Conditions
We Treat
We treat adults living with a wide range of psychiatric conditions, from depression and anxiety to serious mental illness and substance use disorder. Our psychiatry and therapy teams work together inside one practice. In-person in San Francisco or by telehealth anywhere in California.
Jump to a conditionDepression
Feeling numb, exhausted, or like you are stuck behind glass looking out at your own life.
Most people with depression are not sad in the way they expected. They are tired in a way sleep does not fix, disconnected from things they used to care about, and unsure why. It is not about trying harder. Your psychiatric provider and therapist work together in one practice, tracking your symptoms at every visit with the PHQ-9 so your plan adjusts as you do. For patients who have not responded to antidepressants, we offer Spravato, one of a small number of certified clinics in San Francisco.
Anxiety
Racing thoughts, constant worry, or panic that simply will not switch off.
Anxiety is not just worry. It quietly reorganizes your life around avoidance, and the world gets smaller without you quite noticing when it started. We treat all presentations, from generalized anxiety and panic disorder to social anxiety and health anxiety, with care shaped around your specific pattern. Therapy and medication are coordinated in one practice, both tracking the same clinical measures.
PTSD & Trauma
Trauma shows up in sleep, in the body, in relationships. And it is absolutely treatable.
PTSD does not always look like flashbacks. It often shows up as hypervigilance, emotional numbness, a persistent sense that something is wrong you cannot quite name, or a body that stays braced for something that already happened. We provide trauma-informed psychiatric care coordinated directly with therapy specialists, tracking symptoms with the PC-PTSD-5 at every visit.
OCD
Intrusive thoughts and compulsions that take over your head, and your day.
OCD is not a quirk about tidiness. Many of the most distressing presentations involve no visible behavior at all. The thoughts are the problem, and they respond to the right treatment: Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy coordinated with psychiatric medication management. We treat all subtypes, including harm OCD, scrupulosity, relationship OCD, and pure-O presentations.
Chronic Stress & Burnout
Exhausted by a life that looks fine from the outside and feels completely unsustainable from within.
When rest does not restore you, something more than rest is probably needed. Burnout frequently co-occurs with or triggers clinical anxiety and depression, and when that is the case, lifestyle changes alone will not be enough. We start by understanding what is actually driving the pattern, not just managing symptoms on the surface, with outcomes tracked at every visit using validated clinical tools.
Postpartum Depression
When early parenthood feels heavy, frightening, or completely unlike you.
Postpartum depression affects roughly 1 in 7 new mothers and has nothing to do with how much you love your baby or how prepared you were. It is a clinical condition with a biological basis, and it is among the most treatable we see. We offer breastfeeding-compatible medication options when appropriate, and telehealth throughout California for the weeks when getting to an office is genuinely hard.
Substance Use Disorder
When substance use has become the way you cope, and you are ready for something different.
Most people are using to manage something underneath: depression that was never treated, anxiety that found no other outlet, trauma that had nowhere else to go. We treat both the substance use and the underlying conditions simultaneously. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT), including buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, is available when appropriate. Sobriety is not a prerequisite for starting care.
Schizophrenia & Psychosis
Serious mental illness deserves serious, consistent care. Not another referral somewhere else.
Many outpatient practices decline to treat schizophrenia and serious mental illness. Defina was built to include these patients. We provide ongoing psychiatric care with experience in complex antipsychotic regimens, clozapine management, and coordinating with families and community supports. You deserve a long-term care relationship, not repeated handoffs.
Bipolar Disorder
Highs and lows that disrupt sleep, relationships, work, and your sense of who you are.
Bipolar disorder requires precision. The wrong medication at the wrong moment can destabilize rather than stabilize, and many patients are treated for depression alone for years before the full pattern becomes clear. We treat Bipolar I, II, and cyclothymia with careful diagnostic evaluation, mood stabilization as the foundation, and early warning sign recognition built into the care plan from the start.
Found a condition
that sounds like you?
Schedule with a real clinical conversation. We take the time to understand what you are dealing with, what you have already tried, and what your goals are. Then we build a plan around you.
999 Sutter Street, San Francisco · Hablamos español
Your care starts
right here
If you have been putting this off, this is the moment. Book a first visit and we will take it from there.
In-person at 999 Sutter Street, San Francisco · Telehealth throughout California · care@definahealth.com
Common questions about getting started
These are the questions we hear most often from new patients, before their first visit.