Approach to Treatment - Lisa Toy, APRN-BC

Philosophy of Care

I come to mental health care via humankind’s most enduring healing art--nursing. Nursing philosophy is holistic, which means that I look at the “big picture” of your life for inherent strengths while exploring the struggles that led you to seek help.

Having worked in nursing and mental health for nearly two decades, I am no stranger to suffering, triumph, and transformation. My professional experiences in a variety of settings and roles have given me different angles on health and wellness across the life cycle.

My comfort with hormonal physiology, perinatal mood disorders, and the personal and marital/relationship adjustment after having a baby are of particular benefit to those experiencing infertility, pregnancy loss, pregnancy or postpartum depression, bipolar, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders.

Individualized Treatment Plans

As a Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Nurse (APRN-BC), I can offer you a holistic and evidence-based approach to treating your mental health symptoms. Since many emotional issues and psychiatric symptoms have several root causes, your treatment will be multifaceted as you learn what makes you feel healthy and happy. Together, we will choose the focus of our efforts and your path to feeling well.

During each session I offer empathic listening and in-depth discussion to relieve your emotional pain and increase your insight, making way for lasting changes.

Your treatment with me is likely to include psycho-education, stress reduction, and an emphasis on coping skills and effective self-care to optimize your resilience.

Psychotherapy is an invaluable part of recovery for many of my clients. It guides an individual to cultivate helpful patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in order to improve self-esteem, coping skills and relationships. I make it a very high priority to collaborate closely with a client's psychotherapist, in an effort to best formulate an individualized treatment plan.

Psychiatric medications may be useful to address the biological origins of distress. For example, our genetic make-up and hormones affect how we experience daily life and stress. If anxiety, depression, mood changes, or other symptoms are intense and persistent, treatment with medication can help. Medications may lead to improvement in your ability to cultivate additional relief through other means such as exercise, social support, and psychotherapy.

Sometimes, individuals arrive taking ineffective medications, or having uncomfortable side effects. I will address your medication-related concerns while minimizing the discomfort that can accompany changes.

Since all of us are one part of a larger system of relationships, I can include caring partners and other family members, in the occasional session. With your permission, I can educate loved ones in an emotionally safe, ethical, and confidential atmosphere, in order to improve support from the people who matter most to you.