As a psychiatrist, my interest has always been in treating the whole person. Our traditional training in psychiatry, surprisingly, does not train us to do so. As a matter of fact, the pendulum has swung so far right, that people sometimes begin to be simplified into a bag of neurotransmitters. This approach has never been attractive for me, knowing that all of us have biological, psychological, social, and spiritual elements. I believe that the “Doctor of the Psyche” may serve his/her patients better by addressing some of these elements.

Over the last few years, I have educated myself and have personally experienced each of the subjects being presented here  and how they can be healing or helpful. I have shared different techniques and experiences with my patients in order to help them see that sometimes everything doesn't just come from a “magic pill”. Indeed medications are our backbone in psychiatry and the amazing psychopharmacology available today truly changes people's lives… But something more is needed.

That's where Wellness comes in.

When people ask me what I do for a living, I reply that I practice ‘Integrative Psychiatry.’ We have all heard of Integrative Medicine but how about using similar principles of Wellness and healthy living in order to help our mind and body?

I have been privileged to work in an arena which supports this way of practicing psychiatry. Even in my first ever meeting with Dr. Amen, I was introduced to the “novel” concept that medications are not everything in psychiatry. Nowhere else in my residency training was I encouraged  in understanding the use of “alternative” approaches to help people. I still remember very clearly first meeting Dr. Amen. Within 10 minutes of meeting him, I had a biofeedback monitor attached to my fingertips and remember watching my vital signs change right in front of me on a little monitor. Wow! A little over an hour ago, I was “being trained” that the practice of psychiatry was the administration of psychotropic medications. And here at the Amen Clinics, I found a source of inspiration. It was actually possible to do something different in psychiatry. It was actually possible to be human in psychiatry. As I left the Amen Clinics, I remember joking under my breath that “I'd love to work here one day”. Dr. Amen chuckled, “Maybe you will!” Within one month of graduating from residency, I was working in his clinic and learning from an amazing teacher.

Five years and over 1000 new patient evaluations later,  I found myself actively using the wellness concepts below in helping patients with depression and anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder, relationship problems and "mental confusion" - heal - and not only with a prescription in their hands but with a new found “sense of self.” Most have a feeling that they are actively engaged in their own healing,  working in partnership with someone who “gets it.”
I’d love to help you  get it too.

Special thanks to Dr. Daniel Amen,  and all of the staff at the Amen Clinic, who have all shown support in their own way to let this come to fruition.  Thanks to Byron Katie, for her Blessings from within, without, and above. Thanks to my fellow Truth Seekers on the Path - you know who you are without a Name.  [Read that sentence twice].  And of course thanks to you for taking the time and effort to bring Peace into your own life.

With Love,

Larry Momaya, MD

Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry