A comprehensive lifestyle evaluation that sees your whole life
A comprehensive lifestyle evaluation looks closely at how you sleep, eat, move, rest, work and connect, and how each of these may be shaping your mood, energy and mental health.
Symptoms rarely appear in isolation. Anxiety may be tangled up with broken sleep, low mood with a punishing work rhythm, poor focus with skipped meals and too much caffeine. A comprehensive lifestyle evaluation gives us time to map these connections properly. Rather than handing you a generic list of rules, we look for the patterns that matter most for you and the small changes most likely to make a real difference.
“Your mental health is not separate from the way you live. When we understand the rhythm of your days, symptoms often start to make a great deal more sense.”
A lifestyle evaluation is about understanding first, so any change we make is grounded in your real life.
A holistic lifestyle assessment for mental health
A comprehensive lifestyle evaluation is a structured, collaborative look at the everyday foundations of wellbeing, carried out by a psychiatric nurse practitioner who can also connect what we find to diagnosis and treatment.
Many psychiatric appointments are too short to ask how you actually live. A comprehensive lifestyle evaluation in New York sets aside the time to do exactly that. We explore your sleep, nutrition and gut health, movement, stress load, recovery, relationships, substance use, and your history with medication and supplements. Each area is considered not in isolation but in relation to your symptoms and to each other.
The aim is to identify patterns that might be quietly sustaining anxiety, low mood, poor concentration, irritability or exhaustion. Sometimes a single factor stands out, such as chronically short sleep. More often several small strains are adding up, each manageable alone but together overwhelming. Seeing the whole picture helps us decide where to begin and what can safely wait.
The evaluation may take one session or unfold over several, depending on how much ground there is to cover and what you would like to focus on. It is never a judgement of how well you are living. It is an honest, curious inventory that respects the constraints, responsibilities and pleasures of your actual life in New York.
Small, sustainable changes
Lifestyle advice often fails because it asks for too much at once. I take the opposite approach. Together we choose one or two changes that feel realistic, try them, and notice what happens. Small shifts that you can sustain tend to be more useful than dramatic overhauls you abandon after a fortnight. We adjust as we learn what works for your body and circumstances.
Informed by several disciplines
This evaluation draws on psychiatric care, psychotherapy, somatic practice and trauma-informed, relational thinking. That means we look not only at habits, but at what makes them hard to change: stress responses, past experiences, relationship dynamics or the meaning food, rest and work hold for you. Understanding the why makes change kinder and more likely to last.
Connecting findings to treatment
Because I can assess, diagnose and prescribe, what we learn can inform every part of your care. A lifestyle evaluation might clarify whether medication is needed, whether a current prescription needs reviewing, or whether certain supplements may support you. Any supplement suggestion is reviewed for safety and interactions with your medication and is never a replacement for medical care.
A lifestyle evaluation may help if you
This evaluation suits anyone who suspects that how they live and how they feel are connected but cannot quite see how. It can be a starting point for new clients, a fresh perspective when treatment feels stuck, or a way to approach mental health more holistically before or alongside medication.
- Feel exhausted despite resting
- Notice mood shifts you cannot explain
- Sleep poorly or irregularly
- Have gut issues alongside anxiety
- Rely heavily on caffeine or alcohol
- Feel stuck despite medication
- Want a non-medication starting point
- Struggle to find balance with work
- Want a whole-person view of your health
The areas we explore together
We look at each of these areas in as much depth as is useful, guided by your symptoms and priorities. Not every area will be equally relevant, and you decide what you are comfortable discussing.
Sleep and rhythm
We explore when and how you sleep, what disrupts it, how rested you feel and how your daily rhythm of light, screens, work and meals might be affecting it. Sleep is closely tied to mood, anxiety and focus, so it is often one of the most important places to look.
Nutrition and gut health
We talk about what, when and how you eat, without diet culture or moralising. We consider regularity of meals, hydration, digestive symptoms and your relationship with food, looking for patterns that may influence energy, mood and anxiety.
Movement and the body
We look at how you move through your days, from exercise to how long you sit, and how your body feels. The goal is not a fitness regime but finding forms of movement that feel good and sustainable and that support your mental health.
Stress and recovery
We map the demands on you, from work and caregiving to finances and the pace of city life, alongside how you recover. Many people have plenty of stress and very little genuine rest. Seeing that imbalance clearly is often the first step to changing it.
Relationships and connection
Loneliness, conflict, support and intimacy all affect wellbeing. We consider the relationships in your life, how nourishing or draining they feel, and how connected you are to community, purpose and the things that bring you meaning or pleasure.
Medication and supplements
We review your history with prescribed medication, supplements and other substances, including caffeine, alcohol and cannabis. This helps identify interactions, side effects or patterns that may be affecting how you feel, and informs any future treatment decisions.
Beyond the symptom checklist
A standard psychiatric intake focuses mainly on symptoms. A comprehensive lifestyle evaluation places those symptoms in the context of how you live.
Brief standard intake
- Focuses on symptoms and diagnosis
- Limited time to explore context
- Lifestyle covered in a few questions
- Generic wellbeing advice
- Treatment chosen mainly on symptoms
Comprehensive lifestyle evaluation
- Explores the foundations of wellbeing
- Unhurried time across one or more sessions
- Each area examined in real depth
- Personalised, realistic priorities
- Treatment informed by your whole life
What to expect from your lifestyle evaluation
The evaluation is collaborative from start to finish, and you decide how far it goes.
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1
Free consultation 15 minutes
We have a short conversation about what is prompting you to look at your lifestyle and mental health together. I explain how the evaluation works, how long it might take and how it can fit with psychotherapy or medication, and you can ask anything you like.
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2
In-depth evaluation
Over one or more sessions we work through the relevant areas of your life in detail. A 90-minute session can be particularly helpful here, giving space to explore without rushing. I may ask you to notice patterns in sleep, food or energy between sessions to add useful detail.
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3
Shared priorities
We step back and look at the patterns together. Rather than a long list of changes, we agree on a small number of priorities that seem most likely to help and most realistic for you. Where relevant, we also discuss medication, supplements or other treatment options.
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4
Review and refine
In follow-up sessions we look at what has shifted, what has been hard and what to adjust. Lifestyle change is rarely linear, so we treat setbacks as useful information. Over time, the evaluation becomes an ongoing part of a whole-person approach to your care.
Francesca Rome-Marie, PMHNP-BC
I bring together psychiatry, psychotherapy, somatic work and whole-body health, informed by years in primary care and further study in gender theory, feminist thought, culture and visual art.
I keep a deliberately small caseload so that every client receives consistent, unhurried and genuinely attentive care, held within one relationship rather than split across several providers.
Clear, upfront rates
I don't accept insurance. Modern Holistic Psychiatry is an out-of-network provider, so sessions are paid for directly. Depending on your plan, you may be able to claim reimbursement through your out-of-network benefits.
Find out how much your insurance may coverNeed urgent support? If you're in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911.
Comprehensive Lifestyle Evaluation FAQs
What does a comprehensive lifestyle evaluation include?
It typically covers sleep, nutrition and gut health, movement, stress and recovery, relationships, substance use, and your history with medication and supplements. We look at how each of these connects with your mood, anxiety, energy and focus. The depth we go into in each area depends on your symptoms and priorities, and you are always free to leave anything aside that you would rather not discuss.
Is this the same as seeing a nutritionist or health coach?
No. While we do talk about food and habits, the evaluation is carried out by a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner and is focused on mental health. That means lifestyle findings are interpreted alongside psychiatric assessment, and can inform diagnosis, medication decisions and psychotherapy. It is a clinical, whole-person view rather than a coaching programme.
How many sessions does a lifestyle evaluation take?
Some people complete the core evaluation in one longer session, while others prefer to spread it across two or three, especially if there is a lot to explore or they want to track patterns in between. Follow-up sessions then focus on putting priorities into practice. We agree a structure together that suits your needs and pace.
Will you tell me to overhaul my diet or quit things I enjoy?
No. I do not believe in rigid rules or moralising about food, alcohol or rest. The evaluation is about understanding, and any change is your choice. We focus on small, realistic adjustments that you feel motivated to try. Pleasure, culture and personal values all matter, and a sustainable plan has to fit the life you actually want to live.
Can a lifestyle evaluation help me avoid medication?
For some people, addressing lifestyle factors may ease symptoms enough that medication is not needed, or not needed yet. For others, medication remains an important support, and lifestyle changes work alongside it. I cannot promise a particular outcome, but the evaluation helps us make an informed, collaborative decision about whether medication makes sense for you.
Do you recommend supplements as part of the evaluation?
Sometimes. If it seems appropriate, I may discuss vitamins, nutraceuticals or supplements that may support mood, anxiety, focus or sleep. Every suggestion is reviewed for safety and possible interactions with any medication you take. Supplements are not a replacement for medical care, and we monitor how you respond over time.
Is the evaluation useful if I am already in therapy elsewhere?
It can be. Some people come specifically for a comprehensive lifestyle evaluation to complement work they are doing with another therapist or prescriber. With your permission, insights can be shared to support coordinated care. We can discuss during the free consultation whether a focused evaluation or a fuller ongoing relationship would suit you best.
See how your life and wellbeing fit together
Book a free 15-minute consultation to talk about a comprehensive lifestyle evaluation and where it might take you.