"No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell."
- Carl Jung
Approach
My personal philosophy of care in psychiatry is drawn from its roots: the psychiatrist being, first and foremost, a therapist with the added ability to take a more comprehensive approach in terms of diagnosis and treatment as a physician. As a result, my primary focus is to always provide holistic care. That is to say, I work to see and treat the whole you, not just the constellation of symptoms you have.
All individuals are indelibly impacted and shaped by the people, places, and things they interact with or experience over the course of their lives. I therefore take a “big picture” view to understand how various aspects of your life all come together to form the essence of who you are today, such as how you see yourself and the world you are in, the kinds of relationships and experiences you have had, the type of foods you eat, and the level of physical engagement you have with your environment. I integrate these perspectives with an understanding of the evolutionary functions of mind and brain to formulate a path toward accomplishing your treatment goals.
All individuals are indelibly impacted and shaped by the people, places, and things they interact with or experience over the course of their lives. I therefore take a “big picture” view to understand how various aspects of your life all come together to form the essence of who you are today, such as how you see yourself and the world you are in, the kinds of relationships and experiences you have had, the type of foods you eat, and the level of physical engagement you have with your environment. I integrate these perspectives with an understanding of the evolutionary functions of mind and brain to formulate a path toward accomplishing your treatment goals.
Diagnosis and Treatment
This macroscopic approach guides my diagnosis and treatment decisions. Practically speaking, most psychiatric diagnoses are more designed to provide clean labels or categories for administrative/insurance purposes than they are to adequately guide treatments. A diagnosis should not define you. The reality is that it’s not so clean cut; there is plenty of overlap between symptoms that people have and the diagnoses or labels we have chosen to give those patterns of symptoms.
Ultimately, the important thing to recognize is that these symptoms are often representative of a greater problem pertaining to various personal challenges in being able to live your life well. The treatment will therefore come from us looking comprehensively at how you’ve been living then identifying areas that can be targeted for adjustment to better address those symptoms. This process, in turn, helps you to learn about yourself and grow during recovery. As such, my practice involves a multi-faceted approach to interventions that may help you accomplish these goals, including psychotherapeutic, behavioral, and lifestyle modifications.
Ultimately, the important thing to recognize is that these symptoms are often representative of a greater problem pertaining to various personal challenges in being able to live your life well. The treatment will therefore come from us looking comprehensively at how you’ve been living then identifying areas that can be targeted for adjustment to better address those symptoms. This process, in turn, helps you to learn about yourself and grow during recovery. As such, my practice involves a multi-faceted approach to interventions that may help you accomplish these goals, including psychotherapeutic, behavioral, and lifestyle modifications.
On the topic of medication...
The use of pharmaceutical medication is just one type of limited and very specific intervention that is not the central focus of my practice. In fact, I always look toward other interventions that can be used to help minimize or prevent the reliance on medication due to both known and unknown long-term adverse effects which could outweigh any possible short-term benefits.
As a result, I view medication as merely a tool of last resort to help retrieve some functionality when symptoms are severe enough that they begin to compromise your ability to effectively implement and sustain these other types of interventions. Any prescribing is therefore done judiciously and in limited, very specific circumstances rather than the go-to in my practice.
I do not generally prescribe controlled substances and I do not do “medication management” for individuals looking primarily for prescriptions. If your symptom burden is severe enough to warrant ongoing pharmacological management or you desire this primary approach to treatment, you have unfortunately come to the wrong place.
As a result, I view medication as merely a tool of last resort to help retrieve some functionality when symptoms are severe enough that they begin to compromise your ability to effectively implement and sustain these other types of interventions. Any prescribing is therefore done judiciously and in limited, very specific circumstances rather than the go-to in my practice.
I do not generally prescribe controlled substances and I do not do “medication management” for individuals looking primarily for prescriptions. If your symptom burden is severe enough to warrant ongoing pharmacological management or you desire this primary approach to treatment, you have unfortunately come to the wrong place.