BrainHealth Solutions offers confidential psychotherapy to Newport Beach adults living with depression, anxiety, OCD, trauma and grief at its Costa Mesa clinic beside John Wayne Airport, inside a psychiatrist-led practice built for people who already have a diagnosis and still are not well.
Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a structured, confidential process of working with a trained clinician to understand what you are experiencing and build practical skills for managing it. Our clinicians draw on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic therapy and mindfulness-based approaches. What sets therapy at BrainHealth Solutions apart from a stand-alone counseling office is the setting: a psychiatrist-led practice where therapy can be combined with medication management, TMS, SAINT® or Spravato® when talking alone is not enough. For many Newport Beach patients, it also means being seen outside their own neighborhood, a short drive from home.
Sessions identify the thoughts, behaviors, relationships and stressors that keep symptoms going, then work deliberately to change them: examining unhelpful thinking patterns, practicing new coping strategies and processing painful experiences at a safe pace.
Progress is measured by daily function rather than by how the hour felt: sleep, work, relationships and motivation. If an approach is not working after a fair trial, it changes; "wait and see" is not a treatment plan here.
Because the practice is led by psychiatrist Dr. Robert Bota, your therapist and your prescriber are on the same team, and a diagnostic second opinion is available if the original diagnosis does not fit.
Many Newport Beach adults reach BrainHealth Solutions after years of partial progress: a capable, busy life on the outside and depression, anxiety, OCD or PTSD that has not lifted on the inside. Therapy here is designed for that situation, with FDA-cleared TMS and the SAINT® protocol available if therapy plateaus, and a research culture, shaped by Dr. Bota’s more than 20 clinical trials, that tracks progress rather than assuming it. Sessions take place at our only clinic, 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, beside John Wayne Airport, which borders Newport Beach. There is no Newport Beach office; most Newport Beach patients are about 10 to 20 minutes away.
A short call introduces the clinic, answers your questions and helps decide whether psychotherapy alone or combined with other treatment is the right next step. It asks only for your name, contact information and a callback time, and you can text the office first if that is easier.
A thorough, non-judgmental conversation covering symptoms, prior diagnoses and treatments, medications you have tried, medical and family history, relationships, sleep, substance use and goals. A diagnostic second opinion can be part of this visit.
You and your clinician set specific, realistic goals and agree on a cadence, often weekly or every other week at first. If the plan also includes medication, TMS, SAINT® or Spravato®, it is coordinated within the same practice.
Sessions typically run 45 to 60 minutes, usually booked at a consistent time each week so they become a fixed part of your schedule. Between visits you may practice skills or track patterns so the next session goes further.
Progress is revisited at regular intervals, your feedback is invited, and the approach is adjusted when something is not working.
The first appointment is a conversation, not a stack of questionnaires. You are asked what has already been tried and what you want to be different, and you leave with a plan rather than a vague next step.
Sessions are organized around goals. CBT work might mean examining a specific thought pattern and testing a new response during the week; psychodynamic work might trace a recurring relationship pattern back to its roots.
A weekly 45 to 60 minute session plus a drive of about 10 to 20 minutes from most of Newport Beach fits into a long lunch or the end of a workday. Patients describe the office as “tidy, clean, and welcoming,” and a doctor who “takes his time on every visit.”
Typical psychotherapy scheduling at BrainHealth Solutions:
Therapy has no physical side effects, but it does have predictable rough patches. Knowing them in advance keeps people from quitting at the wrong moment.
Common and expected
These are discussed openly, and the pace is adjusted so that the work stays within what you can tolerate.
Signs the plan needs to change
Because the practice offers those options itself, a plateau in therapy leads to a conversation with your psychiatrist, not a referral onto another waitlist.
Decades of research show that structured psychotherapies such as CBT are effective for depression, anxiety disorders, OCD and PTSD, with many patients improving within 12 to 20 sessions. For moderate to severe depression, therapy combined with medication outperforms either one alone.
The aim is lasting skills, not dependence on the therapy hour. Patients leave with tools they keep using after sessions end, and with a team they can return to if symptoms come back.
Psychotherapy may be a strong fit for Newport Beach adults who:
Psychotherapy at BrainHealth Solutions is for adults. Child and adolescent psychiatric care is available through Dr. Mahtab K. Yousefi.
Therapy may be combined with
Patients often arrive after being told to “give it more time” by providers who never had time for them. The practice was built to be the opposite of that experience, and to be easy to reach from Newport Beach.
A private screening call, a clinic outside your own neighborhood, and a drive of about 10 to 20 minutes from most of Newport Beach.
CBT, psychodynamic therapy and mindfulness-based approaches, matched to your diagnosis and goals rather than one method for everyone.
Sleep, work, relationships and motivation are the yardsticks, and progress is reviewed at regular intervals.
Medication questions, side effects and diagnostic doubts are handled inside the practice, with shared records.
TMS, SAINT® and Spravato® are available from the same clinicians, so a plateau is a decision point, not a dead end.
Many plans are accepted, including Medicare and Anthem, and the team verifies coverage before your first visit.
If therapy and medication have both been tried and you still are not well, that history matters: it is the definition of treatment-resistant depression and the entry point for TMS, SAINT® and Spravato®. At BrainHealth Solutions, psychotherapy continues alongside those treatments and helps consolidate gains once the biology of the depression has shifted.
At our Costa Mesa clinic, psychotherapy sessions generally range from $175 to $275 per session, with initial evaluations at the higher end. Final fees depend on appointment length, the clinician you see, how often you meet, and whether therapy is part of a broader plan that includes medication management or advanced treatment. With insurance, patients typically pay a mental-health copay or coinsurance. CareCredit financing is available, and we confirm your benefits before the first session.
Insurance and financing
BrainHealth Solutions accepts insurance and self-pay. Many major plans are accepted, including Medicare and Anthem, and CareCredit financing spreads self-pay costs over monthly payments. Submit your plan through the insurance-check form on our site, or ask on your 15-minute screening call, and our team confirms what your plan covers before you commit to anything.
Dr. Robert Bota, MD, MSG, DFAPA is a board-certified psychiatrist and Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He trained in TMS at Harvard University and the University of South Carolina, founded and directed the first TMS program at UC Irvine, and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Bota has been principal investigator on more than 20 clinical trials in depression, schizophrenia, PTSD and Alzheimer’s disease, and the practice participates in brain-imaging research with Kernel neurotechnology. Treatment plans are informed by that research and reviewed as your symptoms change.
Care at BrainHealth Solutions is delivered by a team that includes psychiatrists Dr. Tina Allee and Dr. Mahtab K. Yousefi (child and adolescent care in English and Farsi), Spravato® specialist Dr. Dragos Serseni, TMS technician Anna Venezio and office manager Peter Bota.
Many plans are accepted, including Medicare and Anthem, and CareCredit financing is available for self-pay. One parent wrote that the team “even helped get insurance coverage when others said it wasn’t possible.” Use the insurance check on our site or ask on your screening call.
No. BrainHealth Solutions has one clinic, at 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, beside John Wayne Airport, which borders Newport Beach. Therapy for Newport Beach patients takes place there, about 10 to 20 minutes from most of the city.
Yes. The clinic is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, sessions run 45 to 60 minutes, and most patients keep a consistent weekly time, often early or late in the day, so therapy fits around work.
Yes. Sessions are confidential, the screening call asks only for your name, contact information and a callback time, and some Newport Beach patients prefer that the clinic is a short drive outside their own neighborhood.
“Psychotherapist” describes what a licensed clinician does, structured talk therapy, while “therapist” is the everyday word for the same role. The meaningful differences are training and setting; at BrainHealth Solutions therapy happens inside a psychiatrist-led practice.
At our Costa Mesa clinic, sessions generally range from $175 to $275, with initial evaluations at the higher end. With insurance, most patients pay a mental-health copay. We confirm your benefits before your first session.
Sessions with no goals, no measurement of progress and an indefinite “keep coming” plan. Therapy here sets specific goals at the start and reviews them at regular intervals.
Yes. Medication management is provided by the practice’s psychiatrists, and therapy and medication visits are coordinated with shared records.
Schedule a private 15-minute screening call and start psychotherapy with a team that has every next step ready if you need it.
BrainHealth Solutions, 3151 Airway Ave, Bldg R, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 · (949) 441-5542 · Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Same-day appointments may be available. The screening call asks only for your name, contact information and a callback time; there are no long intake forms before you speak with us.
