SERVICES DR. LISA JACOBS
Diagnostic consultations
“Why are things so difficult? Is this normal? What happened to my kid? If I’m so smart, why is everything so hard for me?”
It is painful to see those we love suffer or to feel stuck ourselves. Whether rendering a first or tenth opinion, I strive to provide a comprehensive assessment that provides a meaningful path forward. I try to make consultations efficient and focused on tangible next steps, to effect change as quickly as possibly.
I take into account biological, environmental, genetic, and behavioral contributors to distress and use validated scales to inform my evaluation. I strive to listen and understand my patients in a compassionate and nonjudgmental fashion and to elicit the observations and knowledge of family members and other treatment providers and engage them in treatment planning.
Medication management
Medications are life-changing and life-saving tools that must be used mindfully, cautiously, and specifically. Not everyone needs medication. Not everyone needs the same dose or the same kind of medication. Medication can be like getting prescription glasses, a tool to see and navigate the world clearly, with direction and purpose and a way to level the playing field between those with and without a disability.
When used appropriately, medication can allow people to accomplish things they never thought possible, to perform better at school, work, and in relationships, to maintain purpose and balance, to feel like their true and best selves and to reduce suffering. I believe that no one should have to tolerate side effects and that there is always a path to finding a treatment that works and is tolerable with collaboration and communication.
However, too much medication, or the wrong medication, can cause as much distress and pain as not taking medication and unfortunately, psychiatric medications are often poorly understood and not prescribed optimally.
I have trained with national experts in pharmacology in ADHD, depression, anxiety, oppositional disorders, OCD, and bipolar disorder and feel well equipped to optimize medication regimens to improve functioning and minimize side effects.
Individual psychotherapy
Therapy is synergistic with medications: both make the other work better, faster. I strive to provide a warm, empathic atmosphere, to use humor and a focus on peoples’ strengths, while tackling difficult material and striving to create helpful and realistic narratives for the past, present, and future. I work to build close relationships with my therapy patients, to understand them and help them understand themselves, to advocate for them, and to help them to cultivate empathy for themselves and others, to ask for and use help, and to recognize and appreciate their assets.
Medications are only effective while they are being taken, but therapeutic changes can last forever. When I provide therapy and medications together, I am in the best position to fully understand and observe symptoms, functioning, and the effects of treatment.
I was trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford. I make a targeted, specific treatment plan for each patient and aim to involve family members and existing treatment providers. Once medications are optimized and focus, anxiety, and mood have improved, people are often able to see bigger gains from therapy.
Engaging parents and family in treatment
Children, teens, and young adults get better faster when parents are engaged in treatment. Most parents want to help but don’t know how. Challenges with mental health almost always result in some element of shame, secrecy, and isolation, when healing and recovery requires the opposite: transparency, clear communication, and feelings of acceptance and understanding.
I meet with parents and families regularly to keep them engaged in treatment, to help them understand what their children are going through and how to support them, to hear their feedback, input, and concerns regarding the path forward, and to address conflicts and misunderstandings within the family.
Parents can do an enormous amount to support treatment and recovery and my goal is to empower and equip them to do so.