Dr. Vandana Rao is focused on a plethora of specialties in psychiatry and general psychology. Knowing this, it’s already a good start at introducing credentials as it’s important to make sure your psychiatrist is able to provide services in a broad spectrum.

We know that mental health is not something that should be treated with a cookie-cutter approach, as everybody’s unique with what they can possibly experience mentally.

We’re glad to see that Dr. Rao is able to utilize her broad expertise in psychiatry to provide clients with compassion and understanding. And when we say clients, that can even include your whole family. 

Dr. Rao is experienced in family therapy as well, so that means multiple people can go to her to receive the same holistic approach to their mental health.

We also like how even if you prefer to change doctors or need to move to a different state, she’s more than willing to refer you to the right people.

Whether it’s through fellow colleagues in psychiatry or medical professionals in general, you’ll be assisted by her quite well in the transitioning process.

It’s also good that her office is open 6 days a week. To add to that, we’ve heard that clients can talk to her through the phone even prior to an actual scheduled appointment.

Though it’s important to note that she would not be able to answer everything in a 3 to 5-minute phone call, of course. Visiting her office is your best bet to get thoroughly assessed.

It’s also important to mention that she does not accept third-party payments. That naturally means your insurance as well.

Though this may definitely be a con for some people, it can be a pro as well since she would spend less time trying to fulfill third-party requirements. Instead, she has more time to spend caring for her clients.

Dr. Ashkan Soltan of MindWell Urgent Care practices child and adolescent psychiatry. This is a good sign that he’s able to attend to mental health issues of varying age groups.

As we know, the nature of problems changes as we grow old. With that, it’s important that a psychiatrist is able to acknowledge those changes and adapt the treatment plan accordingly.

Thankfully, Dr. Soltan is able to do so in a fast and effective manner.

Over at MindWell, he provides same-day appointments and even teleconsultations. We think this is a great feature to have to bring more convenience for his clients. 

Since it’s sadly common to wait a while to access mental health services, being able to contact him and Mindwell’s clinic on the dot can literally be a lifesaver for those that want to avail of it.

When you’re with him, you can expect to be listened to attentively instead of being immediately barraged by hundreds of questions like some doctors do. 

This is a very important thing any good mental health professional must do — simply be a good listener and understand where the client is coming from before coming up with an appropriate reply.

Another thing that we like is that his help doesn’t stop after a session with him. 

He and MindWell also provide a collection of mental health resources and helplines that’ll definitely be useful for different mental health emergencies.

Apparently, though, he’s had some issues with a client’s medication in the past. He wanted to stop the client’s medication even if the client had benefitted a lot from it according to their medical history.

Whether this is a rare lapse in judgment on his part or simply a misunderstanding that was never resolved, it’s nonetheless something that should be kept in mind when choosing him.

Dr. Kishore Sunkara of FocusDFW privately practices psychiatry that caters to adults, teens, and children in the DFW area. 

Looking at this alone, we can tell he’s a very versatile psychiatrist with quite a reach. This also considers the fact that he has over 30 years of experience in practice.

As we said before, being able to provide mental health services for multiple age groups is definitely a big plus for any psychiatrist. 

We like how Dr. Sunkara believes that medication alone wouldn’t be completely effective in treating psychiatric illnesses. The client should have their own role in it as well.

This is why he advocates a holistic approach using various practices, including psychotherapy. Any medication would then be included if deemed necessary.

Another good thing is that his clinic accepts several insurance providers. Some of these include Cigna, Aetna, and UnitedHealthcare. 

He also offers telehealth services, which we think are great when applied specifically to mental health sessions. 

Being able to receive significant mental health services in the comfort of your own home is only one of the many reasons why we love modern technology applied in healthcare.

Though we are curious if these services are still accessible even during the weekends. Considering FocusDFW doesn’t operate on Saturdays and Sundays, this could significantly affect the overall availability of its online mental health services during the weekends.

Dr. Shahla Ali of Allen Psychiatry is a double board-certified interventional psychiatrist, meaning she’s highly specialized in treatments utilizing brain stimulation.

We think this is a pretty unique approach. Her being able to use more modern approaches to psychiatric illnesses is definitely a reason to consider her services.

It’s important to note, though, that more interventional approaches are commonly used for psychiatric illnesses that are resistant to usual psychotropic medication.

With that, it’s really a case-to-case basis when determining the right treatment plan for any client.

Some of the treatments she offers include the likes of esketamine and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) that treat symptoms of depressive disorders. 

Based on that alone, we can tell that her clinic’s fairly advanced in its psychiatric equipment. 

What’s also nice about that is you’ll be awake the whole time and assisted by friendly staff ensuring your utmost comfort and care.

Despite not operating during the weekends, we’re glad that she’s still able to respond fairly quickly to emails during that time. She’s generally easy to contact regardless of her workload.

Another unique thing about Dr. Ali’s services is that she has experience catering to veterans. As we know, veterans could’ve been exposed to a whole different world of psychological challenges during their time of service.

With that, we think it’s great that psychiatrists such as Dr. Ali are able to cater to our veterans’ mental health just like any other individual.

Though a bit of a downside to the nature of her services is that she is focused on people who are at least 18 years old.

Understandably though, psychiatric treatment plans for adults can be a whole different world compared to those for teens and children. 

Regardless, her specialty may not be the best choice for people wanting to have their children’s mental health issues addressed.

Dr. Lisa Fairweather is a psychiatrist that runs her own medical group geared towards treating several common psychiatric conditions among adults.

Though we personally think it would’ve been better if she also catered to children and teens for more versatility, she nonetheless does a very superb job at what she currently specializes in.

With dealing with any client in general, we think she’s got a really good clinical eye that’s able to provide accurate feedback based on what you’re able to share.

We say this because, of course, your doctor could only be as good as how much you’re willing to reveal. We can’t always rely on body language alone, after all. 

Dr. Fairweather acknowledges how important it is to work together with the client rather than just blatantly diagnosing and giving medication.

We like how she’s very transparent and elaborative of any information regarding your whole experience with the clinic.

You’re basically getting a free psychology lesson every time you talk with her. We think this is great in enlightening anybody about mental health in general.

This makes sense considering she’s formally presented different psychiatric topics to an audience of health professionals on several occasions. 

Even after every session, you can expect to experience great aftercare from her. We think it’s great that she elaborately lays out your treatment plan as well as your succeeding sessions.

This is to avoid confusion and ensure you’re following the treatment plan exactly as how she personalized it for your unique case.

What she can definitely improve on, though, is her general telecommunication. She is sometimes hard to contact and her clinic experiences technical difficulties quite frequently. 

This also makes it naturally hard to receive updates and even schedule appointments, which highly affects her availability.