collaborative care
When Mind and Body Are Speaking the Same Language
Many people seek help because they are experiencing challenges that don't fit neatly into a single category.
You may feel anxious, but also exhausted.
You may be grieving, but also struggling with sleep, digestion, headaches, chronic pain, or physical tension.
You may understand your challenges intellectually while still feeling stuck in patterns your body hasn't fully released.
At Integrative Health Services at Hawks Hill, we recognize that emotional well-being and physical well-being continually influence one another. Collaborative Care was created to address both.
By bringing together therapy and acupuncture, we offer a truly unique and personalized coordinated approach that supports the whole person rather than isolated symptoms.
What Makes Collaborative Care Different?
In many healthcare settings, providers work independently. Clients often find themselves repeating their story, navigating conflicting and disconnected recommendations, or trying to connect the dots between separate treatment experiences.
Collaborative Care allows your therapist and acupuncturist to work together in real time - with your written permission - to coordinate treatment goals, share relevant clinical observations, and develop a more unified approach to care.
This may include:
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Shared treatment goals
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Coordination of treatment plans
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Discussion of progress and challenges
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Integration of physical and emotional symptoms
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Unified recommendations that support overall wellbeing
The result is a more cohesive treatment experience that considers how emotional, mental, and physical health influence one another unlike any offered in the Capital District.
Who May Benefit?
Collaborative Care and Integrated Mind-Body sessions may be particularly helpful for individuals dealing with:
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Anxiety and chronic stress
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Burnout
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Grief and loss
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Trauma recovery
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
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Life transitions
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Sleep concerns
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Lyme Disease
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Chronic pain
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Stress-related physical symptoms
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Individuals seeking a more holistic, preventative approach to care
What an Integrated Care Journey Looks Like
Building a Strong Foundation
Collaborative Care begins with a thorough understanding of both your emotional wellbeing and physical health.
Because therapy and acupuncture each involve their own unique assessment process, new clients complete individual intake appointments with Justin and Lisa separately before beginning Integrated Mind-Body Sessions. This allows each provider to gain a comprehensive understanding of your history, concerns, goals, and unique needs within their respective area of expertise.
While this requires more investment at the beginning of treatment, it helps create a stronger foundation for care and allows future recommendations to be more personalized, coordinated, and effective.
Following these initial evaluations, providers collaborate to identify areas of overlap, develop shared treatment goals, and determine whether Integrated Mind-Body Sessions may be beneficial.
The Collaborative Consultation
Once individual intake appointments have been completed, clients interested in Collaborative Care participate in a joint consultation with both providers.
This appointment serves as a bridge between disciplines, allowing us to review findings, discuss treatment plan priorities, answer questions, and create a coordinated plan moving forward.
Rather than approaching concerns from a single perspective, this process helps ensure that emotional, mental, and physical factors are all considered when developing recommendations.
Integrated Mind-Body Sessions
For clients who choose to continue with collaborative care, ongoing treatment may include Integrated Mind-Body Sessions.
These appointments build off of the collaborative consultation to combine acupuncture treatment alongside therapy in real time.
Acupuncture treatment is first provided as part of a coordinated plan developed through ongoing collaboration between Justin and Lisa. When acupuncture treatment is underway, Justin steps out to allow therapy to begin in a supportive and individualized format tailored to your needs. Justin and Lisa may remain in communication throughout the process as needed, and recommendations are adjusted as appropriate over time. Sessions conclude with Justin returning to the room to conclude acupuncture, while the client discusses reflection, integration, and discussion of next steps with both providers.
Rather than separating emotional and physical wellbeing into different conversations, Integrated Mind-Body Sessions allow both aspects of care to inform one another within a unified treatment approach.
Why We Take This Approach
Many people seek collaborative care after years of addressing symptoms from only one perspective and feeling like they have hit a wall. They may understand their stress intellectually while continuing to experience physical symptoms. Others may focus on physical concerns while recognizing that emotional challenges remain unresolved. By first completing comprehensive evaluations and then creating a coordinated treatment plan, Collaborative Care allows each provider to contribute their expertise while working toward shared goals. The result is a treatment experience that is more connected, more personalized, and better equipped to address the complex ways emotional and physical well-being influence one another. Our approach is influenced by Eastern and Wellness models emphasizing holistic, minimally invasive, preventative care that prioritizes the person over profit.
Why Choose Collaborative Care
Clients often appreciate:
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Not having to coordinate care between multiple providers on their own, which often delays treatment time and efficiency
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A treatment plan that considers the interconnected relationship between emotional and physical wellbeing
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Reduced repetition of their story that can sometimes re-traumatize them
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Greater continuity between services
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Personalized recommendations from two disciplines
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A team-based, holistic approach to care
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Support that addresses both mind and body
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Time saved not having to travel to multiple providers across the Capital District
For many clients, Collaborative Care provides a level of integration that is difficult to find within traditional healthcare settings.
Investment & Getting Started
Limited Availability
Collaborative Care is offered on a limited basis due to the involvement of two providers as well as the additional planning and coordination required between appointments. To preserve the quality, personalization, and effectiveness of care, only a small number of Collaborative Care clients are accepted at any given time.
Step 1: Individual Intake Appointments
Mental Health Counseling Intake
60 Minutes | $160
A comprehensive evaluation focused on your personal biopsychosocial history, current concerns, goals, strengths, challenges, and treatment needs.
Acupuncture Intake
60 Minutes | $160
A comprehensive health assessment focused on your symptoms, medical history, lifestyle factors, and overall well-being from an acupuncture and Chinese Medicine perspective.
These appointments allow each provider to conduct a thorough evaluation and develop recommendations within their respective area of expertise.
Step 2: Collaborative Consultation
Joint Consultation with Both Providers
60 Minutes | $295
This appointment brings both providers together to review findings, discuss treatment priorities, answer questions, and create a coordinated treatment plan tailored to your goals.
This consultation helps establish a shared understanding of your needs while ensuring recommendations are aligned across disciplines. Clients may go as far as the joint consultation for Collaborative Care and then complete separate sessions with each provider thereafter with quarterly follow-ups. For those that would like a more integrated, hands-on experience, Step 3: Integrated Mind-Body Sessions may be more appropriate.
Step 3: Integrated Mind-Body Sessions
Integrated Session
60 Minutes | $295
A coordinated appointment that combines therapy and acupuncture within a single treatment experience.
Sessions may include:
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Collaborative treatment planning
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Acupuncture treatment
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Therapy
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Ongoing provider communication
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Reflection and integration
Because treatment is individualized, no two sessions are exactly alike.
Prefer Separate Appointments?
Not every client requires Integrated Mind-Body Sessions.
Clients may also choose to receive counseling and acupuncture separately while still benefiting from provider collaboration and treatment coordination when appropriate and authorized. This option offers greater scheduling flexibility while maintaining a unified approach to care.
A Team-Based Approach to true Well-being
Collaborative Care allows each service to contribute its strengths within a coordinated treatment framework. By bringing together mental health counseling and acupuncture, clients gain access to a treatment experience that supports both psychological wellbeing and physical regulation while reducing the fragmentation often found in modern healthcare.
Whether through coordinated services or Integrated Mind-Body Sessions, our goal is to help clients feel more fully understood, more comprehensively supported, and better equipped to create lasting change. We want to facilitate our clients' transformations from a place where they are struggling to survive, towards a place where they are truly thriving both physically and mentally.
Interested in Collaborative Care?
Complete the form below to request collaborative care; we will contact you to determine if collaborative care is appropriate for your goals.
