2173 Francisco Boulevard East, Suite J, San Rafael, CA 94901 (415) 233-9009
Michael Ciranni, M.D. Ph.D.
Services
Depression
Bipolar Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Social Phobia
Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Alcohol and Drug Use
Mild Cognitive Impairment
Dementia
Bipolar Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Social Phobia
Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Alcohol and Drug Use
Mild Cognitive Impairment
Dementia
I provide treatment for:
Services I Provide:
Consultation: A process of mutual evaluation. The goals of consultation are: 1) to help you determine if you feel comfortable working with me; 2) to provide me with general sense of you, your background, and your challenges; and 3) to determine if my services could help you deal with the problems you face. We start with a brief no-fee phone conversation to get an overview of your concerns. We follow with an initial 90 minute office visit and one or more 50 minute follow up visits as needed to complete the evaluation. I may request additional information from your family, therapist, physician, or other professionals to clarify some issues. This information can also help integrate our work with your support from these other sources. Subsequent sessions are generally in the form of pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy.
Pharmacotherapy: Also known as medication management. These sessions primarily focus on the evaluation and monitoring of medications for improving cognitive, emotional, or behavioral problems. I will always want to know about what is going on in your life and what you’ve been doing to manage things. Often useful insights or strategies emerge from these discussions, but these sessions do not have the same depth of self-exploration or focus on behavioral modification techniques that occur in psychotherapy sessions. Sessions are usually 20-25 minutes long, and take place once every few weeks when a medication regimen is being established or modified, and every few months once we have a stable and satisfactory regimen. If you work with another therapist, I try to complement our work with your therapy.
Pharmacotherapy: Also known as medication management. These sessions primarily focus on the evaluation and monitoring of medications for improving cognitive, emotional, or behavioral problems. I will always want to know about what is going on in your life and what you’ve been doing to manage things. Often useful insights or strategies emerge from these discussions, but these sessions do not have the same depth of self-exploration or focus on behavioral modification techniques that occur in psychotherapy sessions. Sessions are usually 20-25 minutes long, and take place once every few weeks when a medication regimen is being established or modified, and every few months once we have a stable and satisfactory regimen. If you work with another therapist, I try to complement our work with your therapy.
Psychotherapy: Also known as talk therapy. My psychotherapy style contains three components: 1) clarifying the problem you want to address, 2) understanding how the problem arose and what factors contribute to its persistence, and 3) developing alternate approaches to address the problem. The nature of the problem and our depth of understanding will guide how we explore these three components and what therapy techniques I employ. Psychotherapy sessions are 50 minutes long and typically occur one to three times per week. We will incorporate any pharmacotherapy into these sessions. The process can be challenging and take time, as it often requires being willing and ready to face emotionally painful aspects of yourself or your past. The duration of psychotherapy depends on the type of problems being addressed. Reestablishing a previous satisfactory level of functioning often can be achieved over several weeks or months. However, learning to perceive and react to the world in ways that are radically different from how you have lived thus far can take years. The goals of therapy may change over its course. Increasing insight may uncover other problematic patterns of thinking or behavior worth addressing. We will revisit the goals of therapy and our progress towards them continuously throughout psychotherapy.
Evaluation for a government agency or other third party: I do not specialize in forensic psychiatry. Nonetheless, if you seek a psychiatric evaluation for a government agency or other third party, I will need to obtain additional information from other sources, request and review records, and complete the relevant report or paperwork. Such services require extra time and additional fees.
Payment and Insurance: All fees are due at time of service and all major credit cards accepted. I am an out-of-network provider for all major insurance plans. However, many PPO health plans will cover some portion of the charges. Upon request, I will give you a charge form at the end of each session that you may submit to your insurance for reimbursement. Patients are responsible for filing their own claims.