My parents raised me to experience a deeper level of joy when helping others than when I am meeting my own desires. This value was ingrained into me from a young age, and I always held the ambition to pursue a career focused on making the lives of others better. Now with that said, to my friends and family that know me, I am a thrill-seeker, and am very passionate about my hobbies, travels, and partying. I regularly chase the extreme on my adventures and I admit that these efforts are very self-serving. Despite this side of me, I learned, largely from the constant lessons of my father, that a greater degree of fulfillment comes from supporting others compared to the happiness I experience when having fun. My dad was a doctor and his principles set the foundation of why I also pursued a career in medicine.
Since adolescence, I have also become fascinated by the mysteries of the brain and consciousness. In college, I pursued this interest by working in research that used functional MRI to measure brain function. I loved the work, but my desire to form lasting relationships with patients drew me to medical school, and ultimately fell in love with the field of pain medicine.
As a pain medicine doctor, I can explore the interplay of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, and how it relates to psychological factors in each patient. I have an opportunity to form strong bonds with my patients, but the clinical work is extremely emotional as there are very few options to cure many of the underlying causes of pain such as arthritis or nerve injuries. After several years in practice, my aim was not to eliminate pain, which in many cases is not possible, but to improve the quality of life which emphasizes enhancing mood, vitality, and physical fitness.
This goal in some respects falls out of line with conventional medicine. Early in my training while getting beaten down in the hospital by the grueling work demands, I became disillusioned by the standard approach to clinical care. I found that the traditional sick-care model of medicine that primarily understood health care as a form of disease management failed too many people and sent the wrong message to patients. While I trust the advances in medicine and am inspired by the science-based therapies that remarkably treat diseases such as infections, heart disease, cancer, and other conditions, there is not enough attention and focus on how we can live healthier and more fulfilled lives.
My primary motivation is to live life to the fullest and to have it filled with meaning and there are very few treatment options in medicine that promote this mentality. As a pain medicine provider, I took pride in thinking outside the box in exploring treatment options for my most challenging patients. I started offering ketamine infusions for select cases that failed traditional therapies and I noted remarkable results. The promises of ketamine in providing profound psychedelic experiences and enhancing consciousness emerged as a powerful tool. Since focusing on how to perfect this treatment, it emerged as the most satisfying aspect of my career.
I developed Genesis Ketamine Centers to fill a void that is missing in healthcare. Our emphasis is not on suppressing or controlling illness but on enhancing and optimizing health and vitality through the power of consciousness medicine. We focus on promoting healthy-mindedness and using strategies like meditation, mindfulness, and flow-states to build a solid foundation. Ketamine and other psychedelics are powerful tools that should be used to help strengthen this foundation and they should be used only by the oversight of well-intentioned and properly trained professionals.