This guide is for the point after you have read about a symptom and before you book anything: when the question has become which kind of care, from whom, at what cost, and how to start. Each article answers one of those questions directly, cites its sources, and says plainly when another kind of care is the better first step.

The practice is out of network with all insurance plans, sees patients in person in Brooklyn and by telehealth where its clinicians are licensed, and starts most people with a free discovery call. If you already know you want to talk to the team, the patient interest form is the first step.

If you are thinking about suicide or are in crisis, call or text 988 (the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or go to the nearest emergency room.

Starting care with the practice

What happens from the first call to the first visit with Dr. Lewis's team, and how to get your history ready.

• How to Start Care With Dr. Lewis: From First Call to First Visit
  The real intake path at Dr. Lewis's practice, step by step: discovery call, interest form, eligibility check, Health Strategy Session and next steps.
• The 75-Minute Health Strategy Session: What Happens and How to Prepare
  What happens in the 75-minute Health Strategy Session with Dr. Lewis, what you leave with, why labs come later, and how to prepare in the week before.
• Strategy Session, DISCOVER Labs, Ongoing Care or the Online Course: Which Starting Point Fits
  A side-by-side guide to the practice's starting points, from the strategy session and DISCOVER labs to ongoing care, coaching and the online course.
• How to Prepare Your Medication History for a New Psychiatrist
  A practical checklist and fill-in medication table for a new psychiatrist, plus how to request your records and pharmacy fill history.
• ADHD Assessment in Brooklyn: The Practice's Steps and How to Prepare
  What happens at each step of the practice's ADHD assessment, why childhood history and a second informant are required, and how to prepare so the visit gives you a clear answer.
• Preparing Your Child for an ADHD Evaluation: A Parent's Checklist
  A parent's checklist for a child's ADHD evaluation: school and health records to collect, teacher input, how to talk to your child about the visit, and what the AAP guideline recommends.
• Seeing Dr. Lewis by Telehealth: Where You Must Be, and Options if You Live Elsewhere
  Telehealth licensing follows the patient's location. What that means for New York, New Jersey and California patients, travelers and readers in other states.

Cost, insurance and paperwork

The practice is out of network with every insurance plan. These guides cover checking your benefits, superbills and claims, HSA and FSA rules, and your right to a Good Faith Estimate.

• How to Check Your Out-of-Network Mental Health Benefits: A Call Script
  A word-for-word call script for checking out-of-network mental health benefits, the service codes to ask about, and a fill-in table for the answers.
• Superbills and Out-of-Network Claims: A Step-by-Step Guide to Submitting a Superbill
  What goes on a superbill, how to submit it to your insurer, how to track the explanation of benefits, and what to do if an out-of-network claim is denied.
• Using an HSA or FSA for Psychiatry, Therapy, Lab Tests and Supplements
  Psychiatric care and therapy generally qualify for HSA and FSA funds; supplements usually do not. The IRS rules, 2026 limits and records to keep.
• Good Faith Estimates for Self-Pay Psychiatry: What You Are Entitled To
  If you pay for psychiatry without using insurance, federal rules entitle you to a written good faith estimate. When it is due, what it lists and how disputes work.
• Is Out-of-Pocket Integrative Psychiatry Worth It? A Decision Framework
  An honest framework for deciding whether out-of-network integrative psychiatry is worth it: what it buys, what it does not, and how to run a time-limited trial.

Choosing who treats you

Psychiatrist or nurse practitioner, primary care or specialist, a second opinion or a full switch: how to decide, and how to change care without a gap.

• Getting a Second Opinion on Your Psychiatric Medication
  When to ask another psychiatrist to review your medications, what to bring, how to raise it with your prescriber, and what a consult can and cannot do.
• Switching Psychiatrists Without a Gap in Your Prescriptions
  A practical sequence for switching psychiatrists without a gap in prescriptions, including records requests, controlled-substance rules and stopping risks.
• Keeping Your Therapist While Seeing an Integrative Psychiatrist
  You can usually keep your therapist when you start with a psychiatrist. How split care works, what HIPAA allows, and how to keep both clinicians connected.
• How to Help an Adult Family Member Start Psychiatric Care
  For an adult, the choice to start care is theirs. How to raise it, practical help that works, what HIPAA lets clinicians share with family, and when a situation becomes an emergency in New York.
• Choosing a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist for Your Teen in Brooklyn
  How to choose a psychiatrist for your teen: what the board certification means, who does what, New York consent and privacy rules for minors, and how medication decisions differ for adolescents.
• Should a Psychiatrist or Your Primary Care Doctor Manage Your Antidepressant?
  Most antidepressants are prescribed in primary care. Here is when that works well, when to see a psychiatrist, and what collaborative care adds.
• Signs Your Mental Health Treatment Isn't Working, and What to Ask For
  How long to give treatment, how to measure progress, why partial response is not the goal, which side effects to raise, and which warning signs need urgent contact.
• Ongoing Psychiatric Medication Management: Visit Frequency, Monitoring and Your Role
  Visit rhythm, lab and heart monitoring for common psychiatric medications, and the habits that make ongoing medication care safer and more useful.

Comparing your options

Side-by-side comparisons of the main treatments for depression, anxiety, ADHD and perimenopausal mood symptoms, with what the evidence does and does not show.

• Psychiatrist vs Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner: Differences That Matter
  Training, New York scope-of-practice rules and prescribing compared, plus the situations where a psychiatrist's involvement matters most.
• Integrative Psychiatrist, Functional Medicine Doctor or Naturopath: Who Can Do What
  Integrative, functional and naturopathic care compared by what each license allows, including why New York does not license naturopaths.
• Coaching, Therapy or Psychiatry: Which Kind of Help Do You Need?
  What coaching, licensed therapy and psychiatry can and cannot do, which fits common situations, and the warning signs that coaching alone is not enough.
• Medication, Therapy or Both? What the Evidence Says for Depression and Anxiety
  Combined treatment has the best odds for moderate to severe depression; therapy is often first for mild depression. For anxiety, CBT and SSRIs are both first-line.
• Depression Treatment Options Compared: Therapy, Medication, Lifestyle and Neuromodulation
  A side-by-side map of depression treatments, from psychotherapy and antidepressants to light therapy, augmentation, esketamine, TMS and ECT, with the evidence for each.
• Two Antidepressants Haven't Worked: What a Psychiatrist Considers Next
  Treatment-resistant depression is common and treatable. What a psychiatrist re-checks first, how switching and add-ons compare, and where esketamine, TMS and ECT fit.
• Anxiety Treatment Options Compared: CBT, SSRIs, Buspirone, Benzodiazepines and More
  CBT and SSRIs or SNRIs are first-line for anxiety. A comparison of onset, benefits and risks for buspirone, benzodiazepines, hydroxyzine, pregabalin and supplements.
• SSRI, SNRI or Bupropion: How a First Antidepressant Is Chosen
  SSRIs, SNRIs and bupropion have similar average effects, so the first choice turns on symptoms, side effects, interactions and history. Who should avoid bupropion.
• Adult ADHD Treatment Options Compared: Medication, CBT, Coaching and Lifestyle
  A side-by-side look at adult ADHD treatments: stimulants, FDA-approved non-stimulants, off-label options, CBT, coaching and lifestyle, with what the evidence supports and how people choose.
• Stimulant vs Non-Stimulant ADHD Medication: How to Decide
  Stimulants work faster and help more people on average; non-stimulants avoid controlled-substance rules and misuse risk. How the two compare, and who tends to do better on each.
• Perimenopause Depression: Hormone Therapy, Antidepressants or Both?
  Antidepressants and therapy are front-line for perimenopausal depression; estrogen helps some. How to combine treatments and coordinate your clinicians.

Where to start, by situation

How these articles are written

Every statistic, rule and drug approval in this guide is linked to its source, listed at the end of each article: FDA labels, CMS and IRS guidance, New York State law and peer-reviewed research. Articles do not print fees, because prices change and belong in one place: the insurance and payment page. Nothing here replaces an evaluation by a clinician who knows your history.

Educational information, not medical, tax or legal advice. Decisions about diagnosis, medication and treatment belong with a clinician who knows your history.