Integrative Mental Health Care: A Therapist's Handbook

by James Lake

Making sense of complementary and alternative treatments in mental health care. In mental health care as in medical care, more and more clinicians are turning to unconventional diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to treat their patients in the most effective way possible. In fact, recent surveys have indicated that outof- pocket costs in the U.S. for nontraditional treatments of psychiatric disorders equal costs of the more standard, covered medical therapies. Integrating traditional methods of therapeutic care (i.e., pharmacologic treatments, cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, etc.) with complementary and alternative medical (CAM) approaches―including the use of vitamin and mineral supplements, mindfulness training, yoga, light therapy, music, biofeedback, energy therapies, acupuncture, and other mind-body treatments―has been shown to be more effective than taking the traditional route alone. However, very few resources or guidelines exist for clinicians on how exactly to go about incorporating these nontraditional approaches into treatment. Likewise, very few trustworthy manuals exist for patients on what their options are in terms of CAM methods. This book makes sense of it all by offering practitioners a concise, evidence-based guide to the day-today management of common mental health problems using a CAM approach. The first part of the book lays the foundation, explaining the basics of complementary and integrative methods in mental health care. The second part, organized by core symptom, guides practitioners through the process of creating an effective and sound CAM treatment plan.

382 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2009

About the author

I am a Board-certified psychiatrist who practices on the central California coast. My career has been focused on bringing the sub-specialty of integrative mental health care into the mainstream. I have served as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Stanford, and is currently a visiting assistant professor of medicine at University of Arizona School of Medicine, Center for Integrative Medicine.

I founded and chaired the American Psychiatric Association’s Caucus on Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Medicine from 2004 through 2010 and is a founding member and former chair of the International Network of Integrative Mental Health. I've completed an intensive course in medical acupuncture and I am a long-time student of Tibetan medicine.

I have published numerous peer-reviewed articles and chapters on integrative medicine and psychiatry, contribute a regular column on integrative mental health care to Psychiatric Times, and serves on the editorial review boards of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Journal of the Association for Advances in Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology, and Jour of Clinical Psychiatry. I am the author or editor of 4 textbooks on alternative and integrative mental health care: Chinese Medical Psychiatry: A Clinical Manual, (with Bob Flaws), Blue Poppy Press, 2000; Textbook of Integrative Mental Health Care, Thieme, 2006; and Complementary and Alternative Treatments in Mental Health Care (co-edited with David Spiegel), American Psychiatric Press, 2007, and Integrative Mental Health Care: A Therapist’s Handbook, Norton, 2009.

My most recent project is a series of 10 short books on integrative mental healthcare intended as concise guides on the integrative management of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, substance abuse and other common mental health problems. The books are available as ebooks through Amazon.com and Smashwords and as print books through Amazon.com. You can find my blog and several full text articles on my website
http://progressivepsychiatry.com/