Our Mental Health Providers
Learn more about our dedicated team.
Hiten Soni, MD
ippsych2024-11-25T13:08:36+00:00Teletherapy – https://doxy.me/hitensoni
Dr. Soni chose to devote his professional life to medicine after working for more than a decade as an Environmental Engineer. As a physician, he initially gained experience in various organizations before founding Interpersonal Psychiatry in October of 2013.
Dr. Soni elected to work in private practice after witnessing first-hand the dire need for high quality, timely, and accessible, psychiatry services in his community. His treatment philosophy is somewhat unique, in that, Dr. Soni places his primary emphasis on improving his patients overall quality of life. This philosophy allows for treatment that is patient specific or Patient Centered. The Patient Centered Treatment model is evidence based and includes medications when warranted in addition to behavioral and social interventions that are also tailored to the person, and not a one size fits all approach.
Dr. Soni completed his internship at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri and his residency in Psychiatry at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He has also completed Post-Doctoral training at The Florida Postgraduate Sex Therapy Training Institute and the Psychoanalytical Institute of Greater Kansas City. He is licensed to practice Psychiatry in the states of Kansas and Missouri.
Dr. Soni sees patients in the Lawrence and Overland Park
Debra Williams, DO
ippsych2022-06-16T15:38:42+00:00Teletherapy – https://doxy.me/drdebrawilliams
Debra Williams is a General Adult and Child Psychiatrist, Addiction and Pain Medicine specialist who received her undergraduate degree from Northeastern Oklahoma State University in Science & Molecular Biology. She completed her medical school education at the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1993. Residency was completed at the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry in 1998. She enjoys Travel, Movies, Knitting and Crocheting, and enjoying outdoor activities
Brian Lahey, MD
web_admin2024-11-25T13:11:24+00:00Teletherapy – https://doxy.me/drbrianlahey
Dr. Lahey grew up in South Bend Indiana. He went to college in Virginia at the college of William and Mary. Two years after graduation he went to St. Georges University School of Medicine. He came to Kansas City for his psychiatry residency and also completed his Child & adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Kansas university medical center. He has been in the KC area ever since. He has four children ranging in age between 15 to 25 years old. Dr. Lahey specializes in treating patients of all ages and in psychiatric care of men and boys. He takes a unique approach which combines both medical and therapeutic techniques. He always strives to meet the patient where they are and then focuses on the potential for growth. He believes in the importance of growing throughout life and having healthy growth promoting relationships. He is always interested in the patient’s pattern of relating to both themselves and others to seek to help improve such relations.
Dr. Yu-Tze Ng, MD
web_admin2025-05-28T20:56:53+00:00Dr. Yu-Tze Ng is not just a wonderful clinician but also a very prominent clinical educator and researcher within the child neurology and epilepsy communities. He is a true physician clinician scientist and educator who has mentored many residents, medical students and junior colleagues to date.
As a teacher, he began the first of many teaching awards even during his Epilepsy Fellowship when he was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation for Excellence in Teaching to the neurology residents at the University of Texas-Houston. Subsequently he won the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award to Pediatric Education, 2012-2013 from the Department of Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma. He was then nationally recognized by winning the A.B. Baker Teaching Award from the American Academy of Neurology this year in 2016. This was subsequently followed by The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s first year of residents recognizing outstanding faculty teachers, where he won one of only five Superstar Faculty Awards, “Most Likely to Turn Heads”! In 2023 he won a Legacy Teaching Award from a medical student and the patient’s family at The University of Columbia Medical School. He has always and constantly continues to receive outstanding teaching reviews from medical students, residents and fellows alike.
Other awards that he has won include, the Texas Neurological Society, Young Investigator Award. He then also won the Journal of Child Neurology/Decker Publishing Neuroscience prize two years in a row at the Southern Pediatric Neurology Society. He has been made a distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (FAAN), American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP) and American Epilepsy Society (FAES).
He has published well over 100 journal articles of which the vast majority are peer-reviewed. He was the first author in nearly all of the first half of his publications followed by being the senior author in the later half. He has several publications in the prestigious journal, Neurology where he was the first author in two major papers; the largest study in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome involving clobazam and another regarding the treatment of hypothalamic hamartomas. He has even published a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine. He was on the Editorial Boards of three pediatric journals, i.e. the Journal of Child Neurology, Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health and Pediatric Neurology. He subsequently resigned from the former two journals when he was invited to become only one of three Associate Editors by the Editor-in-Chief for Pediatric Neurology.
He has been the primary investigator (PI) in well over 10 multi-center clinical drug trials and in fact been the main recruiter and first author in a couple of them. Previously he was the only PI granted funding from UCB Pharmaceuticals Inc., for his investigator-initiated study for the use of intravenous levetiracetam in children when this now very popular drug was first being launched. In his short time here with us he is already participating as the PI in four drug studies having already recruited patients. He and The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio were selected as the only site in Texas to be part of a world multi-center clinical drug trial on cannabinoid treatment of infantile spasms. He has also partnered with the local Epilepsy Foundation of San Antonio and Texas to apply for grants to enhance outreach and telemedicine to enhance the care of epilepsy in children living in remote areas of Texas.
After more than seven years as the inaugural Pediatric Neurology Endowed Chair Holder and Professor of Pediatrics (with Tenure) as well as the Neurology Chief at The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio he entered private practice in 2021. Unlike many academic clinicians however, Dr. Ng has always seen many patients with excellent diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes and patient satisfaction scores. His areas of (world-renowned) expertise predominantly involve various treatments of epilepsy with the latest drug and surgical therapies. His areas of expertise include: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, (neurosurgery for) status epilepticus, antiepileptic drugs and hypothalamic hamartomas. Hence he has been invited and delivered well over 50 lectures as a visiting professor or indeed keynote speaker (including a National Epilepsy Conference in China and two pharmaceutical meetings in Japan) all over the country and world.
In terms of administrative duties, Dr. Ng was a former President (now CFO) of the Southern Pediatric Neurology Society served on the Scientific Review Committees for the Child Neurology Society (CNS), and recently American Epilepsy Society (AES) and is on the Child Neurology and Epilepsy Sections of the AAN. He was previously nominated by the CNS as a candidate for the Councilor for the South.
Sharma McKinney, APRN
ippsych2022-06-16T15:39:03+00:00Teletherapy – https://doxy.me/mssharma
Though raised in Kansas, I received my Bachelor’s in Nursing from the University of Missouri in Columbia (Go Tigers!).
I have been working in health care for over 15 years including time in intensive care, pediatrics, adolescent medicine, emergency medicine, psychiatry, and addiction medicine. I received my Master’s Degree from Simmons University in Boston, MA and am board certified in both family medicine and addiction medicine with a speciality in psychiatry for all ages.
I am passionate about medication assisted treatment including buprenorphine induction and titration. I have worked as a nurse practitioner in both inpatient and outpatient environments and am committed to providing cutting edge care to a diverse population.
Edith Cowan, APRN
web_admin2025-06-05T16:58:27+00:00Kristin Cunningham, MSN, PMHNP-BC
web_admin2025-06-05T16:58:48+00:00Teletherapy – https://doxy.me/kristincunninghampmhnp
I have over 15 years of experience working in various roles in mental health. I earned my Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Washburn University and my Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. I am board certified in psychiatric care for individuals across the lifespan and am especially passionate about providing mental healthcare for children and adolescents. I am LGBTQ+/kink/polyamory affirming and strive to provide care that is sensitive to the intersectionality of my clients’ diverse experiences.
Lindsay Schmitz, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC
web_admin2025-01-20T12:42:16+00:00Teletherapy – https://doxy.me/lindsaypsych
I am a dedicated, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Board-Certified in psychiatric care across the lifespan. With a master’s in Nursing and a Post-Graduate degree as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, I am licensed in both Kansas and Missouri. With over a decade of experience in nursing, I have cultivated a deep passion for mental health and wellness. I am passionate about military/veteran communities as well as Ketamine and Spravato treatment options. I see patients ages 6 and older and continue to be an advocate for mental health, using clinical expertise to deliver compassionate care.