I used to spend most of my day listening. As a high school counselor, I encouraged teenagers to talk. Feeling stressed, they said, is their automatic response to demanding teachers, parents’ high expectations, and the drama of shifting friendship…
Category: Psychiatry
Re-wounding the wounded healer
I walk onto the inpatient unit on a Monday morning. The feeling of discomfort begins to overwhelm me. Perhaps this was due to being forced back to inpatient, but I felt it had to do with changes in the process. I started my training at a time when ther…
Simple solutions for social connections
When Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa acquired the company that makes Lovot, a pet-sized robot for emotional support, it spoke about more than a financial investment in robotics. The news was tied to love, companionship, and healing. It also reveal…
A psychiatrist presenting emotion [PODCAST]
“Many families still prefer their providers to wear a mask. I have no way to know who carries what political or health views around their mask-wearing. Their masks were off, and mine was on. When I asked them for their preference of whether they …
The extortion of physicians: If doctors don’t pay up they don’t work
I am a former associate director in a state physician health program (PHP). I also hold faculty appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School in ethics and psychiatry. I started writing about PHPs a decade ago. Almost immediatel…
What I learned after being hacked on social media
“The email on your account was changed. If you didn’t change your email address, you can secure your account here.” I saw this email from Instagram and immediately had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I clicked the link, but it was to…
How to solve burnout with communication [PODCAST]
“How does it work? We teach people to speak to one another’s values. Have you heard of listening to answer vs. listening to understand? Well, we take that one step further. We teach first to use personality science to find the values of everyone …
Military and medicine: shared risk factors for eating disorder development [PODCAST]
“To reduce eating disorder risks and to support those who may be suffering in silence, we need to keep talking and promote awareness of the issues while clarifying long-held misconceptions about eating disorders. We can’t help those who do not fe…
Want your skin to look better? Then consider your mental health.
Despite a popular embrace of self-care and the growing awareness of trauma-like symptoms stemming from COVID, one facet of mental health remains widely overlooked: the way our emotional state affects our skin. Although most of us don’t think about it r…
Creating and promoting a culture of wellness in medicine
The practice of medicine goes beyond treating bodily wounds or electrolyte imbalances but also involves understanding and holistically helping patients. To ensure that the health care system functions well, physicians work tirelessly around the clock t…
