Pills don’t build skills
Medications are a tool to be used judiciously, not as a cure-all. I went into psychiatry focusing on a robust neurobiological program that advocated combining pharmacotherapy with psychotherapies. This is where I learned that relationships change the brain.
I gravitated toward mentors who trained decades before me – an era when they didn’t have all the medications available today. Instead, they relied on tools such as clinical interviewing and building deep patient relationships that allow people to be emotionally safe while facing some of their greatest challenges.
Child and adolescent psychiatry is particularly interesting to me because childhood is the most vulnerable time of life, and a time of natural curiosity and rapid growth. Even minor adaptations in a child or teen's understanding of themselves, parenting approach, or educational support can lead to significant changes in their present experience and accumulate over time as they continue to develop.
