Specializing in General Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Dr. Kira Stein is a psychiatrist, a medical doctor who specializes in the evaluation and treatment of adult mental, emotional and behavioral disorders using various techniques, including psychotherapy, life-style changes, various supplements and medications. Dr. Stein offers psychotherapy herself, and can also work as a team with another psychotherapist.
“I have extensive training and experience in medication (psychopharmacology), brain stimulation, and various forms of psychotherapy. I treat male, female, non-binary, and transgender adults ranging from college-age, through adulthood. I also sub-specialize in perinatal and women’s mental health. My goal is to not only help patients respond to treatment, but also to help them gain deeper insight into their strengths, vulnerabilities and values, and to refine their skills to become more resilient.” — Kira Stein MD
Goals: Response, Remission, Resilience
The goal of medication treatment is to enable patients to have the cognitive and emotional stability to negotiate life’s challenges. If suffering for a long time, or if they have spent much of their lives self-medicating with alcohol or drugs, then learning skills and developing self-awareness through psychotherapy can help patients better manage their lives and the new experience of living life in remission or sober. Dr. Stein’s goal is to not only help patients respond to treatment, but also to help them gain deeper insight into their strengths, vulnerabilities and values, and to refine their skills to become more resilient.
Addressing Different Types of Stressors
Dr. Stein also guides clients as they work through psychological traumas, interpersonal stressors, and identity issues. Identity struggles are often related to gender or sexuality, life transitions such as failure to launch, new independence, unemployment, academic stress, career success or loss, marriage, pregnancy, postpartum, parenthood, divorce, menopause, other health challenges, or experiencing loss or trauma.
With Dr. Stein’s office located in the center of Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles, many clients naturally come from the entertainment industry.
“The lives of creative artists are difficult to balance due to extreme work hours under intense conditions. For example, it is not uncommon for an actor to spend hours, often days, shooting and reshooting a particularly intense or sensitive scene. Artists who are victims of trauma but who haven’t come terms with their own personal experiences are more emotionally vulnerable to professional burn-out, clinical depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance abuse. I find that working with actors to psychotherapeutically address (rather than avoid) past traumas or other mental health issues can help them find healthier and more sustainable ways to tap into emotions needed for their roles and careers.” —Kira Stein, MD
Dr. Stein diagnoses and treats substance abuse disorders. However, patients need to be open to tapering off their substances, to reduce the biochemical variables complicating treatment and undermining response. In such cases, when a patient requires a higher intensity of care or testing, Dr. Stein typically will refer patients to an outpatient substance abuse psychiatrist or an inpatient treatment center.