Behavioral Medicine

One in three adults report trouble sleeping. Disrupted sleep can have devastating effects on your ability to physically, mentally and emotionally cope with everyday stressors. Behavioral Sleep Medicine (BSM) is a unique sub-specialty devoted to helping patients get restful restorative sleep without the use of sleep medication.

Behavioral sleep medicine is a highly specialized approach (not “sleep hygiene”) designed to address insomnia and other common sleep disorders. There are fewer than 300 board certified BSM providers nationwide and only a handful of certified BSM providers in the Bay Area.

Our sleep experts can help you:

• Fall asleep faster
• Stay asleep through the night and early morning
• Get more restful sleep
• Reduce or eliminate use of sleep medication
• Adjust to continuous positive airway pressure therapies (CPAP) for sleep apnea
• Adjust the body clock (for night owls or morning larks)Reduce effects of jet lag
• Reduce effects of shift-work
• When compared to sleep medications for insomnia behavioral sleep medicine (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in particular) has been shown to be equally as effective without the risk of medication side effects.

Most behavioral sleep medicine interventions are brief, involving an initial evaluation and a limited number of treatment visits focused on improving sleep. If you’re tired of feeling exhausted and fighting to sleep, contact us to set up an appointment with one of our sleep experts.

Sexual health concerns are very common. Nearly 48% of women and 35% of men complain of problems related to sexual health. For most of us, sex and intimacy are essential to the human experience. When things are going well we can take our sexual health for granted. But when something is not working well, it can feel overwhelming, scary, frustrating and may leave one with a sense of helplessness. Fortunately, there are brief, focused and effective treatments available for individuals and/or couples coping with a wide range of sexual concerns including:

• sexual performance anxiety while dating or in a relationship
• low or mismatched sexual desire
• difficulty becoming physically or mentally aroused
• difficulty with orgasm
• erectile dysfunction
• early ejaculation
• delayed ejaculation
• sexual pain
• involuntary vaginal constriction (vaginismus)
• sex after pregnancy
• sex and infertility
• sex after an affair
• sex after cancercompulsive sexual
• behavior
• sexual boredom
• lack of sexual skill
• desire to explore or deepen erotic connection
• desire to explore sexual kinks or fetishes
• consensually non-monogamous relationships

Our highly trained clinicians work with couples and/or individuals to reach their sexual goals and optimize their sexual health. We serve women, men, transgender, gender-queer, queer, lesbian and gay individuals, couples, triads and/or non-traditional relationships who are coping with sexual health or intimacy concerns.

Chronic pain can significantly affect your quality of life and can cause emotional and interpersonal distress. It can increase your suffering from chronic medical conditions, slow your medical recovery time, decrease your body’s response to medical or surgical treatments and complicate your medical conditions. Chronic pain is also correlated with higher rates of anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance and relationship conflict.

Optimal pain management often involves both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. In close collaboration with your pain management team, our clinicians provide techniques and interventions that can help patients suffering from chronic pain to take charge of their healing process. These interventions may involve the following:

• Physical therapy
• exercisesVisualization
• exercisesMindfulness interventions
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for pain
• Stress reduction strategies
• Sleep improvement strategies
• Psycho-education about pain
• Biofeedback
• Relaxation techniques
• Attention to pacing
• Time management

Roughly 75% of the population is considered overweight or obese and losing weight is a huge challenge for most people. Having a 10% reduction in initial weight and having that weight loss maintained for at least one year leads to dramatic health benefits and improvements in quality of life. Our expert team of specialists can help by utilizing some or all of the following treatment strategies that have been shown to work:

• Daily monitoring
• Cognitive therapy
• Understanding the craving to eat when stressed or upset
• Appetite suppressant medication
• Mood stabilization
• Improve social support
• Nutrition consultation
• Meal planning
• Behavioral plan
• Stress-relieving interventions
• Mindful eating
• Behavioral modification
• Problem solving
• Eating in social situations
• High-risk situations
• Restaurant eating
• Assertiveness training
• Recipe modification
• Motivation enhancement
• Relapse prevention

Contact us if you would like us to support you in losing weight. We will work with you on a plan to ensure your success.

Chronic disease or illness is a health condition that either has symptoms on a constant basis or symptoms that flare up occasionally. Chronic illness includes conditions such as: diabetes, heart disease, pulmonary problems, hypertension, fibromyalgia, lupus, stroke and cancer. Our goal is to support you in positive health behaviors, to treat co-occurring psychological challenges such as anxiety, depression and substance use and to coordinate with the full treatment team to ensure excellent wrap-around care. Our approach to chronic disease management may include:

• Symptom monitoring
• Cognitive therapy
• Facilitate treatment adherence
• Improve social support
• Time management
• Connecting behaviors and symptom exacerbation
• Psychotropic medication
• Mood stabilization
• Nutrition consultation
• Behavioral plan
• Stress-relieving interventions
• Behavioral modification
• Problem solving
• High-risk situations
• Assertiveness training
• Motivation enhancement
• Relapse prevention
• Alternative evidence-based therapies

If you’re tired of living with chronic pain, make an appointment with one of our highly trained clinicians who can help.

Addiction to medications, drugs, tobacco, food and alcohol can negatively affect your health, ruin relationships and lower your quality of life. Smoking tobacco, excessive alcohol use and abuse of illicit substances can lead to serious health consequences increasing the risk of stroke, heart disease, cancer and bronchitis. Roughly 90% of lung cancer diagnoses have been linked to smoking. Cutting back or eliminating the use of addictive substances is not easy. Our team will support you in meeting your goals whether that be cutting back or quitting altogether. Our team may suggest:

• Daily monitoring
• Cognitive therapy
• Identifying triggers
• Medication to suppress cravings and effects of substance(s)
• Mood stabilization
• Improve social support
• Stress-relieving interventions
• Behavioral modification
• Problem solving
• High-risk situations
• Assertiveness training
• Motivation enhancement
• Relapse prevention
• Chronic Disease Management

Let us help you break free of the unhealthy habits and addictions that are preventing you from living the life that you want. Contact us to schedule an appointment.