Bio-psycho-social care might be described as a stool with three legs. Our emotional health is a lot like this stool, and all three legs need to be in balance. Bio-psycho-social means integrating treatment of biology (medical), psychology, and social health. Psychotherapy (“talk therapy”) is the “psycho-” portion. Pharmacotherapy (medication) is the “bio-” part.  At Pondworks our targets for emotional health focus on the balance of all three legs of the stool build. The result is a more resilient you!

Austin Psychopharmacology (Medication) Services:

At Pondworks we offer two typical ways for you to engage in treatment.

• Combined One-Provider Treatment: a single Pondworks provider is in charge of integrating your treatment of psychotherapy or psychopharmacology.
• Combined One-Provider Treatment (commonly referred to as split treatment): A Pondworks provider takes usually several sessions on a once or twice weekly basis to develop get to develop a psychotherapy and psychopharmacology plan. Your Pondworks provider handles the psychopharmacology of the plan. He/she may see you often at first, but after a stable and satisfactory result is obtained, he/she sees you less frequently. Psychotherapy continues at a more frequent interval with a separate therapy provider. Learn more about this therapist role on our psychologist page.

Austin Psychotherapy Services:

Pondworks offers both psychotherapy and medication management services. Your Pondworks provider can see you for both psychotherapy as well as medication management. You can also establish a psychotherapy care with an outside psychotherapist and see your Pondworks provider for medication management.

Learn more about our approach to psychotherapy.

Psychiatric Growth Targets For a Psychiatrist:

• Psychiatrists work to provide relief of emotional suffering.
• Psychiatrists integrate treatments to help create life stability.
• Psychiatrists provide structure and remove roadblocks in development for patients to set and reach goals building self-image/esteem.
• Psychiatrists help by improving assertiveness skills needed to productively establish healthy entitlements in professional/personal relationships.
• Austin Psychiatrists help in resolving relationship conflicts contributing to depressed mood or non-productive anxiety.

Learn more on our psychiatrist page.

Psychiatrists Diagnose and Focus on Mental Health Issues

At Pondworks we dedicate time in your initial visits to obtain a comprehensive medical and interpersonal history. The medical history focuses more on the symptoms creating pain or suffering. These lead us to potential diagnoses under the current framework of the DSM. We use this “working idea” of the problem to focus our treatments.

Primary DSM Diagnoses of Focus:

• Major Depression

  Major depression is when you feel low, exhausted and have trouble functioning in your daily life. It is hard to feel much hope or good about yourself when an episode has you in its grip. Psychiatry can make a big difference in alleviating this blight and creating resilience for you in the future.

• Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD / ADD)

  Do you feel bad because you’re making so much effort to improve yourself, but it just doesn’t translate into accomplishing tasks or goals? Or maybe you’re doing ok with these, but notice having to work twice as hard as your peers? You might have ADHD and benefit from treatment.

• Dysthymia

  Psychiatrists often ask questions looking for something that looks like major depression but lasts a long long time. It is a simmering, chronic low mood for maybe for as long as you can remember. It hasn’t ever been so bad as to stop you from going to work, school or taking care of kids, but you know it’s there. Psychiatric treatment with medication and psychotherapy might make a big difference.

• Adjustment Disorders

  Maybe you’ve been doing great, but a new situation like a promotion has happened in your life. Maybe something bad has happened like a trauma or loss in your life. You need help in holding the feelings of change and pushing through and adjusting to them. Psychotherapy driven psychiatry can help!

• Bi-Polar Type II

  Did you know Bi-polar type II is the least reliable DSM diagnosis? A comprehensive psychiatric evaluation with attention to other possible causes can help create a successful treatment plan.

• Generalized Anxiety

  Worry every day for most of the day? Does one worry just get replaced by another like you playing anxiety “whack-a-mole?” Psychiatry plans will include psychotherapy to gently expose and confront your worries combined with judicious medication leading to satisfying results to overcome anxiety.

• Panic Disorder

  Don’t forget panic is a normal part of our human lives from time to time. Psychiatry doesn’t say this a diagnosis unless it hurts you in ways like avoiding your normal daily tasks. Avoidance is what makes this disorder have teeth. You need a gentle voice helping you to confront what are often normal feelings you don’t understand.

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

  When we are hurt or made to feel vulnerable in a way which we can’t feel, think or talk about it,problems can develop. We may feel “keyed up”, can’t relax, rest or sleep. We might find things trigger physical and emotional reactions we can’t control. Psychiatric treatment can help, don’t wait.

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

  Does your mind feel a bit like a bully? Unwanted thoughts or images intrude, and no matter what you try they just don’t stop coming. Do you have thoughts that, if you don’t do things perfectly, something bad will happen? Or that cleaning is so important you neglect healthy life commitments? These can be typical symptoms of OCD. Outpatient psychiatry using medication and talk therapy can help.

• Social Anxiety Treatment/Phobia

  Socializing has many benefits. Some are related to practical things like networking and career advancement. Other benefits include the enjoyment of being involved in a shared event or the excitement of getting closer to another person. If social anxiety forces you to avoid being part of group relationships, you may want to consider seeing a psychiatrist. Psychiatry offers medication and talk therapy treatment to help.

• Personality Disorders

  Step back and ask how many times some impasse or misread of others has led to relationships that just don’t seem stable. Do other people in your life feel dangerous or hard to understand? Personality disorders often show themselves in how stable our relationships are. Please be aware we all have personalities and the point where they become a problem is not easy to define. A caring thoughtful approach with psychotherapy driven psychiatry is important to form a meaningful treatment that leads to positive change for you.