Mental Health Care for Bellingham
Bellingham is a college town on Bellingham Bay, built around Western Washington University and serving as the medical centre for Whatcom County, a short drive from the Canadian border.
Willow & Stone brings doctoral-level, integrative psychiatric care to Bellingham 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 Bellingham residents
Bellingham in practice
Bellingham sits on Bellingham Bay between the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades, about twenty miles south of the Canadian border. Western Washington University brings a large student population into a city of modest size, and with it first-episode anxiety and depression and first-time adult ADHD evaluations. Outdoor recreation and tourism drive a seasonal part of the local economy, around Mount Baker in winter and the waterfront and islands in summer. Bellingham is also the medical centre for Whatcom County, whose farming communities and small towns run north to the border and east into the mountains.
Getting care in Bellingham
Bellingham's psychiatric capacity is modest for the region that depends on it, and the next tier of specialty care is more than an hour and a half south toward Seattle. Students need care that survives the academic calendar, and they lose continuity every summer when they go home. Seasonal workers cannot spare a day during their busy months. Rural Whatcom patients add a drive to every follow-up. Video visits hold one relationship across the school year and the seasons, as long as the patient is in Washington when they log on.
What Bellingham patients need from a psychiatric practice
West of the Cascades, the season to plan around is the long grey stretch from autumn into spring, when days are short and the sky is often overcast for weeks. Seasonal changes in mood, sleep, energy, and concentration are a routine part of the evaluation here, not an afterthought once a medication has failed through a winter. Planning ahead — reviewing a treatment plan before the dark months, and keeping appointments that do not depend on driving through rain and early darkness — makes winter care far more effective.
A student population needs psychiatric care that survives the academic calendar. Campus services are built for short-term support and rarely provide ongoing medication management, and the handoff between them and an outside prescriber is where treatment most often lapses. Continuity across semesters and summers matters more here than proximity to campus.
Seasonal economies produce predictable annual swings in work, income, and daylight, and mood tracks all three. A practice serving this kind of community needs to evaluate patterns across the whole year rather than at one point in it, and to build treatment plans that survive the lean months as well as the busy ones.
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.
Transparent Cash-Pay Care
Care for Bellingham patients is direct-pay, so they skip insurance delays, prior authorizations, and surprise bills (insurance is accepted only for patients in Texas). 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.
Other Washington Communities We Serve
Willow & Stone also provides telehealth psychiatry to Everett.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Willow & Stone accept patients from Bellingham, WA?
Yes. Dr. Stacey Forbes, DNP, PMHNP-BC, provides telehealth psychiatric care to patients located in Bellingham and throughout Washington.
Do I have to travel to be seen?
No — most care is delivered by secure video, so Bellingham patients are seen from home. Our Arlington, TX office is also available for in-person visits.
What services do you offer Bellingham patients?
ADHD Treatment, and Depression Treatment. Telepsychiatry, GeneSight pharmacogenomic testing, and integrative psychiatric evaluation are also available to patients throughout Washington.
Do you take insurance?
Insurance is accepted only for patients in Texas. Care for Washington patients is direct-pay (out-of-network), and we provide a superbill you can submit to your insurer for possible out-of-network reimbursement, with no prior authorizations or referrals required.
How do I get started in Bellingham?
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.