Psychiatric Care | Santa Monica, CA
Psychiatric Care in Santa Monica
Blue Ocean Mental Health provides psychiatric evaluations, medication management and ongoing treatment to adults in Santa Monica. Esder Shin, PMHNP-BC, is a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner licensed throughout California, and she treats anxiety, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, PTSD, eating disorders and panic disorders.
Before You Call
Psychiatric Care From Home
Appointments are held by secure video. That is the whole model now, which for Santa Monica patients means no drive, no parking, and no 45-minute appointment that costs two hours of the day.
What follows is what care actually looks like here, what is treated, and how the first appointment works, so you can decide before you pick up the phone.
What Is Treated
Conditions Treated in Santa Monica
First Visit
Psychiatric Evaluation in Santa Monica
A psychiatric evaluation is a structured clinical interview that produces a working diagnosis and a treatment plan. It is not a form to fill in. The first appointment covers current symptoms and how long they have been going on, past diagnoses and what was tried for them, every medication and supplement you take now, relevant family history, and the parts of daily life the symptoms are interfering with.
Most patients leave the first visit with a working diagnosis and a plan, not a referral to come back and start over. Where the picture is genuinely unclear, which happens most often when anxiety, ADHD and a sleep problem overlap, the plan says so and sets out what the next two visits will rule in or out rather than committing to a label that does not fit.
Diagnostic clarification is a specific area of focus. Patients who arrive after several years of medications that half worked are usually carrying a diagnosis that was correct for one part of the picture and wrong for the rest, and unpicking that is the work of the first few visits.
The evaluation runs longer than a follow-up visit, and it is meant to. Most of what determines whether the first medication choice is the right one comes out of the history rather than the current symptom list: what was tried, at what dose, for how long, and what actually made it stop. Patients who arrive with that information, even roughly remembered, get a better plan out of the first hour.
Attention & Focus
Adult ADHD Evaluation and Treatment in Santa Monica
Adult ADHD rarely looks like the childhood version. It shows up as missed deadlines on work you are capable of doing, a calendar you maintain but do not follow, and a level of effort spent on organization that colleagues do not seem to need. Plenty of Santa Monica professionals reach a psychiatric provider only after a promotion removed the structure that was quietly holding everything together.
Evaluation means ruling out the conditions that imitate it before treating it. Untreated anxiety, chronic short sleep and depression all produce attention and working-memory problems, and treating those as ADHD does not work.
Where ADHD is the right diagnosis, treatment covers stimulant and non-stimulant options, with dosing reviewed at follow-up visits rather than set once and renewed indefinitely. Patients whose current medication fades by mid-afternoon, or whose response has been inconsistent across several trials, do not need to start from zero: bring the prescription and the history of what has been tried.
Treatment-resistant presentations are worth naming separately. Where two or more adequate stimulant trials have failed, the usual answer is not a third stimulant at a higher dose. It is going back to whether the diagnosis carries the whole picture, and whether an untreated mood or sleep problem underneath is capping the response.
Mood
Anxiety Treatment in Santa Monica
Anxiety is the most common reason Santa Monica patients contact this practice, and it rarely arrives on its own. Screening covers generalised anxiety, panic disorder and the physical presentations that send people to a cardiologist first: chest tightness, a racing heart, the sense that something is wrong that does not attach to a specific worry.
Santa Monica patients often arrive having already tried the front-line options through a primary care provider. That history matters: an SSRI that produced side effects at a standard starting dose, or one that helped for three months and then stopped, tells you something about what to try next and what to avoid.
Treatment pairs medication management with brief supportive therapy inside the appointment. That is not a substitute for weekly psychotherapy, and patients who need that are told so and referred. What it does mean is that visits are not a two-minute check on whether the dose is working.
The first medication is a starting point. Response is reviewed at set intervals, and dose, timing or the medication itself changes based on what the patient reports rather than on a fixed schedule.
Mood
Depression Treatment in Santa Monica
Depression treatment starts with a clear picture of how the symptoms are actually showing up: low mood, loss of interest, sleep and appetite changes, concentration that has quietly deteriorated, or the flat, effortful quality that patients often describe as everything taking twice as long.
Depression that does not lift on an antidepressant is sometimes an anxiety disorder the antidepressant was never going to reach, sometimes an untreated bipolar picture, and sometimes a side effect of a medication the patient is already taking for something unrelated. Working out which of those it is comes before changing the dose again.
For patients who have not responded to two or more adequate trials, GeneSight pharmacogenomic testing is available. It narrows the list and explains why a past medication produced side effects at a standard dose. It does not name the drug you should be on, and any clinic that sells it that way is overselling it.
Response is judged against a baseline rather than against how the last week felt. That is the practical reason continuity matters here: telling a medication that is underperforming from a difficult fortnight requires knowing where the patient started, and that is hard to reconstruct from notes written by someone else.
Mood Disorders
Bipolar Disorder Treatment in Santa Monica
Bipolar disorder is a specific area of focus in this practice, and it is the diagnosis most often carried incorrectly by patients who arrive after several years of antidepressants that half worked. Depression that lifts and then overshoots, antidepressants that stop working after a few months, or a first medication trial that produced agitation rather than relief are all reasons to look at the mood history rather than the current episode.
Evaluation covers the full course, not the week you are in. That means asking about periods of reduced sleep without fatigue, spending or decisions that looked out of character in hindsight, and family history, because bipolar II in particular is easy to miss when the hypomanic periods felt like productivity rather than illness.
Treatment covers mood stabilisers and the atypical antipsychotics used at mood doses, with regular review rather than a fixed prescription. Where a patient is already on an antidepressant that is destabilising the picture, unwinding it safely is part of the plan rather than an afterthought.
Ongoing Care
Medication Management in Santa Monica
Medication management is an ongoing relationship, not a repeat prescription. Follow-up visits check whether the medication is working, watch for side effects, and adjust dosing as symptoms or circumstances change. Prescriptions go electronically to the pharmacy you choose.
Complex medication management is a particular focus of this practice: patients on several psychiatric medications at once, patients whose response has been inconsistent across multiple trials, and patients whose psychiatric medications interact with treatment they are getting elsewhere.
Deprescribing is part of the same work. Patients sometimes arrive on a combination that accumulated over years, where each addition made sense at the time and nobody has since asked whether all of it is still doing something. Taking a medication away safely is slower than adding one and it is a normal part of the plan rather than a sign that something went wrong.
Follow-up intervals are set by how a patient is responding, not by a fixed calendar. Early in treatment that usually means shorter, more frequent visits while a medication is being adjusted. Once it is stable the interval stretches out and the visits become about holding what works.
Care From Anywhere
Telepsychiatry for Santa Monica Patients
Telepsychiatry is psychiatric care delivered over a secure video appointment. Evaluation, diagnosis, prescribing and follow-up all work the same way they would in a room, and prescriptions are sent electronically to the pharmacy you already use.
For Santa Monica patients the practical case is simple. A 45-minute appointment that costs 90 minutes of driving gets cancelled eventually, and treatment that depends on consistent follow-up does not survive that pattern. Patients who travel for work, or who split their week between Santa Monica and somewhere else in the state, keep the same provider throughout.
The only requirement is being physically in California at the time of the appointment.
Scope of Care
What This Practice Does Not Treat
Blue Ocean is an adults-only outpatient practice. It is not the right setting for anyone in acute crisis, anyone who needs inpatient care or a higher level of supervision, or anyone whose primary need is weekly psychotherapy rather than psychiatric evaluation and medication.
Where the fit is wrong the practice says so at intake and points toward the right level of care, rather than starting treatment that was never going to be enough. It is also a single-provider practice, so there are periods when new-patient availability is limited.
In an emergency
Call 988
Anyone in immediate danger should call 988 or go to the nearest emergency department. This practice does not provide crisis or emergency services and does not monitor messages outside office hours.
Insurance & Scheduling
Insurance and Scheduling for Santa Monica Patients
Blue Ocean Mental Health is in network with most major plans, including Optum, BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, Cigna Evernorth, Aetna, United Healthcare, United Healthcare Shared Services, Meritain Health, Health Net, Carelon Behavioral Health, UMR and Surest.
Behavioral health benefits are often administered separately from the rest of a plan, which is why a card that says one carrier can route through another for psychiatric care. Check your specific plan on the insurance page before the first visit, or call the office and ask.
Appointments are booked online or by phone at (323) 744-5605. Existing patients use the Valant portal for messages, records and refill requests.
Your Provider
Meet Your Santa Monica-Area Psychiatric Provider
Esder Shin, PMHNP-BC, is a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner licensed to diagnose, treat and prescribe throughout California. She treats anxiety, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, PTSD, eating disorders and panic disorders in adults.
Her approach combines medication management with functional medicine principles and behavioral health strategies, with particular expertise in complex medication management and diagnostic clarification. Patients see the same provider at every visit, which is what makes it possible to tell a medication that is not working from a bad fortnight.
Santa Monica, CA
Book an Appointment
New and existing patients can book online or call (323) 744-5605. Appointments are held by secure video anywhere in California.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a psychiatric provider near Santa Monica accepting new patients?
Yes. Esder Shin, PMHNP-BC, is a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner currently accepting new adult patients in Santa Monica, with first appointments typically available within days rather than months.
What happens during a psychiatric evaluation?
A psychiatric evaluation is a structured clinical interview covering current symptoms, past diagnoses and what was tried for them, current medications and relevant family history. It runs longer than a follow-up visit and usually ends with a working diagnosis and a proposed treatment plan in the same session.
Can a psychiatric nurse practitioner prescribe ADHD and other psychiatric medications?
Yes. A board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner can evaluate, diagnose and prescribe psychiatric medication in California, including stimulant and non-stimulant medication for adult ADHD.
Do you treat bipolar disorder in Santa Monica?
Yes. Bipolar disorder is a specific focus of this practice, including bipolar II and cases previously treated as depression. Evaluation covers the full mood history rather than only the current episode, and treatment covers mood stabilisers and atypical antipsychotics at mood doses.
Do you accept insurance for psychiatric care in Santa Monica?
Most major plans are accepted, including Optum, Aetna, Cigna, BlueCross BlueShield and United Healthcare. Behavioral health is often administered separately from medical benefits, so confirm your specific plan before the first appointment.
Do I need to travel for an appointment?
No. All appointments are held by secure video, anywhere in California. There is nothing to drive to and no waiting room.
How soon can I get an appointment for psychiatric care near Santa Monica?
First appointments are typically scheduled within days. Booking runs through the online scheduler or by phone, and the intake paperwork happens after the appointment is on the calendar rather than as a condition of getting one.
