Psychiatry with depth, science and time.
Academic-level psychiatric services, focusing on proactive mental well-care, in a personal, concierge setting. Led by Steven Mee, MD, a UC Irvine–trained former Chief Resident and federally funded researcher, we offer medication management, in-depth psychotherapy, IV ketamine treatment and Healthy Weight for Life, with a signature focus on measuring and relieving the psychological pain beneath your symptoms.
The rigor of an academic medical center, with the time and attention of a concierge practice.
Four principles guide every treatment plan we build.
The whole person, with time to listen
Unhurried visits and a lasting relationship. We treat your symptoms and how they affect your work, relationships and daily life.
Personalized, never one-size-fits-all
No single model fits everyone. Medication, psychotherapy and newer treatments are combined around your needs and goals.
Science-led innovation
Led by a published scientist-clinician, we bring next-generation treatments like IV ketamine and Healthy Weight for Life to patients carefully, with medical oversight.
Collaborative, mind-body care
Patients can keep their own therapist while receiving care here, and we treat mind and body as one.
We measure psychological pain, find its sources and treat it directly.
Psychological pain is the deep emotional suffering beneath many psychiatric conditions, and one of the strongest drivers of distress and risk. Yet it is rarely measured in routine care. We are one of very few practices in the world that builds it into evaluation and treatment.
We assess psychological pain with the Mee-Bunney Psychological Pain Assessment Scale (MBP), developed by Dr. Mee and validated by researchers in several countries.
Together we uncover the sources of your pain, from life events and relationships to the conditions that drive it.
Your treatment plan gives focused attention to reducing that pain, alongside care for your other symptoms.
Few clinicians can offer this. Dr. Mee is a published authority on psychological pain, and his research and research-informed clinical experience guide this work. About his research →
The expertise of an academic medical center, in the comfort of a boutique practice.
Since 2001, our concierge practice has treated the full range of psychiatric conditions. Our goal is simple: the most effective, compassionate and comfortable care possible.
We treat more than symptoms. We also look at how those symptoms affect your daily life, your work and your relationships.
Medication management
Careful evaluation, thoughtful prescribing and close follow-up, grounded in neuropsychiatry and psychopharmacology.
Personalized psychotherapy
No single model fits everyone. We draw on all accepted, tested and relevant therapy approaches to tailor treatment to each person.
Individuals, couples & families
Therapy for individuals ages 12 and up, couples and families.
Workplace conflict resolution
Conflict reduction for teams and leaders in work and corporate settings.
We also offer basic vitamin and hydration services.
Conditions we treat
Concierge care, without insurance interference
We don't contract with any insurance provider. That means your care is shaped by you and your doctor, not by an insurer's requirements, visit limits or approved-treatment lists.
We provide superbills you can submit to your insurance plan for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
Start with a consultation →When standard treatments haven't been enough.
Some people find that their symptoms only partially respond to traditional oral medications, or that they can't tolerate them. For them, ketamine can be added to ongoing psychiatric care. Treatment is given at our Los Alamitos office with physicians and nurses on site.
A new class of medicine that works hand in hand with therapy
We see ketamine as the first of a new class of medications sometimes called neuroplastogens. Research suggests that ketamine and related medications can stimulate the growth of new connections between brain cells and help loosen fixed mental circuits that therapy alone may be unable to shift, or may take many years to change.
In our experience, this can open barriers to unconscious, hidden material that matters for growth, understanding and lasting change. That helps psychotherapy reach insights and breakthroughs sooner.
Your collaborator, not your competitor.
Your patient/client stays with you.
Psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists across the region refer patients/clients to us for ketamine treatment while they continue care with you. We provide the treatment and medical monitoring, coordinate with you with your patient's/client's consent, and support the work you're already doing together.
Our center offers a gold-standard setting, deep clinical experience and hands-on comfort management throughout every session.
Refer a patient/client →Two ways to begin
Recommended as part of your care
When ketamine could strengthen your current treatment, Dr. Mee may recommend it to augment the care you're already receiving.
Start with an evaluation with Dr. Mee
Dr. Mee reviews your needs, diagnoses and medical history to rule out anything that would make ketamine unsafe, such as certain medical or substance-use histories. Together you'll decide whether ketamine is a valuable addition to your care or another treatment path would serve you better.
Anywhere in California: evaluations are also available virtually. If ketamine is agreed on as a good next step, you travel to our Los Alamitos center for treatment.
A treatment plan built around you
Research-based six-session course
When oral treatments haven't worked, have only partly worked or weren't tolerated, we generally follow elements of a well-established research protocol: six sessions over two to three weeks, usually with one or two appointments with Dr. Mee to evaluate your response.
Fewer sessions, alongside ongoing care
For some patients, a shorter series of sessions combined with continuing first-line treatment and therapy may better support their progress.
Follow-up and ongoing care are fully personalized, shaped by your response, your history and your goals.
IV ketamine
Recommended first for most patients, delivered in a monitored clinical setting.
Spravato® nasal spray
Available for patients who can't receive or tolerate IV treatment.
Integrated with your care
Ketamine works alongside medication management and psychotherapy, not in place of them.
Our commitment to safety
During every treatment, a physician is on the premises and a registered nurse attends to you with comprehensive biometric and cardiac monitoring, in a comfortable, private setting.
Flexible ways to pay
Package discounts are available for bundled treatments, and we're a certified CareCredit provider for flexible financing. We also provide superbills for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
IV ketamine for depression, and its use to support psychotherapy, are off-label uses not approved by the FDA, though they are supported by published research. Spravato® (esketamine) is FDA-approved for treatment-resistant depression in adults. Individual results vary.
Lasting weight health starts with mind and body together.
Launched in 2023, Healthy Weight for Life grew out of our decades-strong mental healthcare practice. We were among the first to recognize that reducing obesity is a mental health and wellness challenge, not only a medical one. So we built a program that merges psychiatric expertise with careful medical monitoring.
In Healthy Weight for Life, psychiatric, medical and wellness care work as one team with you. We set body-composition goals together, for fat mass and lean muscle alike, and use only name-brand pharmaceutical GLP-1 medications, never compounded versions, for purity and safety. Your dose follows your own biometric data, and we stay with you after the weight comes off so the results last.
Mind-body care, together
Psychiatric insight into habits, mood and motivation, paired with close medical monitoring at every step.
Built for the long term
A dedicated maintenance phase and a planned taper option mean the program doesn't end when the weight comes off.
Biometric-informed dosing
Regular body-composition scans, nutrition, activity and your own feedback guide each personalized dose. No one-size-fits-all schedules.
Whole-body health
The goal is less fat and preserved lean muscle, supported by nutrition, activity and supportive therapy at every visit.
Safety first
Every patient is evaluated by Dr. Mee before starting, and side effects are tracked at every visit under his ongoing oversight.
Active weight change
Maintain a healthy weight for life
When you reach your goal, you choose what's next
Healthy Weight for Life isn't the right fit for every person, so every journey begins with an evaluation.
Contact us for an evaluation to see if our approach is right for you →Who we help
From teens to executives, and from patients to the clinicians who refer them.
People living with deep psychological pain
Ongoing, debilitating emotional suffering takes a toll like nothing else. Led by a world-recognized leader in understanding psychological pain, we measure it with our own validated assessment tool and treat it directly. Our signature approach
Treatment-resistant depression
Adults who haven't found enough relief from oral medications, or couldn't tolerate them. Ketamine program
All common mental health conditions
Depression, anxiety and panic, ADHD, OCD, bipolar disorder, PTSD, insomnia and more, for individuals 12 and up, couples and families. Psychiatric care
Weight & metabolic health
Adults seeking physician-directed, long-term weight health with mind and body treated together. Healthy Weight for Life
Professionals, executives & workplaces
Discreet concierge care for busy professionals. We're also happy to come to your workplace to assess, teach about and treat sources of conflict and conflict avoidance, improving team dynamics, efficiency and compliance. Ask about workplace services
Patients anywhere in California
We offer virtual evaluations with Dr. Mee, followed by in-person treatment at our Los Alamitos center when ketamine augmentation treatment is the right next step.
Referring clinicians
Psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists can refer patients/clients for ketamine treatment or a consultation while they continue care with you. Refer a patient/client
Steven Mee, MD
Dr. Mee is a published scientist-clinician whose career since 2001 spans academic medicine, the Veterans Affairs health system, community addiction treatment and private practice. That breadth of research, clinical and teaching experience is rare in private psychiatry, and it shapes the care every patient receives.
He is a world-recognized authority on the effects of psychological pain on mental health and lead author of the Mee-Bunney Psychological Pain Assessment Scale (MBP). Its 2011 validation study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research was the first to compare psychological pain in patients with major depression against healthy controls. The scale has since been tested in research populations around the world and translated into multiple languages, with further work ongoing. A 2025 study in Archives of Suicide Research independently validated the German version in 580 participants, finding excellent reliability and clear differences in psychological pain across levels of suicide risk. The Turkish version was validated in 200 people, including patients with major depression and bipolar disorder, with excellent internal consistency. A 2022 review of psychological pain and suicidal behavior in Frontiers in Psychiatry lists the MBP among the field's key measurement tools. It has been studied in suicidal veterans and in substance use treatment, where measuring psychological pain, a novel approach, identified the patients at highest risk of dropping out of treatment.
Academic training
BS cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, MD, and psychiatry residency on the research track at UC Irvine, where he served as Chief Resident. Postdoctoral fellowship in depression, psychological pain and psychiatric genetics, plus training in structured diagnostic interviewing at UCLA.
Research
Pioneering research on psychological pain and its relationship to major depression. As principal investigator on VA Career Development Awards totaling nearly $1 million, he investigated genetic and pain-related risk factors for depression and suicide risk. His 2023 work showed how the MBP can identify at-risk individuals in complex clinical populations, so care can be focused to prevent negative outcomes. Also two NARSAD awards and clinical trials in bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
Clinical leadership
Founder, CEO and Medical Director of Applied Innovative Psychiatry since 2001. Research physician and staff psychiatrist at VA Long Beach, focused on mood disorders with chronic pain. Founded psychiatric treatment and education programs at two Southern California nonprofit providers, and served as Medical Director and Chief of Psychiatric Services at The Gary Center, a community substance-use treatment program.
Teaching & scholarship
Author of numerous publications on subjects ranging from suicide prevention and genetics to depression and population health. Psychiatry instructor and teacher of master's and pre-doctoral students. Invited speaker at Harbor-UCLA, the VA, the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Past peer reviewer for the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Marissa Cascio, RN, BSN
Director of Mental Health NursingMarissa earned a BS in Nutrition with a minor in Chemistry from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, then her nursing degree from the University of Rochester. She has worked in a range of clinical nursing settings within Level I trauma centers across the United States.
Working closely with Dr. Mee, Marissa bridges medical, nutritional and therapeutic care, with a shared goal of whole mind-body medicine. She leads nursing care and monitoring in our Ketamine Augmented Treatment Program and Healthy Weight for Life, and co-authored Dr. Mee's 2023 Medical Research Archives study on psychological pain measurement as a population health risk stratification tool.
A calm, private space in Los Alamitos
Light-filled rooms, comfortable seating and a quiet setting, designed so you can feel at ease from the moment you arrive.
What patients often ask us
Do you take my insurance?
We don't contract with any insurance company or third-party payer, including Medicare and Medi-Cal. Insurance rules too often limit the time and personal connection that accurate psychiatric diagnosis and treatment depend on. We provide superbills you can submit for possible out-of-network reimbursement, and financing is available through CareCredit.
Does it run in my family? Will my child get it?
Mental health conditions arise from a complex mix of genetics, early development and environment, and much is still unknown. With research training in psychiatric genetics, Dr. Mee is glad to talk with you and your family about genetic risk and the environmental factors that also play a role.
Is my depression or anxiety caused by a "chemical imbalance"?
Not in the simple sense often described. Depression involves real changes in brain chemistry and signaling, but its causes are complex: partly genetic, and partly shaped by life experiences such as early development and trauma. The good news is that modern medications and psychotherapies are often very effective at relieving symptoms and restoring a full, connected life.
How long does medication take to work?
It depends on the condition and the medication. Most take effect within a few weeks to a few months, although some patients notice improvement within days.
I don't want to be put in a hospital.
We don't want that either. Only a small fraction of patients ever need hospital care. We do everything we can to treat you as an outpatient, and consider hospitalization only when safety urgently requires it, such as active suicidal thinking or behavior.
Will medication make me think about suicide?
Antidepressants carry an FDA warning about increased suicidal thoughts in some children, teens and young adults. Scientists still debate this finding, and untreated depression is itself a major risk factor for suicide. That's why we treat depression carefully, with close monitoring for any suicidal thinking, which most evidence supports as the safest course.
Do you provide psychotherapy?
Yes. Psychiatrists are licensed to provide both medication and psychotherapy, and Dr. Mee combines them, drawing on many approaches. In depression, for example, we work to identify the sources of your psychological pain and strengthen your sense of control over them. If you already have a therapist, you're welcome to keep working with them.
Request a consultation
Email us a little about what you're looking for and our office will reach out to schedule a time.
Not near Los Alamitos? Dr. Mee offers virtual evaluations for patients anywhere in California.
Email is the most reliable way to reach us. Phone connections can sometimes be hard to hear clearly, and email helps us get your details right and respond promptly.
In your email, include your name, the best way to reach you and what you're interested in: psychiatric care, the Ketamine Augmented Treatment Program, Healthy Weight for Life, or referring a patient. Please don't include detailed medical information; we'll discuss it privately.