Mental Health Care for Lakeland
Lakeland sits midway between Tampa and Orlando in Florida's citrus and logistics belt, close enough to both to be referred to either and served well by neither.
Willow & Stone brings doctoral-level, integrative psychiatric care to Lakeland by secure telehealth — combining evidence-based medication management with functional, root-cause strategies. You get longer, unhurried appointments and a whole-person approach, without the commute or the waitlist.
Why Choose Willow & Stone
- ✓Doctoral-level, board-certified psychiatric provider (Dr. Stacey Forbes, DNP, PMHNP-BC)
- ✓Integrative & functional approach — gut-brain axis, nutrition, labs, root causes
- ✓GeneSight pharmacogenomic testing to personalize medication
- ✓Experienced with treatment-resistant depression — root-cause workup, not just the next prescription
- ✓Cash-pay transparency — no insurance delays or prior authorizations
- ✓Telehealth-first convenience for Lakeland residents
Lakeland in practice
Lakeland sits midway along the interstate between Tampa and Orlando, in the middle of Florida's citrus belt and one of the state's largest distribution and logistics corridors. Warehouse, freight, and agricultural work runs early, long, and around the clock, and Polk County retains a substantial rural population beyond the city itself. The result is a working population with limited schedule control and limited paid leave, in a place where psychiatric care tends to be sought at a point of crisis rather than early.
Getting care in Lakeland
Lakeland's position between two major metros is a disadvantage rather than an advantage for specialty care: residents are referred to Tampa or Orlando, each roughly an hour away, and neither metro's providers treat Polk County as their catchment. For an hourly worker, each of those appointments costs unpaid time as well as travel. That arithmetic explains a great deal of apparent non-adherence that gets recorded as a patient problem when it is really a scheduling one.
What Lakeland patients need from a psychiatric practice
Shift workers are failed by conventional scheduling more than by anything else. When the clinic is open exactly during working hours, care does not happen — and what looks like disengagement is almost always a roster problem. Appointment times that can move with a rotation are the single most useful thing a practice can offer this population.
Where the nearest psychiatric specialist is an hour or more away, the practical consequence is not slower care but absent care — particularly for the short, frequent follow-ups that medication management depends on. A practice serving this kind of community has to make routine contact cheap in time, or the treatment plan quietly becomes an evaluation and nothing after it.
Fast-growing family communities generate adolescent psychiatric demand faster than local capacity expands to meet it, and waiting months for an evaluation is genuinely costly at an age where a school year is a long time. Families here also need appointment times that do not require pulling a teenager out of school for every routine follow-up.
Transparent Cash-Pay Care
Willow & Stone is a direct-pay practice, so Lakeland patients skip insurance delays, prior authorizations, and surprise bills. We provide a superbill you can submit to your insurer for possible out-of-network reimbursement, and we're happy to review current rates with you before you book.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Willow & Stone accept patients from Lakeland, FL?
Yes. Dr. Stacey Forbes, DNP, PMHNP-BC, provides telehealth psychiatric care to patients located in Lakeland and throughout Florida.
Do I have to travel to be seen?
No — most care is delivered by secure video, so Lakeland patients are seen from home. Our Arlington, TX office is also available for in-person visits.
What services do you offer Lakeland patients?
ADHD Treatment, and Depression Treatment. Telepsychiatry, GeneSight pharmacogenomic testing, and integrative psychiatric evaluation are also available to patients throughout Florida.
Do you take insurance?
We are a cash-pay practice and provide superbills for possible out-of-network reimbursement — no prior authorizations or referrals required.
How do I get started in Lakeland?
Book a telehealth consultation online or call (469) 726-3768. Your first visit is a comprehensive intake with Dr. Forbes.
If you need help right now
Willow & Stone is an outpatient practice and is not an emergency service. If you or someone you care about is in immediate danger, call 911.
For urgent mental health support at any hour, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. Both are free, confidential, and available 24/7 nationwide.
Your healing begins with a conversation.
Start with a cash-pay telehealth consultation — no insurance, no prior authorizations, no waitlists.
Schedule Your ConsultationOr call (469) 726-3768
If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911.