ANUJ GUPTA MD

ADULT PSYCHIATRY IN MANHATTAN

SERVICES

MY PHILOSOPHY:
Effective psychiatric treatment is truly life-changing. Thoughts, emotions, relationships with others, pain, and distress are not abstract concepts, but real phenomena that can be explored, understood, and, most importantly, changed.

INITIAL EVALUATION:
I devote 90 minutes to the initial evaluation, which focuses on your reasons for seeking treatment. During the evaluation, we will work together to clarify and understand your current difficulties.

I prioritize curiosity, warmth, and a thoughtful approach to ensure that people feel comfortable during their initial visit. Most people are surprised by how much relief they feel from being able to speak openly to a person who is specifically trained to understand psychological and emotional distress.

TREATMENT:
I offer years of training and expertise in different forms of therapy and the use of medication, when necessary, to treat psychiatric complaints. Depending on the exact nature of your difficulties, we will determine the most effective treatment plan. Session frequency can vary from weekly to every 3 months, and medications may or may not be included in your treatment.

I emphasize the importance of avoiding communication delays and will quickly return phone calls and emails.

MEDICATION MANAGEMENT:
Many of my patients have started a course of medications during their treatment. Some have continued therapy following the completion of a successful medication trial. Ultimately, it really depends on you, what you’re going through, and what I think is going to help the most.

I understand the confusion caused by the mixed messages surrounding the use of medications. My approach to medication can be summarized in this way: I believe that medications can be very effective for some people, are more effective in combination with therapy in others, and are not necessary for others. I prescribe medication thoughtfully and avoid their unnecessary use. I value honest communication with all of my patients, and I am receptive to their concerns about medications when considering that option.

THERAPY:
People new to treatment typically have many questions about therapy. How is it going to help me? Isn’t it enough to talk to friends or family?

The simplest answer is that therapy involves speaking, in a detailed but focused way, about what’s happening in your life that is causing your current distress. The process of communicating your difficulties leads you and the therapist to make important connections between events in your life.

Making these connections is transformative. It allows you to truly appreciate the impact of past and current events and the ways these events have impacted your thinking, perceptions, emotions, and choices. It also empowers you to make new choices, some of which you may not have realized you had.

Research has demonstrated that therapy is not “just talking”: it is a biological treatment that causes extraordinary, beneficial, and long-lasting changes in different structures in the brain.