Stiff Health and Wellness Care - Our Story
Our Vision
At Stiff Health and Wellness, our vision is to create a world where mental health is a top priority and everyone has access to quality mental health care. We believe that mental health is just as important as physical health, and we are committed to breaking down the barriers that prevent people from receiving the care they need.
Our Services
We offer a range of mental health services, including medication-assisted therapy such as Suboxone, Spravato, individual therapy, medication management, and telehealth services. Our team of licensed and board-certified mental health professionals is dedicated to providing compassionate care to all of our clients.
Our Approach
We take a client-centered approach to mental health care, recognizing that each client is unique and has their own set of needs and goals. We work collaboratively with our clients to develop personalized treatment plans that are tailored to their specific needs.
Our Services
Online Services
Evaluation, treatment and management can be beneficial to individuals who are looking to strengthen their emotional outcomes, in all stages of their mental health. Online sessions are held from the safety of your own home that is convenient for you through our easy scheduling platform.
Medication Assisted Therapy
- Our Approach to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
At Stiff Health and Wellness Care, we understand that opioid use disorder is a chronic medical condition, not a moral failing. Our Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program is an evidence-based approach that combines FDA-approved medications with counseling and behavioral therapies to provide a comprehensive, holistic path to recovery.
What is Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)?
MAT is the gold standard of care for opioid use disorder. It is a highly effective, whole-person approach that treats the physical, emotional, and behavioral aspects of addiction. Our goal is to help you regain control of your life and build a stable foundation for long-term recovery.
How does MAT work?
The medications used in MAT work by normalizing brain chemistry and relieving the intense cravings and withdrawal symptoms that often lead to relapse. This stabilization allows you to focus on your recovery and engage in counseling and other support services without the constant physical and mental struggle of addiction.
Our MAT Services Include:
We offer a personalized treatment plan tailored to your specific needs. This plan may include:
Medication Management:
Our team of licensed medical providers is experienced in prescribing and managing the appropriate medications for your treatment.
The primary medications we use are:
Suboxone (Buprenorphine/Naloxone): Suboxone is a common medication used in our MAT program. It contains two medications:
Buprenorphine: A partial opioid agonist that helps to reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms without producing the same "high" as other opioids.
Naloxone: An opioid blocker that helps prevent misuse of the medication.
Vivitrol (Naltrexone): An injectable medication that blocks the euphoric effects of opioids. It is a non-narcotic and non-addictive option. Vivitrol can only be started after you have been completely off opioids for 7-10 days, as it can cause severe withdrawal symptoms if taken too early.
Comprehensive Support Services: We provide access to a range of support services to help you rebuild your life, including:
Mental and behavioral health assessments
Referrals to other services as needed
The Treatment Process
Your journey with us will be a collaborative process. Here’s what you can expect:
- Comprehensive Assessment: You will meet with our medical and clinical staff for a thorough assessment to determine if MAT is the right treatment for you. This includes a medical evaluation, drug screening, and a discussion of your treatment goals.
- Induction: If Suboxone is part of your treatment plan, you will begin the "induction" phase. This is the first dose of medication, which is administered when you are in a mild-to-moderate state of withdrawal. Our team will guide you through this process to ensure your comfort and safety.
- Stabilization and Maintenance: After induction, you will enter the stabilization phase where we will work with you to find the most effective dose of medication. Once you are stable, you will begin the maintenance phase, which involves regular appointments and participation in counseling.
- Long-Term Recovery: The duration of your treatment is a personal decision you will make in collaboration with your medical team. We will support you every step of the way, for as long as you need it.
Important Note:
Medication-Assisted Treatment is a safe and effective way to treat opioid use disorder. When used as prescribed and with proper support, these medications do not create a new addiction. They are a tool to help you reclaim your life and health.
If you or a loved one is struggling with opioid use disorder, please contact us at 405-888-5616
to learn more about our MAT program. We are here to help you start your journey to recovery.
Depression & Anxiety
Depression, fear, and anxiety are some of the most common and uncomfortable emotions that we can experience at some point in our lives. Through evaluation, management and counseling and treatment, we are able to help you recover motivation, perspective, and joy that you once had in your life.
Weight Loss /Lifestyle Change
Gaining weight on psychiatric medication is a common and frustrating side effect, but there are effective strategies to manage it and improve your overall health. Weight gain can be caused by medication effects on metabolism, appetite, and cravings. Here's what you need to know about managing weight while on these medications.
Understanding Weight Gain from Psychiatric Medications
- Many medications used to treat mental health conditions can lead to weight gain. This isn't a sign of weakness; it's a physiological response to how these drugs work. They can affect:
- Appetite and Cravings: Some medications increase your appetite, particularly for carbohydrates and sweets.
- Metabolism: They can slow down your metabolism, making it harder to burn calories.
- Insulin Resistance: Certain medications can affect how your body uses insulin, which can lead to weight gain and increase the risk for conditions like type 2 diabetes.
- Common culprits include some antidepressants (e.g., mirtazapine, paroxetine), mood stabilizers (e.g., lithium, valproate), and antipsychotics (e.g., olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone).
Weight Loss and Management Options
Managing your weight involves a combination of lifestyle changes, behavioral strategies, and sometimes, additional medical support.
1. Dietary Adjustments
Focus on a balanced diet rich in nutrients and low in processed foods. This doesn't mean you have to be on a strict diet, but rather make sustainable, healthier choices.
Increase Protein and Fiber: Foods like lean meats, legumes, fruits, and vegetables help you feel full and satisfied, which can reduce cravings.
Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Sometimes, your body can confuse thirst with hunger.
Mindful Eating: Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues. Avoid eating while distracted (e.g., watching TV) and savor your meals.
2. Physical Activity
Regular exercise is crucial for both physical and mental health. It helps burn calories, boost metabolism, and improve mood.
Find Activities You Enjoy: Whether it's walking, dancing, swimming, or weightlifting, choose something that's fun for you to make it a sustainable habit.
Aim for Consistency: Start small and gradually increase the duration and intensity of your workouts. The goal is to move your body most days of the week.
3. Behavioral and Lifestyle Changes
Prioritize Sleep: Lack of sleep can disrupt hormones that regulate appetite, leading to increased hunger and cravings.
Stress Management: High stress levels can contribute to emotional eating and weight gain. Practice stress-reducing techniques like meditation, yoga, or deep breathing.
4. Medical Monitoring and Options
Regular check-ups with your healthcare provider are essential for managing your weight and overall health.
Routine Monitoring: Your doctor should regularly monitor your weight, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and blood work (including cholesterol and blood sugar) to catch any potential issues early.
Medication Review: Talk to your doctor about your concerns. It may be possible to switch to a different medication with a lower risk of weight gain.
Never stop or change your medication on your own
- Prescription Weight Loss Medications: In some cases, your healthcare provider may prescribe a weight loss medication to help. Options include GLP-1 agonists (e.g., Wegovy, Ozempic) and other medications like phentermine/topiramate. These are typically used in combination with lifestyle changes.
Monitoring Your Progress
- Regularly monitoring your weight and health metrics is key to a successful plan. Your healthcare team will likely track:
- Weight and BMI: A simple way to track changes in your body weight relative to your height.
- Waist Circumference: An important indicator of abdominal fat, which is linked to increased health risks.
- Vital Signs: Blood pressure and heart rate.
- Lab Work: Including fasting glucose and lipid panels to check for changes in blood sugar and cholesterol.
- By working closely with your healthcare provider, you can create a comprehensive plan that effectively manages your mental health and physical well-being.
Trauma & PTSD
Many individuals can experience symptoms associated with painful and traumatic circumstances. Anxiety, fear, and hopelessness are a few emotions that can linger post traumatic events. We can help you overcome these symptoms and guide you through the process of grief and healing.
Deprescribing
Deprescribing is the systematic process of reducing or stopping medications that are no longer beneficial, may be causing harm, or are no longer aligned with a patient's goals of care. It is an essential component of good medication management, especially for older adults or individuals with multiple chronic conditions who are often taking many different medications (a state known as polypharmacy).
The core principle of deprescribing is to optimize a patient's medication regimen to improve their quality of life, rather than simply adding more and more drugs.
Why is Deprescribing Important?
Reduces Harm: As people age or their health changes, a medication that was once beneficial can become harmful. This can be due to changes in how the body processes drugs, an increased risk of side effects, or dangerous drug-drug interactions. Deprescribing helps prevent issues like falls, cognitive decline, hospitalizations, and other adverse drug events.
Decreases Pill Burden: Taking multiple medications can be confusing, burdensome, and expensive. Deprescribing can simplify a patient's daily routine, making it easier for them to adhere to their remaining essential medications.
Improves Quality of Life: By eliminating medications that cause side effects like fatigue, dizziness, or confusion, deprescribing can lead to a significant improvement in a patient's overall well-being and function.
Avoids "Prescribing Cascades": This is a common phenomenon where a new medication is prescribed to treat a side effect of another medication, leading to a cycle of more drugs and more side effects. Deprescribing can break this cycle.
The Deprescribing Process
Deprescribing is not about simply stopping a medication. It is a careful and deliberate process that requires the collaboration of the patient, their caregivers, and a healthcare team (which often includes a physician, nurse practitioner, and pharmacist). The process typically involves these key steps:
Comprehensive Medication Review: A thorough review of all medications a patient is taking, including prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, and supplements. The healthcare provider works to understand the reason each drug was prescribed and its current effectiveness.
Identify Potential Candidates for Deprescribing: The team identifies medications that may be unnecessary, ineffective, or harmful. This is often guided by specific criteria and tools (like the Beers Criteria for older adults). Common medication classes for deprescribing include:
Sedatives and sleeping pills (e.g., benzodiazepines)
Certain antidepressants and antipsychotics
Medications for high blood pressure or diabetes that are no longer needed
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for long-term use
Collaborative Decision-Making: The healthcare provider discusses the potential benefits and risks of deprescribing with the patient. The patient's preferences, fears, and goals of care are central to this step.
Implement a Plan: A specific plan is developed to safely reduce or stop one medication at a time. Many medications, especially those affecting the central nervous system, must be tapered slowly to avoid withdrawal symptoms or a return of the original condition.
Monitor and Follow-Up: Close monitoring is crucial to assess for any side effects from the reduction and to ensure the patient's condition remains stable. The plan can be adjusted as needed based on the patient's response.
In essence, deprescribing is the opposite of the initial prescribing process. It requires the same level of expertise and careful consideration to ensure a patient's medication regimen is as safe and effective as possible for their current health status.
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A Few Words
My work revolves around empowering you. I help patients resolve their emotional issues of the past and the present ,to open the door to a balanced and stable future.
I have partnered with individuals like myself who are passionate about empowering you with the balance and positive changes you seek as well as healthy outcomes in your mental health care needs.
Additional Information
Evaluation , treatment and management of children ages 3- to older adult
Neurodevelopmental disorders. This class covers a wide range of problems that usually begin in infancy or childhood, often before the child begins grade school. Examples include autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disorders.
Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders. Psychotic disorders cause detachment from reality — such as delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking and speech. The most notable example is schizophrenia, although other classes of disorders can be associated with detachment from reality at times.
Bipolar and related disorders. This class includes disorders with alternating episodes of mania — periods of excessive activity, energy and excitement — and depression.
Depressive disorders. These include disorders that affect how you feel emotionally, such as the level of sadness and happiness, and they can disrupt your ability to function. Examples include major depressive disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
Anxiety disorders. Anxiety is an emotion characterized by the anticipation of future danger or misfortune, along with excessive worrying. It can include behavior aimed at avoiding situations that cause anxiety. This class includes generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and phobias.
Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. These disorders involve preoccupations or obsessions and repetitive thoughts and actions. Examples include obsessive-compulsive disorder, hoarding disorder and hair-pulling disorder (trichotillomania).
Trauma- and stressor-related disorders. These are adjustment disorders in which a person has trouble coping during or after a stressful life event. Examples include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder.
Dissociative disorders. These are disorders in which your sense of self is disrupted, such as with dissociative identity disorder and dissociative amnesia.
Somatic symptom and related disorders. A person with one of these disorders may have physical symptoms that cause major emotional distress and problems functioning. There may or may not be another diagnosed medical condition associated with these symptoms, but the reaction to the symptoms is not normal. The disorders include somatic symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder and factitious disorder.
Feeding and eating disorders. These disorders include disturbances related to eating that impact nutrition and health, such as anorexia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.
Elimination disorders. These disorders relate to the inappropriate elimination of urine or stool by accident or on purpose. Bed-wetting (enuresis) is an example.
Sleep-wake disorders. These are disorders of sleep severe enough to require clinical attention, such as insomnia, sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome.
Sexual dysfunctions. These include disorders of sexual response, such as premature ejaculation and female orgasmic disorder.
Gender dysphoria. This refers to the distress that accompanies a person's stated desire to be another gender.
Disruptive, impulse-control and conduct disorders. These disorders include problems with emotional and behavioral self-control, such as kleptomania or intermittent explosive disorder.
Substance-related and addictive disorders. These include problems associated with the excessive use of alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and drugs. This class also includes gambling disorder.
Neurocognitive disorders. Neurocognitive disorders affect your ability to think and reason. These acquired (rather than developmental) cognitive problems include delirium, as well as neurocognitive disorders due to conditions or diseases such as traumatic brain injury or Alzheimer's disease.
Personality disorders. A personality disorder involves a lasting pattern of emotional instability and unhealthy behavior that causes problems in your life and relationships. Examples include borderline, antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders.
Paraphilic disorders. These disorders include sexual interest that causes personal distress or impairment or causes potential or actual harm to another person. Examples are sexual sadism disorder, voyeuristic disorder and pedophilic disorder.
Other mental disorders. This class includes mental disorders that are due to other medical conditions or that don't meet the full criteria for one of the above disorders.
Get in Touch
If you have questions about our services or would like to schedule an appointment, please don't hesitate to reach out. Our friendly staff is here to help you every step of the way.
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Are you ready to get on the path to a healthier you? Get in touch today to get started!