Author Information and Blog Introduction

My experience as a PhD student and clinical psychologist in training has evolved to be quite different than I imagined. Practitioners treating mental illness join the field for various reasons; career opportunities, exposure and experiences, personal qualities, etc. Growing up in a family of psychologists, I somewhat inherited the role and aspired to become a psychotherapist at a young age. However, as I began getting deeper into my work experiences, I found that my ambitions grew further than just becoming a “talk doctor.” My first true role in the field was working with active duty military families whom had children with severe medical and mental health disabilities. For 6 years I worked one on one with families in their homes, traveled with them to doctor appointments and procedures, developed unique skills, and reflected on not only my work but also the healthcare system. I spent more hours with these families in one month than a psychologist would spend face-to-face with a patient over the course of a year.

I began to recognize a pattern throughout the families I worked with: ineffective psychiatric medication treatment as well as, what appeared to be, patients trapped on a healthcare merry-go-round. The lack of proper treatment and its impact on individuals were not exposed to me in my early studies, but rather became an interest of mine through experience. I later worked with and studied alternative medicine for psychiatric care, and while this route can be effective, it does not appear to “cure” moderate to severe mental health illnesses on its own. I began to wonder as to the existence of comprehensive treatment of patients with severe mental illness, specifically Major Depressive Disorder. Why has the development of newer psychotropic medications not had an impressive impact on treatment?

Around the time I began the PhD clinical psychology program, I started networking with professionals in my city to get a better understanding of this phenomenon. I eventually met and worked with family physicians who had a different approach to treating mood disorders and Major Depressive Disorder; they extensively self-educated themselves of psychotropic medications, neuroscience, diagnosing, and spent more time with each patient: on average 60 minutes. I began to wonder, what factors can improve patient outcomes of Major Depressive Disorder?

As an emerging professional psychologist, I believe these questions should be addressed and this social change topic should evolve in a social change movement. Furthermore, this topic should face extra attention as mental health professionals and physicians began to further collaborate in an integrative model.