Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Shrinks, Shrinks, Everywhere!



I wanted a shrink-free day. I still haven't bought a new novel, but I'm getting there!

So I went to Washington this weekend-- it was rainy and muddy on the Mall, and there were people everywhere---long lines to get into the Archives and some of the more popular museums. We ended up at the Sackler Gallery checking out the Asian art. There's a photo of Arthur Sackler and I stop to read about him. You guessed it: he was a psychiatrist. There're everywhere.

3 comments:

Medicated said...

ha. Nice spam comment from James.

I have a general question that I wasn't sure where to post. No, it's not a personal concern.

I've seen psychiatrists and psychologists, usually concurrently. The situation has always been that the psychiatrist managed meds and did MINIMAL counseling, and the psychologist did all the talk therapy. This arrangement made sense to me because the PhD had spent his his doctoral education on research and counseling, and the MD was first and foremost a physician whose role was fairly limited to the physiologic/pharmacologic aspects of things. It seemed that each was doing what he did best.

From what I can tell, you three are all psychiatrists (MD/DO), but many of your posts refer to psychotherapy, so I'm curious - is your practice run differently? Do you do both? Did you learn these kinds of psychotherapy/counseling skills during your residency?

Sorry if I'm being annoying - In my experience, psychiatrists and psychologists have always been/done two separate things, so I guess I'm just a little confused.

Thanks.

Pamela J. Lindsay, A.L.M. said...

Oddly enough, in my experience beginning in 1978 I have had both therapy and medication management from my psychiatrists. It was always difficult to find a really good psychiatrist that excelled in both areas. But, more recently psychologists and other trained mental health professionals have assumed the role of therapist leaving the psychopharm management to the psychiatrists (which makes sense to me).

Medicated said...

I poked around a little on the site and found an older post that addressed my exact question. So... nevermind!