ABOUT ME           

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         My journey to medicine has been a bit unconventional.  Originally from rural Pennsylvania, I am the grandson of coal miners on both sides.  After college, I joined the Peace Corps and spent two wonderful years volunteering as a teacher in a small village school on the island nation of Samoa.  Enamored with Pacific Island culture, I moved to Hawaii where I finished graduate school in anthropology and worked as an archaeologist throughout the Pacific.  I loved my time as an archaeologist, but I wanted to learn skills to make more of a positive difference in people’s lives.  This led me to medicine.  While in medical school at the University of Hawaii, I found myself relating to patients as people, rather than a collection of diagnoses, leading me to a residency in Psychiatry at UC San Diego.  During my study and practice of conventional psychiatry, I became more aware of both the limitations of psychiatric medications and the value of a holistic approach that considers the mind, body, and environment.  I now practice integrative psychiatry, which is the intelligent combination of conventional and complementary medicine.