Psychiatric Medication Management
Comprehensive Care. Your Way.
Sometimes, Therapy Alone Isn’t Enough
Trauma does not just live in your memories. It lives in your body and in your nervous system. And for many people, it also lives in the chemistry of their brain. The thoughts that won’t stop. The sleep that never comes. The anxiety that greets you every morning before your feet hit the floor. The depression that makes even small tasks feel like climbing a mountain.
Therapy is powerful. Ketamine therapy can be life-changing. But sometimes, the brain needs more support than either of those things can provide on their own – particularly if you are in need of stabilization as you begin treatment. That’s not a failure – it’s just biology.
Psychiatric medication — when used thoughtfully, carefully, and in partnership with a skilled provider — can be a very powerful tool in a person’s healing. It can quiet the noise enough to let the real work begin. It can stabilize the ground beneath your feet so that therapy has somewhere solid to land.
At Kismet, we have a psychiatric mental health prescribers on our team who do exactly that work. They are part of a larger care team that can provide their expertise to a treatment plan tailored for you.
What Psychiatric Medication Management Actually Looks Like
A lot of people don’t know what to expect when they come in for medication management. They imagine a quick appointment, a few standard questions, and a prescription handed across a desk. That is not how we do it here.
Your First Appointment: The Full Picture
Before anything else, our prescribers take the time to understand your full story. Your first appointment is a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation. That means they will ask about your current symptoms — what you’re experiencing, how long it’s been happening, and how it’s affecting your daily life. They will also ask about your medical history, any medications you’ve tried in the past, what worked, what didn’t, and what side-effects you experienced.
They will want to understand your trauma history, your family history of mental health conditions, your sleep patterns, your appetite, your relationships, and your general sense of wellbeing. This is not just a checklist. It is a conversation. They are building a complete picture of who you are so that any recommendations they make are tailored specifically to you.
At the end of that first appointment, they may recommend a specific medication or recommend genetic testing to help narrow down what medication may work for your body specifically. They are here to answers your questions and explain why certain medications may be recommended for you.
Ongoing Monitoring and Adjustment
Psychiatric medication is not a ‘set it and forget it’ situation. The brain is complex. What works for one person may not work for another, even if they have the same diagnosis. Finding the right medication — or the right combination of medications — often takes time and careful adjustment.
Our prescribers monitor how you respond to a given medication. They track whether your symptoms are improving and watch for side effects. They check in regularly to see how you are feeling — not just clinically, but as a human being. Most importantly, their office is in the same space that your other providers are occupying, and (with your permission) can speak to each other in real time about what is happening with you.
Education and Shared Decision-Making
One of the things our prescribers care most about is making sure you understand what is happening in your own care. They will explain what each medication does, how it works in the brain, what you might expect to feel in the first few weeks, and what signs to watch for.
You are not a passive recipient of care here. You are a partner in it. If you have concerns about a medication, those concerns matter. If you want to explore alternatives, that conversation is welcome. If you want to understand the science behind what they are recommending, they will explain it in plain language. Shared decision-making is not just a phrase we use. It is how we actually practice.
Conditions We Can Address with Medication Management
Our prescribers are trained to evaluate and treat a broad range of mental health conditions. Some of the most common ones we see include:
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — including complex PTSD, where trauma has been ongoing or began early in life. Medication can be an important part of stabilizing the nervous system enough to engage in trauma-focused therapy.
Depression — including major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, and treatment-resistant depression that has not responded to previous interventions.
Anxiety disorders — including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety, and anxiety that develops as a result of trauma.
Bipolar disorder — including bipolar I, bipolar II, and cyclothymia, where mood stabilization is often an essential foundation for any other treatment.
ADHD — including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adults, which is frequently underdiagnosed and often co-occurs with anxiety and trauma.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), sleep disorders, and other conditions that intersect with trauma and mental health.
Many of the clients we see carry more than one diagnosis. Trauma and depression often travel together. Anxiety and ADHD overlap in complicated ways. Our prescribers are skilled at sorting through that complexity and helping you understand what’s actually driving your symptoms — and what the most effective approach might be.
What Makes Kismet Different: An Integrated Team That Talks to Each Other
This is the part that sets Kismet apart from almost all other mental health practices. At Kismet, your care team actually communicates. We do not work in silos. We do not send you to see multiple providers in different buildings who never compare notes. We are all under one roof — and more importantly, we operate as a genuine team.
Our team includes:
Our prescribers who handle psychiatric evaluation and medication management. They brings medical expertise and a deep understanding of how psychiatric medications interact with the brain’s stress response systems.
Our trauma-focused psychotherapists, who are trained in specialized approaches including EMDR, Brainspotting, and Internal Family Systems therapy. These are not general talk therapists (although talking and a caring relationship are always a part of the process). They are clinicians who understand the neuroscience of trauma and know how to work with it directly.
Our ketamine therapy team, which includes both medical oversight and therapeutic support.
These three pillars of care — psychiatric medication, trauma psychotherapy, and ketamine therapy — rarely exist together in a single practice. Most clients who want all three have to piece it together themselves, coordinating between multiple providers who may not know anything about what the others are doing. That fragmented approach is one of the most significant barriers to healing. We built Kismet specifically to eliminate it.
What Integrated Care Looks Like in Practice
When you come to Kismet, your providers talk to each other — with your knowledge and consent. If you are working with a therapist on trauma processing and also seeing our prescriber for medication management, those two providers are in communication. They know what you are working on in therapy. They understand where you are in your healing. They coordinate their approaches so that what happens in one room supports what happens in the other.
If you are also receiving ketamine therapy, the integration goes even deeper. Ketamine can significantly lower anxiety and open psychological space for reflection and processing. But without intentional support before and after those sessions, that window often closes without being fully used. Our therapists provide preparation and integration support so that the medicine doesn’t just create an experience — it creates lasting change.
And when our prescriber is managing your medications, they are doing so with full awareness of where you are in your ketamine therapy and your trauma work. They know that certain medications can interact with ketamine. They know that stabilizing your mood pharmacologically may help you tolerate deeper trauma processing in therapy. They take all of that into account when they make their recommendations.
This is what real integrated care looks like. Not a referral network. Not separate files in separate offices. A coordinated team working on your behalf.
You Choose How You Want to Work With Us
We want to be clear about something important – You DO NOT have to participate in every service we offer. You are not obligated to add ketamine therapy to your care plan if you are not interested. No one will tell you that you cannot see our prescriber unless you also sign up for therapy.
Psychiatric medication management is available as a standalone service. If you are looking for a thoughtful, trauma-informed psychiatric provider in Frederick, Maryland and you simply want help managing your medications, you are welcome here. You do not need to use any other service to access this one.
The same is true in reverse. If you are already in therapy and receiving ketamine infusions and you simply want to add medication management to the picture, we can do that. We will coordinate with your existing providers — whether they are inside our practice or outside of it — to make sure everyone is working together.
Our goal is to help you heal. Sometimes that means one service. Sometimes it means three. We follow your lead.
Is Psychiatric Medication Management Right for You?
This is a question that requires deep consideration, and possibly a consultation with our prescriber. There are people whose brain chemistry is working against them in ways that make everything else harder. When that is the case, medication can change the equation. It can make the mornings more manageable. It can take the edge off the anxiety enough to actually be present in a therapy session. It can give you enough stability to start making the changes you have been trying to make for years.
You might benefit from a medication evaluation if you have tried therapy before and found it difficult to make progress, if you are experiencing symptoms that significantly interfere with your daily functioning, if you have a family history of mental health conditions that have responded well to medication, or if you are simply curious about whether there is a biological component to what you are experiencing.
You might also consider medication management if you are currently on psychiatric medications but feel like they are not working as well as they should — or if you have been prescribed medications by a primary care provider and want to work with a specialist who focuses specifically on psychiatric care.
A consultation with our prescribers is not a commitment to anything. It is a conversation. They will listen to what you are experiencing, share her clinical perspective, and help you make an informed decision about whether medication might be a useful tool in your healing.
You Deserve Care That Covers Every Angle
Healing from trauma is not a linear process. It does not follow a simple protocol. It requires tools — sometimes many tools, used in combination, adapted over time as you grow and change. Psychiatric medication management is one of those tools. For the right person, at the right time, it can make a profound difference.
At Kismet, we have built something that most people struggling with trauma have never had access to before: a team of specialists who actually work together, under one roof, focused on one thing. Your healing. Whether you come to us for medication management alone or as part of a comprehensive care plan that includes trauma therapy and ketamine treatment, you will be seen, heard, and cared for by people who take this work seriously.
You do not have to figure this out alone. You do not have to coordinate your own care between providers who have never spoken to each other. You can walk through one door and find an entire team ready to help.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. You can contact us directly to schedule an evaluation. We do not require a referral from another provider.
Most insurance plans cover psychiatric medications when prescribed by a qualified provider. Coverage for the medication management appointments themselves varies by plan. We recommend checking with your insurance company about your specific benefits. We are happy to provide you with the documentation you need to submit for out-of-network reimbursement if applicable.
That is completely fine and actually very common. Our prescribers will do a thorough review of your current medications as part of your initial evaluation. They will look at what you are taking, how it is working, and whether any adjustments might be beneficial. They can coordinate with your other med management providers to make sure everyone is on the same page.
No. Medication management is available as a standalone service. You are welcome to use it without accessing any other service we offer. That said, if you are also interested in our trauma therapy or ketamine therapy services, our team will coordinate your care across all of those areas.
The frequency of appointments depends on where you are in your care. When you are first starting a medication or making adjustments, you may be seen more frequently — sometimes every few weeks — so that we can monitor how you are responding. Once your medications are stable and you are doing well, appointments may be spaced further apart. Our prescribers will give you a clear picture of what to expect during your initial evaluation.
Ketamine therapy at Kismet is medically supervised by Meagan Steele, our Medical Director. Our prescribers handle psychiatric medication management, which is a separate role, though both providers are part of the same integrated team and communicate with each other. If you are receiving both ketamine therapy and psychiatric medication management, our team will coordinate closely to make sure your medications and your ketamine treatment are working together safely and effectively.
Yes. Treatment-resistant depression and anxiety are areas where our practice has particular depth, precisely because we offer ketamine therapy alongside medication management. Ketamine has shown remarkable effectiveness for people who have not responded to traditional antidepressants. Our prescribers also have experience with newer medication approaches and augmentation strategies that many general practitioners are not familiar with. If you have been through multiple medications without success, that history is important information — and it is exactly the kind of complex case our team is built to help with.