Child and Teen Psychiatry in St. Petersburg
Psychiatric evaluation and treatment for St. Petersburg and south Pinellas children and teenagers, ages 5 through 17, by HIPAA-secure Florida telehealth. Repetitive worries and rituals, anxiety, attention and mood concerns, with sixty-minute first visits and the same provider at every follow-up.
Child and teen psychiatry for St. Petersburg families, usually within one to two weeks.
Tell us what is going on with your kid. A care coordinator will get you scheduled (telehealth, or in person in Tampa or Wesley Chapel), usually within one business day.
Got it. We will be in touch.
A care coordinator will reach out within one business day. If you would rather not wait, call (813) 670-3005.
Insurance and self-pay options are reviewed on the call. Calls are answered Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Please don’t include medical details here; we cover those on the call.
Quick answer
Child and adolescent psychiatry for St. Petersburg and south Pinellas families, ages 5 through 17, is provided by Margot Krahn, PMHNP-BC, a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, by secure Florida telehealth, with in-person visits at the Tampa (Carrollwood) office when a visit has to be face to face. She evaluates obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety, attention and mood concerns in children and teens. Insurance and self-pay options are reviewed on the first call.
St. Petersburg: when a nine-year-old’s questions never end
The St. Petersburg call that stays with us is usually about a child between eight and twelve who has started asking the same question forty times a day. Did I touch something dirty. Are you sure the door is locked. Is Grandma going to be okay. The parent answers, the child is calm for a minute, and then the question comes back, sometimes with a ritual attached: washing until the hands crack, re-reading a sentence until it feels right, tapping the doorframe on the way out of a Shore Acres bedroom. The family has usually tried reassurance, then patience, then frustration, and nothing has moved it.
Repetitive worries with rituals in this age range are often obsessive-compulsive disorder, and OCD in children is one of the most under-recognized and most treatable conditions we see. It is also one of the most mislabeled.
OCD in children is often mislabeled as anxiety or defiance
From the outside, a child who refuses to leave the house until a routine is complete looks oppositional. A child who cannot stop asking whether they are sick looks anxious. A child who takes two hours on ten minutes of homework looks inattentive. All three can be OCD, and the difference matters because the treatment is specific. Generic anxiety advice, and especially reassurance, tends to feed the cycle: every answered question teaches the brain that the question needed answering.
We also look at what travels with it. Tics are common alongside childhood OCD, and a sudden onset after an illness is worth a careful medical history. Anxiety and attention problems can coexist with OCD or masquerade as it. The evaluation is designed to pull these apart rather than treat the loudest symptom.
What the evaluation looks for
The first appointment runs sixty minutes. We take a developmental history, a school history, a sleep history, and a family history, because OCD and anxiety disorders run in families. We ask when the worries started and whether anything preceded them, including illness. We ask the child, in their own words and at their own pace, what the worry says and what they have to do to make it quiet. Children with OCD are often relieved to be asked directly; many have never told anyone the whole thing because it sounds strange out loud. Part of the visit is with the parent present and part, when the child is willing, without. We screen for depression and for safety concerns every time.
We ask families to bring what the school has produced, including any 504 plan, teacher comments, and attendance records, and to describe the rituals as concretely as they can, including how much of the day they take. Time consumed is one of the measures that tells us how much the OCD is costing the child, and it is the number we watch as treatment goes on.
Treatment: exposure therapy first, medication when it is needed
The best-supported treatment for childhood OCD is a specific form of cognitive behavioral therapy called exposure and response prevention, in which the child practices facing the worry without doing the ritual, in small steps, with a therapist who knows the method. We say that plainly because it is the first thing a family should look for, and we refer to therapists who do it. Parents are part of that treatment, learning how to stop the reassurance cycle without stopping the love.
Medication has a role when the OCD is severe, when therapy alone is not enough, or when depression or another condition is riding alongside it. The medications used for OCD in children are daily medications from the antidepressant family, started low and increased slowly, and they take several weeks to show an effect. We explain that timeline up front. Individual results vary, and we say so plainly.
How St. Petersburg families are seen
St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, Gulfport and Seminole are served by HIPAA-secure telehealth. We do not have an office in Pinellas County, and we would rather say that here than after you call. Video works well for OCD evaluation and follow-up; children often show us the ritual at home in a way they could not in an office. One category of visit cannot be done by video: a first prescription for a stimulant medication, if attention turns out to be the problem, requires an in-person evaluation under Florida controlled-substance rules. For south Pinellas families that visit happens at our Tampa (Carrollwood) office, about forty-five minutes up I-275 on a normal morning, and it is usually a single appointment with care continuing by video afterward.
Care for St. Petersburg families is part of our child and adolescent psychiatry in Florida. Visits that have to happen face to face are held at our Tampa (Carrollwood) office, or at the Wesley Chapel office, the home of in-person child psychiatry in Wesley Chapel, and the rest can run through child psychiatry by telehealth. Families in north Pinellas can read about child psychiatry in Clearwater, and adults in the household can start with psychiatry in St. Petersburg.
Margot Krahn, PMHNP-BC
Margot Krahn is a board-certified, Florida-licensed psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with twelve years of clinical experience. Her training is lifespan, which means the child and adolescent curriculum is part of her formal preparation rather than something added later. She sees St. Petersburg-area families across Florida by HIPAA-secure telehealth, and in person at the Wesley Chapel office.
With middle schoolers she tends to spend the first part of a visit with the parent in the room and the second part without, because the two accounts of a hard morning are rarely the same and both are worth having. She would rather take sixty minutes and get the history right than start a plan on a partial picture.
Read Margot's full bioQuestions St. Petersburg parents ask
Is this OCD or just a phase?
Many children have a period of rituals or repeated questions and grow out of it. The signs that it is more than a phase are time, distress and spread: rituals that eat an hour a day, a child who is upset rather than playful about them, and worries that move from one topic to the next. Those are worth an evaluation rather than waiting.
My son also has tics. Are they related?
They can be. Tics are common alongside childhood OCD, and the combination changes some treatment choices. We ask about tics at every OCD evaluation, and about any sudden onset of symptoms after an illness, which calls for a careful medical history.
Will you make my daughter stop her rituals?
Not by force, and not at the first visit. The treatment that works is exposure and response prevention, a specific therapy in which the child practices facing the worry without the ritual in small, planned steps. We refer to therapists who do it and coach parents on ending the reassurance cycle at home.
Is medication used for OCD in a nine-year-old?
Sometimes, when the OCD is severe, when therapy alone is not enough, or when depression or another condition is present. The medications used are daily medications from the antidepressant family, started low and increased slowly. They take several weeks to work, and we discuss that honestly before starting.
Do you have an office in St. Petersburg?
No. Ascend has offices in Tampa (Carrollwood), Wesley Chapel, and Lakeland. South Pinellas families are served by HIPAA-secure Florida telehealth. If a visit has to happen face to face, it is scheduled at the Tampa office.
Do you bill Medicaid?
Ascend does not bill Medicaid. Families whose child is covered by Medicaid should call the care team, and we will go through the options that exist rather than leaving you to guess.
How soon can we be seen?
Most new St. Petersburg families get a telehealth intake within one to two weeks. A small number of slots are held each week for children in crisis or out of school. Call (813) 670-3005 for a genuine next-available time.
Name the worry, then treat it.
Sixty-minute first visits, the same provider each time, and telehealth that lets a child show us the problem at home. Send the form at the top of this page or call, and a care coordinator will reach you within one business day.