Menu
We’re a team of clinicians and staff who have dedicated our lives to research, education, and treating those with mental health conditions. We’re especially passionate about helping those with Treatment-Resistant Depression and providing the most advanced therapies available, including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and esketamine nasal spray, both FDA-approved for advanced depression.
Mental health conditions can be profoundly painful and isolating, making it difficult to seek help. Our team provides a unique, patient-centered experience to help you find the appropriate treatment and relief from your symptoms. We’re grateful to be practicing psychiatry during this era in which there are so many new treatment possibilities and new hope for those with mental health conditions.
Dr. Mark Hessenthaler’s array of experience includes psychopharmacology, Mindfulness Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia and nightmares. He enjoys collaborating with his patients to find the optimal modalities of treatment to assist in their recovery.
Dr. Hessenthaler first started utilizing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) while working for the Department of Defense. He was treating Active Duty Members with Major Depression refractory to antidepressant medications. Intrigued by the positive response his patients were having to TMS, he knew it was a treatment he wanted to incorporate further, as more research explored clinical disorders such as PTSD and OCD.
During medical school, Dr. Daniel Irby wrote his master’s thesis on the various forms of stigma felt by patients with HIV who were receiving care at a clinic in Oakland, CA. He interviewed patients and explored how the health care system may perpetuate stigma and shame felt by these patients. It was this exploration and listening to their stories that led him towards psychiatry, where he knew he would have the opportunity to spend time with patients, listen to them, and help them with their various struggles.
In working with patients, he seeks to collaborate with each individual in a manner that centers upon their unique needs and values. For Dr. Irby, mental health care is contingent upon each individual’s unique story. He loves thinking about how the mind works and learning from each patient in a collaborative approach to enhance mental and physical well-being. He especially appreciates patients who ask questions, are committed to change, and are willing to teach him about their individual experiences and needs.
Dr. Daniel Irby was first exposed to interventional psychiatry and to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in his residency. It interested him because it is a flexible and powerful treatment that has few adverse effects and offers the possibility for recovery to individuals for whom medications have not been as helpful as hoped and those who have been diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression. Dr. Irby believes it can also be an excellent component of integrated treatment with psychotherapy and/or medication.
He joined Mindful Health Solutions in the Fall of 2020.
Palei Alfaro is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who is working at Mindful Health Solutions’ Sacramento clinic as a Psychotherapist. She has a passion for anxiety and depressive disorders. She feels that these areas are what the typical person encounter more often in life, and she has developed an expansive “coping skills toolbox” to address many of the symptoms associated with the diagnosis. She is also interested in behavioral areas like ADHD and mood disorders as well.
As a therapist, she describes her personality as positive, outgoing, and overall bubbly. She is genuinely hopeful and happy in working towards each of her patient’s personal successes. With that, she aims to establish safety, security and stability. Meaning she wants each patient to feel safe, and to understand that she provides a non-judgmental and unbiased space for them to build trust and establish a meaningful therapeutic relationship, and to know that they can depend on consistent and thorough treatment.
Palei Alfaro comes to Mindful Health Solutions because of the cutting edge technology in mental/behavioral health field here. Seeing that, she immediately knew this was the place for her. For years, she had been following and studying advances in treatment for mental health disorders and have always felt that there should be more access to these treatments. Treatments such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) therapy and esketamine treatments allow people to have alternatives to traditional medications, and find something that works for them.
Dr. Sahab Yaqubi takes a holistic approach to patient care and treatment plans, considering biological, psychological, and social factors. He has found that being in tune with his patient’s emotional pain is the key to developing a good rapport. To empathize with his patient’s emotional pain and be able to reduce their suffering is his focus at all times.
Through his years of treating patients with depression and other mood disorders, medication and therapy are basic tools that he has used successfully to find relief from suffering. But not all the patients fully respond to these therapeutic tools. For Dr. Yaqubi, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is another non-invasive therapeutic tool that can play a crucial role for those with treatment-resistant mood or anxiety disorders.
Dr. Sahab Yaqubi joined Mindful Health Solutions in early 2021.
