My work primarily focuses on helping people understand and more fully accept themselves, improve their relationships, and create and maintain meaningful personal practices. In the broadest sense, I strive to help others create more satisfying and meaningful lives. Many of my core values, life lessons, and metaphors are rooted in medical and psychotherapy training. Medicine can truly heal. However, I openly consider how diagnoses and medication can sometimes limit and at times obscure personal growth and development.

Since 2005, I have prioritized psychotherapy practice. I work from understandings of psychological and medical therapy that draw from science, philosophy, and art. Competence and creativity are the foundation of effective psychotherapies, and I combine this with understanding how short-term medication catalyzes personal work. During state policy service, I was fascinated to understand the effectiveness and risks of psychiatric medications and hundreds of different psychotherapies. I continue to devote time to better understanding clinical outcomes, the power and limits of contemporary psychiatric treatments, integrative medicine, and emerging technologies in mental health, including US and international AI platforms.

I am grateful to have learned with and from patients, colleagues, and mentors in the following roles:

• Supervising psychiatrist in community mental health across diverse care settings, including serving as Chief Operating Officer equivalent and medical director for two managed care organizations;

• National health policy and program development leader in Washington, D.C., addressing health disparities and mental health parity in medical education;

• National consultant for the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Justice Center, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and American Holistic Medical Association;

• Published author of journal articles and book chapters;

• Local, regional, and national national presenter and workshop facilitator creating meaningful experiential and didactic learning experiences in psychoanalytic theory and practice, health disparities, physician and clinician burnout, gender-affirming care, and crisis and criminal justice services;

• Fellowship graduate and peer mentor in the New York Zen Center contemplative medicine program; and

• Experience as an artist, author, carpenter, hospice volunteer, neuroscience researcher, and service laborer.