Integrative Psychiatry for Taos Patients
Integrative psychiatry asks a deeper question: not just what the diagnosis is, but why the symptoms are happening. For Taos patients, Willow & Stone blends evidence-based psychiatry with functional medicine — evaluating the gut-brain connection, nutrition, hormones, and inflammation alongside conventional treatment.
What an integrative approach includes
- ✓Root-cause evaluation, not just a diagnosis code
- ✓Advanced lab consultation (hormones, nutrients, inflammation, genetics)
- ✓Gut-brain and nutritional psychiatry strategies
- ✓Thoughtful medication management when it’s the right tool
- ✓Longer, collaborative appointments
Our Treatment Approach
Dr. Stacey Forbes, DNP, PMHNP-BC, treats the whole person — combining conventional, evidence-based psychiatry with the physiological drivers of mood, focus, and anxiety. Taos patients receive a personalized plan that may include medication, targeted lab work, nutrition, and lifestyle strategies, all delivered by secure telehealth.
Integrative Psychiatry in Taos: the local picture
Taos is a small mountain town with an outsized cultural identity, built on the arts, skiing, and tourism, alongside Taos Pueblo and long-established Hispanic communities whose roots in the valley predate the state. The economy is strongly seasonal: winter and summer bring visitors and work, and the shoulder seasons bring neither. That rhythm produces predictable seasonal financial stress, and combined with the elevation, the winter light, and genuine geographic isolation, it makes seasonal patterns in mood something to evaluate directly rather than treat as incidental.
Getting care in Taos
Taos is a long way from anything: Santa Fe is well over an hour south on mountain roads and Albuquerque considerably further, and winter conditions can make either trip unwise. Local behavioral health capacity is small for the population it serves, and seasonal workers frequently have neither employer coverage nor a schedule that accommodates a full day away. Telehealth removes the mountain drive, which in this part of New Mexico is the single largest practical obstacle to consistent psychiatric care.
What this means for Taos patients
Seasonal work brings pronounced swings in activity, sleep, daylight exposure, and income across the year. Evaluating mood against that annual pattern — rather than at a single point in it — is what makes the assessment accurate.
Agricultural and outdoor work carries physical health factors — chronic pain, injury, seasonal financial stress — that interact directly with mood. Evaluating those together is more useful than treating a psychiatric symptom as though it were unconnected to the rest of a person's life.
Patients who have already tried conventional treatment without a full response are often looking for something more thorough than another prescription. An integrative evaluation examines labs, hormones, sleep, and nutrition as contributors rather than as an alternative to psychiatric care.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is integrative psychiatry evidence-based?
Yes. It integrates conventional, evidence-based psychiatry with well-researched contributors to mental health such as nutrition, sleep, inflammation, and the gut-brain axis.
Do you still prescribe medication?
Absolutely — medication is one important tool. The integrative difference is that we also address underlying factors so treatment works better for Taos patients.
Can I get integrative psychiatry by telehealth in Taos?
Yes. Taos patients receive the full integrative approach — including lab guidance — through secure telehealth.
Do you take insurance for integrative psychiatry in Taos?
Willow & Stone is cash-pay and provides superbills for out-of-network reimbursement — no prior authorizations for Taos patients.
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.
Integrative Psychiatry in Nearby Communities
Willow & Stone also provides integrative psychiatry by telehealth to Santa Fe, and throughout the Taos County.
Related reading
Why Talk Therapy Alone Isn’t Always Enough · 5 Gut Health Warning Signs
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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.