Bio

I grew up in the Atlanta area. I finished Davidson College after four years, then after another four years obtained my MD degree from the Medical College of Georgia. I completed a three year psychiatric residency at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Maryland. I underwent a four year personal analysis with a training analyst at the Baltimore-D.C. Institute. After extensive study, I passed my board exam and became Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in psychiatry. I have also had additional post residency training in group therapy and family therapy. After working at Spring Grove State Hospital and serving four years in the United States Public Health Service, I went into private practice in Hanover, Pa. and raised sheep on our 12 acre farm .I moved back closer to home in 1988 and worked at the VAMC on the drug and alcohol units before working at Charter Brook Hospital treating chemically dependent adolescents. When Charter Brook began to have trouble keeping their census up, I went to work for the Liberty Healthcare Project at Central State Hospital. After working three years on the admitting unit at CSH, I went into private practice in Milledgeville. After thirteen years in private practice in Milledgeville ,my wife and I moved to Cumming. For the last two years I have worked on Friday's at Ga. College and State University evaluating college students for their student counseling service and I continue to do that.I work at Avita Community Partners at various locations in North Georgia. I supervise clinical staff at an intensive out-patient program for older people in Lumpkin county. I do not have a private practice any longer. I am available for public speaking, seminars, and consulting.

I have been listening to patients teach me about what it means to be human for over 30 years. I have been lucky enough to come along at a time in psychiatry when it was believed that both listening and talking were critically important in treatment and that understanding yourself and your own human frailty was crucial to understanding others. I was also fortunate to be in training during a time and at a place where great men supervised me and shared their insights with me. I chose a residency program that emphasized psychotherapy and gave residents a chance to see patients often enough and long enough to do the kind of intensive therapy that makes significant changes in patient's lives. Now I can apply that knowledge to do things more quickly because of those experiences. I see patterns and connections simply because patients and supervisors have shown them to me over and over before. At the same time I work to keep an open mind.