What are your hours of operation?

Tuesday-Friday 8:30 am-4:30 pm

If you need an appointment outside of these hours please ask and I will try to accommodate your schedule.

IN-PERSON Individual and Group Culinary Art Therapy appointments will be scheduled on Saturdays.

Contact me let’s get cookin’!

What are your rates?

Rates can be found here.

What is the process of getting an appointment?

Please fill out the contact form on this website. I will email you to you to obtain your insurance information and schedule your appointment.

Please use this form if it is your first time contacting me.

What if can’t make my appointment?

Missed appointments or appointments cancelled within 24 hours of your scheduled appointment time will be charged the full price of the appointment. Payment is expected in full before you will be rescheduled.

Because medication is sent to your pharmacy at the time of your appointment, you may be faced with running out of medication should you cancel or miss your appointment. If you missed your last appointment, you would need to reschedule an appointment for a “bridge” prescription to be sent to your pharmacy until your scheduled appointment. Please note, this will not apply to controlled substance prescriptions. Early refills of controlled substances are not allowed. No refills on controlled substances without an appointment. If you are taking a benzodiazepine please be aware that it may be life-threatening to abruptly stop these medications, so you may be referred to your local emergency department for assistance. Your safety is my number one concern.

Do you take insurance?

At this time we accept the following Insurance plans:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield

• United Healthcare

• Cigna

• MedCost

• Aetna

• Friday Health

Are the groups covered by insurance?

We accept cash only at this time for group culinary arts therapy/mindfulness/mental wellness/skill building offerings.

Medication management patients will be provided a super bill to file your own claim.

What happens to all the food after we cook it?

Hopefully you will be taking it home to feed yourself and/or your family! Other groups will be like a “mental wellness dinner party” where we share the meal created by the group and continue discussions of the evening’s topic Giving back to our community is a very important part of this practice. Any leftover/unopened ingredients will be donated to feed hungry families. Certain classes will be based on the idea that giving back to others helps our own mental health. Be on the lookout for that menu offering entitled “No such thing as a selfless good deed.”

Can I make payments?

Payment in full is expected at time of service. Once you are enrolled as a patient your credit, debit, or HSA/FSA card on file will be used to collect payment. Your appointment will begin once payment is received.

Why was I charged for a phone call?

In my experience, I can spend up to 1-3 hours per day in "indirect" patient care, doing things like answering email, phone calls, filling out paperwork, etc. Since I do not bill for these services these longer conversations with you between billable appointment times it has the tendency to limit my availability to you and others as well as potentially having to raise the cost of office appointments to cover my losses. I believe that it is fair and simple to charge per service based on an hourly rate. If you do not utilize these services, you are not paying for them. On the other hand, when you need these services your provider is there for you and will not rush you. Please note that your credit card will be charged at the time of service for clinical phone calls. Pricing for those times will be discussed and you may feel your concerns can wait until your appointment time. You will not be billed for phone calls relating to medication side effects, scheduling, billing, or other non-clinical questions. These additional fees will be determined and discussed at the time of service and will vary according to complexity and time spent on clinical concerns outside of scheduled appointment times. 

What about after hours?

I do not yet have an on call service. I will do my best to make sure your needs are met during your appointment so you potentially won’t need me after hours. Protocol for after hours is as follows: If it is a mental health or physical emergency please call 911 or visit your local emergency department. If you have a medication reaction that is life threatening including suicidal thoughts, any type of rash, swelling of the lips, face, tongue, difficulty swallowing/breathing please go to the emergency room. I will be available between 8am-6pm daily (exception if I am with a patient during clinic hours, when I am with family, mindfully eating, or exercising-yoga rules!!!)

What if I am not able to reduce my medication? Will I be fired from your practice?

Absolutely not! I don’t believe in “firing” patients. Medication tapers can be slowed, and as I hope you will see, adding other activities of self-care might make the process much easier. I want what is safest and best for my patients, so if you have a very complex case or you are taking high doses of multiple medications I may refer you to someone to manage your medications, but the culinary therapeutic groups will be available, engaging, and FUN! So I invite you to join me whether or not I am comfortable managing your medications.

What if I take controlled substances?

Persons taking controlled substances will be seen at this practice; however, my first concern is your SAFETY, so we have to adhere to strict policies and procedures involving controlled substances.

**All persons who are prescribed a controlled substance will be seen IN-PERSON at least once annually.

- All persons who are prescribed controlled substances will be required first to sign a controlled substance contract.

- All persons who are prescribed controlled substances will be looked up on the controlled substance database at each appointment.

- Any doses of the following medications (lorazepam, alprazolam, and clonazepam) above 2 mg will need to sign an agreement to SLOWLY taper your dose with the goal being sparing use of a benzodiazepine as needed.

- No benzodiazepines will be prescribed to those on scheduled opiates for chronic pain management. This is a potentially dangerous combination of medication that could stop your breathing.

- Any child ages 6-18 will need current height, weight, and vital signs to be prescribed stimulants

- Adults ages 40 and over will be asked to have a letter from their primary care doctor attesting to your cardiac health as well as a current set of vital signs in order to be prescribed stimulants

- No patients will be accepted for medication management who are on a scheduled benzodiazepine plus a scheduled stimulant and are not willing to try to change that combination. Let’s take the time to find out what’s really going on before prescribing 2 medications that can counteract each other! I am here to help.

Privacy:

Any confidential information you disclose during your appointments, or any other sensitive information obtained will be held in confidence unless you sign a release of information allowing Food For Thought to disclose such information or where required to disclose such information by law.

By signing a release of information you are agreeing to the disclosure of confidential information where such disclosure is necessary to obtain medical records from your primary care provider, authorization, or payment for your treatment. By signing a release of information, you are agreeing to the disclosure of confidential information related to your treatment to other physicians (primary care or specialist), therapists, and other caregivers or community resources, with the goal of a team approach enabling the best and safest care possible. We strongly encourage release of medical records so that we can have access to all of your prescription information from other providers. It cannot be stressed enough how much your safety is important to us. Some of the medications we prescribe may interact with something you are already taking.

A complete medication list is necessary for completion of a full medication interaction check-which is done at every initial evaluation as well as if you are prescribed a new medication by another provider.

I am legally required to disclose the following concerns:
• If it is determined that you are a clear and imminent danger to yourself or another person. Entities that will be notified may include but are not limited to family members, mobile crisis, your local hospital, and/or law enforcement.
• Suspicion that child or elder abuse has occurred. The law requires that it be reported to the proper authorities.
• If a Judge orders disclosure of information that would be necessary for ruling on legal matters and in the interest of proper justice being administered.