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Integrative and Holistic Psychiatry
0 Playsin 15 hours
This week on Outside of Session, we’re tackling an incredibly important topic: the intersection of psychiatry and mental health.
Joining me is Dr Ata, a board-certified psychiatrist, as we explore how psychiatry fits into the bigger picture of healing, break down common misconceptions, and discuss how medication and therapy can work hand-in-hand.
In this episode, we’ll break down what holistic psychiatry is, how it differs from conventional approaches, and why more people are turning to this integrative method. What happens when we look beyond traditional prescriptions and start considering the whole person—their lifestyle, diet, sleep, and even spiritual well-being? Holistic psychiatry seeks to connect those dots, aiming to treat the mind, body, and soul together.
About today's guest:
Dr. Ata is a psychiatrist currently based in Georgia whose goal is to provide a holistic approach to treating mental health. After completing his residency training in General Psychiatry in Texas through Texas Institute for Graduate Medical Education and Research (TIGMER), he has moved to Georgia and currently holds an adjunct faculty appointment with the Augusta University/UGA Medical Partnership and also is an attending psychiatrist providing education and training to current residents.
Dr. Ata has extensive training in treating all mental health paying specific attention to holistic/integra psychiatry. Holistic psychiatry is a mental health treatment approach that focuses on the patient as a whole, not just their symptoms. Holistic psychiatrists consider a patient’s physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being. He has a special interest in mood and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, ADHD, OCD, integrative medicine.
Connect with Dr. Ata:
https://www.instagram.com/altumpsychiatry/#
https://altumpsychiatry.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Season 3 and Mental Health Focus
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome back to Outside of Session. I'm your host, licensed clinical social worker and therapist BFF, Julie Hilton. Season three is all about navigating life's challenges and finding balance. We're continuing the conversations around mental health and I'm once again joined by expert guests who share their stories and tips and hopes to inspire you on your journey of healing and growth.
Meet Dr. Atta: Psychiatry's Role and Misconceptions
00:00:37
Speaker
Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Outside of Session. This week, we're tackling an incredibly important topic, the intersection of psychiatry and mental health. Joining me today is Dr. Atta, who is a board-certified psychiatrist. We explore how psychiatry fits into the bigger picture of healing, breaking down some common misconceptions, and we discuss how medication and therapy can work hand in hand, as well as Dr. Atta's unique approach to psychiatry in his practice.
00:01:07
Speaker
So a little bit about today's guest, Dr. Atta is a psychiatrist currently ble based in Georgia and his goal is to provide a holistic approach to treating mental health. After completing his residency in general psychiatry in Texas through the Texas Institute for Graduate Medical Education and Research,
00:01:25
Speaker
He has moved to Georgia and currently holds an adjunct faculty appointment with Augusta University and UGA Medical Partnership. And he's also an attending psychiatrist providing education and training to current residents. That was a mouthful, I know, but he has done such incredible work in his career so far.
Holistic Psychiatry Explained by Dr. Atta
00:01:43
Speaker
Dr. Atta also has extensive training in treating all mental health, paying specific attention to holistic and integrative psychiatry, which is a lot of what we talk about today, like understanding what is holistic psychiatry and it being a mental health treatment approach that focuses on the patient as a whole, not just their symptoms.
00:02:04
Speaker
Holistic psychiatrists consider a patient's physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being. And Dr. Atta has special interest in mood and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, ADHD, OCD, and integrative medicine. So whether you're curious about psychiatry, whether you're considering it as a part of your own journey, or you just want to learn more about the field, this episode is packed with valuable insights you won't want to miss. So let's dive in.
00:02:34
Speaker
Good morning, Dr.
Role of Psychiatrists vs. Psychologists
00:02:36
Speaker
Atta. Thank you so much for being here today. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me here. I have really, really been looking forward to this conversation. um We've had this planned for a while and it's finally happening. I'm so excited about it. We have a lot to cover today too.
00:02:52
Speaker
We certainly do and I've also been looking forward to this and I guess we've finally made it happen. yeah Yeah, it's going to be awesome. um so I want to hear all about your new practice. Of course, we're going to dive into that because you've got some really exciting things to share on your end that I want everybody to know about today.
00:03:11
Speaker
um But before we jump into what makes your practice so unique, because that's especially why I wanted you to have to have you on the show today, I wanted to start out a little bit by just talking about, like, what do psychiatrists do? And that question seems kind of like, well, duh. Most people know mostly what psychiatrists do.
00:03:30
Speaker
But I started thinking about it and maybe people don't like maybe there are a lot of people that make assumptions about what your job is and what what your specialty does. So I wanted to start a little bit by just saying like, what are the basics of psychiatry? um And I'm even interested to hear like, how did you get into psychiatry? Like, how did you choose this as like your passion, your, your profession?
00:03:52
Speaker
Sure. So psychiatrists are medical doctors. That means that we did four years of college, four years of medical school. And after that, we specialize in the field of psychiatry, which is another four years. And then you can subspecialize if you want to into different fields, such as child adolescence, geriatric psychiatry. What we do is we talk to people about mental health. Just like you know doctors deal with physical health, we deal with people with mental health problems.
00:04:20
Speaker
And especially after COVID, we feel like this is an issue that's gone up a lot. um You know, there are a lot more people talking about this.
Collaboration in Mental Health Treatment
00:04:30
Speaker
We even have big and NBA players such as Kevin Love, um and even some famous tennis players coming out now saying that they've been working with their private psychiatrist in order to help them with their mental health. Now, what does that actually mean? Yeah.
00:04:48
Speaker
What that means is, for example, in sports, sometimes people have something like performance anxiety or something like that. you know When they're under pressure, they got to shoot with that last ball. um and you know For some reason, they would skip to them. They're unable to. So you work with a psychiatrist in order to help you manage those things.
00:05:06
Speaker
A frequent question I also get asked is, what is the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist? Yes, definitely. Sometimes people get confused about that, right? So a psychiatrist is, like again, a medical doctor. We go to school and and and we have all this background behind us. but also We're the ones who are able to assist you with medication management and taking a look at those things, whereas psychologists are trained more um in the top therapy type of space. And so you usually have more longer sessions with them and more weekly sessions with a psychologist.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. i I didn't even think about talking about that. But that's a good point. um Because some people do get very confused but between psychiatrists, psychologists
Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health
00:05:48
Speaker
and therapists. And in the therapist realm, you have um clinical social workers like myself, but you also have professional counselors, you have marriage and family therapists, like we come in several different flavors. um And I always say that a psychiatrist is going to be kind of like the highest level of education, of course, ah medical doctor. um And I want to give you plenty of credit for that because that's a lot of your life that you dedicated to getting through educational requirements, like I can't even imagine. um But that's going to be the ones especially for medication management.
00:06:22
Speaker
um psychologists to doing therapy, they also do a lot of the testing as well. So when you're looking for um testing for ADHD, lots of different things that you need evaluations for. um What you said that that typically is where you would refer to a psychologist and a lot of Certainly, you know you bring up ah a good point. A lot of times, we do refer out to our colleagues for neuropsych testing, and one of the more popular ones is ADHD testing. If we're unsure or if we need further assistance, we can refer you to a psychologist who's trained in that, and you go there, and you get that testing done, and then you come back with the results.
00:07:00
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. um And I feel like that that's kind of what makes medications is what makes you unique unique in some ways testing for psychologists and then therapists. A lot of times we're the ones that are doing like the weekly talk therapy, EMDR, stuff like that. um And I think that's really important to point out because we all collaborate, right? Like I talk with people, psychiatrists all the time about what I'm seeing week to week and whether I'm seeing a medication change has really helped with their anxiety or if it's causing different side effects. And so even though we have like our own little corners of the mental health community and the mental health field, um it really should be really collaborative.
00:07:39
Speaker
I definitely agree with that point. it's so you know It's just like in a hospital, right? There's a primary team that does most of the things, but then you still collaborate, for example, if someone's having heart issues, you still talk with the cardiology team if they're having problems with their kidneys, you still talk with the nephrologist who specializes in the kidney, but at the end of the day, you guys all work together as a team to make sure that you treat the patient or the client, and in this case, it's very similar. you know we While we aren't trained in therapy, most psychiatrists don't do therapy as much anymore. and There's a variety of reasons for that, especially you know the big thing these days is insurance, right? So insurance unfortunately dictates the way how most people will practice these days, and because of that, we let, for example, people who are doing therapy more day in and more day out, let them do that.
00:08:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. um So when we when we're talking about what psychiatrists do, I'm really glad that you brought in that COVID kind of changed things um because it it sounds like you're kind of saying that that might've been a positive that came out of that time period is that it normalized it maybe for people to say like more and more people are being open about we all have mental health. It doesn't mean we all have mental illness, but we all have mental health. And it doesn't mean that you have to necessarily have um a severe mental illness to need help from a therapist, from a psychiatrist, something like that. um And I really appreciate people that are just really open and whether it's celebrities or people just encouraging people to say like, Hey, there's no shame in it. If you need help with something, yeah, go get it. um But what do you feel is like,
00:09:22
Speaker
I don't even know if there is an average, but what do you feel like the average person that you're working with in your practice is coming to you saying, this is what I need help with. This is what they have kind of like an an awareness of what's going on in their life. Um, because we're not all shooting the last shot of the game or, you know, those kinds of high pressure situations. Like what's, what do you feel like the average patient for you is coming to you for?
00:09:47
Speaker
A college person that comes to see me, it's usually more people that struggle with mood disorders, whether that be depression or anxiety. Anxiety can present in many ways. Some people are in college, they're having trouble with focusing, so we help them with that. Some people are just anxious day to day. There's a diagnosis called generalized anxiety disorder, so they're kind of anxious about everything and anything. I mean, to pick up the groceries after After work they need to do this and do that they start having a lot of muscle neck tension so overall they just feel very stressed and anxious during the day which is impacting their overall functioning so i would say more likely than not especially after covid that has increased a lot and during covid everything was about.
00:10:33
Speaker
pretty much isolation, but I think during that time, unfortunately, people became socially isolated as well, right? So yes, while there was physical isolation, but people also became socially isolated, which has caused a
Seeking Help and Medication in Mental Health
00:10:46
Speaker
lot of issues now.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting to hear you say that because I feel like um even though COVID it is such a weird thing, like it's five years ago, but it also feels like, are we done with it? Did that even happen? Like it's such a, it's a surreal feeling, right? But I feel like there's so many long-term effects.
00:11:06
Speaker
Because I know so many clients have talked to me about how you're right like there is this period um lengthy period of social isolation and Now that we don't have to quarantine we don't have to like lots of people are back in office Most people are life is back to normal, but people have had a really hard time adjusting back to what was their previous social norm and People's social batteries run out a lot faster. They find themselves having a much harder time in larger social circles. um have you Have you noticed that? No, I definitely agree with you on that point. i think people
00:11:46
Speaker
may have gotten used to the idea that they didn't have to socialize as much and as frequently with people. So now sometimes people feel as if it's a burden to do that in exactly like in big, you know, areas such as if they're meeting a lot of people, um they may tend to be more nervous and like you said, their social better may run out a lot faster than they used to.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think one population where I've seen um affected the most was the college, the high school to college folks during that time. I know so many high school seniors that it was the end of their senior year that we went into lockdown, you know, in March and they missed their prom. They missed their high school graduation and then Their journey to starting their freshman year of college. Everything was online Even if they moved into a dorm, there was so much social aid so that they didn't get that initial um Chance to meet with their freshman class They struggled so much to get through college. It was such a different experience for them And so over the next couple of years, I had multiple clients in that age range that just did not
00:13:00
Speaker
go through and come out of COVID with a lot of coping skills. That was such an anxious and depressed time for them. um And now in 2025, most of those people graduated like within the last year. And so now they're entering the workforce, but I think they're carrying a lot of that experience with them.
00:13:17
Speaker
I definitely agree with that state grant. Several people I've worked with also, they kind of transitioned, like you said, from high school to college. But a lot of them ended up taking you know a semester or two online, and then they ended up slowly re-endowling back into the college life lifestyle, which helped them adjust it a little bit. But overall, it did take them some time to kind of get back to how society kind of was before those times. Yeah.
00:13:41
Speaker
Um, I feel like I went on a little bit of a tangent about that, but it's, it's just really common. I've seen so much of it. So if that's kind of, maybe we've got some people listening today that can, um, that that resonates with them, or maybe they're a little bit older. Maybe they had, you know, um,
00:13:58
Speaker
I know a lot of like new moms during that time. They were super isolated. the Their birthing experience was just super traumatic for them um because of lockdown in the hospitals and stuff like that. Like whatever somebody's story was over the past couple of years, if they're realizing like, yeah, I'm just not I'm not functioning where i want to be in life um like my anxiety is to a point of realizing that it's keeping you from like your quality of life is just not where you want it to your realizing that you're having a right time building friendships you're having a hard time.
00:14:30
Speaker
um
00:14:34
Speaker
having the faith in yourself to go for a new position at work or to be able to do a presentation at work or something like that, how would you encourage them to come to see somebody like you? like well What kind of words of or tips would you say of like, yeah, it's totally fine that this is something that you can seek out psychiatry help for? I think earlier in the conversation, I think you you hit you hit it right on point, right? A lot of people are,
00:15:02
Speaker
wanting to go to the doctor when they have the flu, they're wanting to go to the doctor when, you know, they have some physical symptoms. But again, when dealing with mental health, a lot of people frequently shy away from seeking out the help that they need. And sometimes They don't even realize that they need that help, right? But if you're starting to realize yourself that, hey, I used to be doing XYZ before, now I'm not able to do that anymore, or now it just feels like a burden to do it, do talk to someone about it. You know, talk to your friends if they aren't helping you as much as you want. Talk to a professional. That's what we're here for.
00:15:36
Speaker
And just getting out there and and trying to talk to professionals is what you need to do. Whether it be starting in with therapy or whether you start talking with a psychiatrist, both are okay. Usually, like I said, we work as a team. So you know if the know psychologist or therapist feel like you need medications and you talk further with a psychiatrist, we'll refer you to us. And likewise, if I feel like you know you need a little bit more individualized weekly sessions, I'll go ahead and refer you to a therapist.
00:16:05
Speaker
So I think now, like I said, is is a time when people are focusing more on the mental health outside of their physical health. And I think now is the best way to give your society is very important to these days. Yeah, absolutely. It's funny you say that too, because I think some people have um
00:16:25
Speaker
Some like negative feelings or fears, and I wanna talk about this. um Some people are afraid of medication. So they'll they have no problem coming to a therapist, um but they ah want to avoid medication and psychiatry at all costs. And I have had some people that it has taken literally years to get them to even talk with a doctor about medication.
00:16:49
Speaker
And then for some people, I think it's the opposite that they probably are just like, if I can have a medication to help me get through, that's fine, but I don't want to talk to anybody about my problems, whatever they are. So they avoid therapy. um And, and it just makes me wonder, like, what circumstances, what preconceived notions do people have just about one or the other that would make them seek you out or seek me out, depending on which one they want to try to avoid.
00:17:16
Speaker
But I don't know how accurate this is now, but I read a study one time that said um medications are about 30% more effective if you're also in therapy. And therapy is 30% more effective if you're also pairing it with
Addressing Trauma with Therapy and Medication
00:17:29
Speaker
medication. like They yeah are so complimentary of each other that they help each other to be able to be effective for you. Have you ever read anything like that?
00:17:40
Speaker
I've also ah heard of studies that that show the same thing and they kind of go hand in hand together, right? In, I guess, some mild cases, someone might be able to get away with doing one or the other, but typically, for example, if you have had a series of trauma in the past, until you're able to process that trauma with a therapist, using medicine may help you I guess address some of the symptoms you're having, whether those be nightmares, whether those be flashbacks, but until you're able to usually process those emotions with a therapist, a lot of times in traumatic experiences, people tend to bottle up their emotions and kind of toss everything to the back of their mind.
00:18:23
Speaker
and hope to never address it. But I tell this to all my patients that until you actually address this with a therapist, you're unlikely to be 100% better. They may be able to be 80% better manage their day-to-day life, but until you talk with a professional about this, you know,
00:18:39
Speaker
That's the only way to get better. I'm so glad to hear you say that. Yeah. Yeah. I can really appreciate your support of therapy as well. Um, because you're right. Like I think for a lot of my clients, because I work so much with trauma, um, a lot of times medication will help to kind of take that edge off so that as we're working through it, they feel, um,
00:19:00
Speaker
It kind of like expands that window of tolerance so that as we're working through it, they can still sleep so that they can not feel like they're hitting those highs and lows throughout the day so that they feel just so that they're more regulated as we're working through it. Yeah, I completely agree. And I don't know if you feel the same way as me, but I usually tell people when you kind of unlock that box of trauma, things tend to get a little bit worse before they get better.
00:19:27
Speaker
Absolutely. Um, and that's, ah I think, you know, as a therapist, it's, it's hard to see people go through that, right? You know, because they didn't ask for these traumas to happen for them, but it's their responsibility to heal from them. And so that's a really hard thing. Um, I don't want therapy to be re traumatizing. Like we don't want it to, um, stir things up without a solution for it and without like a goal for it to get better. But yeah, you're absolutely right. It it can get feel like it's getting worse before it gets better.
00:19:56
Speaker
But there is that hope that it gets better for sure. Exactly, exactly. You know, I didn't um mention this question before when we were talking about what we were going to chat about today, so I hope I'm not throwing you off. But it just makes me think of how many of my clients are afraid of medication. And that's kind of like the aversion of like, no, I'll just keep doing therapy. But they're really scared of starting medication. They're scared of side effects. They're scared of, um you know, you hear so many people say that it it felt like it changed their personality or like blunted their personality.
00:20:30
Speaker
um Like if I had a client in my office who let's say we are working through some really heavy trauma stuff and I feel like an SSRI maybe would be really good for them as we're working through it, but they're just like really terrified. If I finally got that person to come to you and sit in your office with you, how would you advise them and counsel them through those fears that they have?
00:20:54
Speaker
First and foremost, I'd probably say that a lot of their fears are obviously rooted in some type of reality, right? Whenever you take any medicine, whether it be an SSRI, whether it be a blood pressure medicine,
00:21:07
Speaker
These medicines have been studied by professionals, by the FDA, so whenever a medicine goes through this testing, they do clinical trials. Even if one person in that trial out of even 5,000 or 10,000 people, for example, have a side effect, it is necessary for them to list that on the side effects that you may experience. ah One out of 5,000, one out of 10,000 is pretty rare, but a lot of times I feel like people get worried about potential side effects just because they read the label. um That information is there for your information, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you will experience, you know for example, XYZ side effects. There are a lot of times that people take medicines and have no side effects, and that's great. While also there's times when people start having even the mildest side effects. For example, weight gain is really big on SSRIs,
00:22:03
Speaker
There are some weight neutral SSRIs and we can try you on those, for example. And again, every single person is different. Every single person reacts differently to a medicine. So I can't promise you that you will not have any side effects. But obviously, i you know with my training, I can try to find the one that will work best for you. And at the end of the day, it's like anything in life until you try it and you don't know what's going to happen.
Integrative Psychiatry and Personalized Treatment
00:22:27
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:22:30
Speaker
I like what you said about just like validating that fear. um like Not trying to over promise that, no, it's going to be great. like We don't know until we try. um I think sometimes we realize that side effects are worth it in a way. like if um if we gain some weight, like yes, that's undesirable. But if you find hope and excitement for life again, I mean, that's a pretty good payoff in my opinion, you know what I mean? um and i And also like a lot of times, right, when you're anxious, when you're depressed, you tend to not eat as much. You know, some people may eat more, but right, you may have lost some weight. And so when we're treating that anxiety, when we're treating that depression, you may naturally start eating
00:23:15
Speaker
you're used to and you may gain back a couple of pounds so we need to keep a close eye and see is this weight gain or is this you just kind of getting back to how you used to be prior to you know this anxiety that's set in prior to this depression setting and that's why you work with you know for example psychiatrists so we can keep a close eye on that.
00:23:34
Speaker
That's such a good, that's such a good point. That is the weight gain actually a side effect of the medication or was the weight lost a side effect of the depression and or the anxiety of itself, right? um right yeah That's really interesting.
00:23:49
Speaker
um when When you talk about finding the right medication, do you ever do the gene site testing? Do you use that at all? I have personally not used that yet. I know a lot of my colleagues have used that. um There are some mixed studies on that. For some people, that works out great to find the one that will work best for you. And then for some people, you know, it may not affect you as much, but I know that is a growing field these days.
00:24:16
Speaker
Can you explain for anybody that maybe hasn't heard of what that is, kind of the basics of it? Because I could try, but I might butcher it. ah I guess if I had to summarize it, when you do gene testing, you're trying to look at what um medicine may work better for your individual you know genome.
00:24:37
Speaker
so For example, they may do gene testing or all that has arrived and they may say, for example, Prozac may work best for you based on your genome, based on your DNA. So then if you're working with a psychiatrist, they may decide to start you on Prozac because that's what you know the data shows. But again, there's a difference between clinical medicine and data, right? So for example,
00:25:05
Speaker
you know These days, for example, I know I'm going on a tangent, but they have AI that tells you XYZ may be the best way to go. Even with Google Maps, it may tell you that this is the best route to get back to your house, but you know a shortcut that Google Maps may not tell you, right? So you do what is best for you.
00:25:21
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't say that it's a perfect science by any neat means. um But when I have, when clients have shared results with me, it almost, um like after you do that, i don't I think it's a saliva test that they do. um I believe so. I think that's what it is. um And it just test tests your DNA and it'll come back with categories of It'll have like a green column that says these are probably the best medications that are gonna work for you. And then it has like a yellow of like these may or may not. And then it has like a red category of these probably are the ones that you should steer clear of. um And I think it interests me because I've had so many people, the first medication they try has a lot of side effects.
00:26:04
Speaker
And they kind of lose hope or it increases that fear of ever trying another one, um which is just ah heartbreaking for me because it's just like that just means that was the wrong one for you. And it's as individual as each of us are. um I always tell people that when you have the right medication, especially talking about SSR is like when you have the right medication and the right dosage, because that's really important too, um that you find like that sweet spot for you, you will feel more like yourself than you do when you're not on it. Because, you know, I have people say all the time, like, I i don't feel like myself.
00:26:48
Speaker
It's not like me to not have motivation to get things done It's not like me to feel like I don't have hope about things like I can remember when I was a pretty ah Lively person a glass half full kind of person and now like I don't have that at all And so when people say one of the fears of starting a medication is like I don't want it to alter my personality I don't want I don't want to feel like myself. I'm like dude, you're already not feeling like yourself. Like that's why, that's why you're here. If you get the right medication with the right dosage, you're going to have this feeling come over you of like, Oh, I feel like myself again. Like all of a sudden, I feel like I do have the motivation to call up my friend and and go to lunch when I have been avoiding people for a really long time. Or all of a sudden I have the energy to ah
00:27:33
Speaker
tackle the laundry or the house chores or things that have been piling up and that's affecting my mental health because clutter really bothers me, but I can't get myself to do it. Like when you have the right medication, you're going to feel more like the self that you want to be rather than less like it. Exactly. And I think, you know,
00:27:55
Speaker
when hello
00:28:00
Speaker
When you have the right medicine, I tell people that it's okay to continue with that. It's just like a vitamin. You take one in the mornings and you go on with your day. So it's perfectly okay. But like I said, it may take some time for us to get there and and that's fine. And I think kind of...
00:28:16
Speaker
you know, where I kind of stand out is more of the integrative psychiatry realm, traditional psychiatry, you're maybe looking more at matching a symptom to a medication. Whereas an integrative psychiatry, we're kind of looking at what are your symptoms actually telling us. It's more of a whole body approach. For example, you might be feeling anxious, but you know, what exactly is that would cause that anxiety? Is it You know, nutrition. Are you having a sleep disorder that's affecting your quality of sleep? Is it gut health? So as an integrative psychiatrist, we're kind of looking at the big picture. So we're looking at mindfulness. We're looking at yoga. We're looking at meditation. and We're looking at other stresses. These days, the the gut-brain approach is is very new and exciting. What are exactly you eating? Are you eating more processed foods?
00:29:10
Speaker
So if I had to sum it up, integrative psychiatry is kind of the best of both worlds. You get someone who understands the conventional medicine and medications, but you also get someone who understands the other aspects of life. And at the end of the day, integrative psychiatry is what will work for you and what will work for your lifestyle and how can I work with you and see what works personalized for you.
Diet, Gut-Brain Connection, and Mental Health
00:29:37
Speaker
I'm so excited about this. So this I'm nerding out a little bit here. So this is one of the things that when we first met, um just really attracted me to your practice is that um integrative psychiatry or um is that entertainable with like holistic psychiatry?
00:29:54
Speaker
Yes, they're interchangeable. That's such an interesting addition to me, like you said, to traditional psychiatry because it's not just saying, here's the symptom, here's the medication, check back in a month. You're really looking at the whole person um and especially as a social worker, that's like a really important thing to us is like the person in the environment that they're in. um and so I want to hear all about this because I believe I remember you telling me that you were doing a fellowship on integrative psychology, right? Yes. Yes. There's a fellowship through the Integrative Psychiatry Institute. Yeah. so've i've been I've been learning about it through there. So like I said, they deal with all these aspects. You know, there are certain things we talk about.
00:30:39
Speaker
different supplements we can provide you, different things like that. So one thing I guess I want to make sure I address is integrative psychiatry is not against medicine by any means, but we're trying to address everything else that we can help you become the best version of you every single day. So like I said, yeah whether we start focusing more on your sleep,
00:31:00
Speaker
you know For example, I had someone come in to me and they said, you know I've seen doctors, they put me on trasadone, they put me on this, they put me on that, you know I wake up feeling tired, what are some things we can do? So we sat down together and really analyzed and looked at what does sleep look like for them.
00:31:18
Speaker
So for that individual, you know, they're frequently scrolling at nighttime for an hour, two hours and before they go to sleep. You know, they're exercising maybe 20, 30 minutes before coming back home, eating dinner. So we analyzed and looked at all the things. What are some things we can do differently?
00:31:38
Speaker
So one thing we did was come up with an individual plan with them. A, eat dinner a little bit earlier. B, you know, we talk a lot about sleep hygiene. So it's okay to scroll on your phone. but This white light that comes from screens can negatively impact your sleep-wake cycles. So we talked with them about slowly reducing the time that they're scrolling and also try to keep their scrolling a little bit earlier into the night, 30 minutes to an hour before, try to find something calming and relaxing for them to do outside of their phone to try to get them sleeping better. We did all of that. They were sleeping a little bit better, still having some issues.
00:32:18
Speaker
We talked about just getting them on saw some basic melatonin, and in combination of all these things that we worked together to address and change, they were able to save a lot better than all these other medicines and all of these side effects that they were having. This was basic, if you want to call it, lifestyle changes. I love that so much because you're also saying that there's not like one single problem and one single solution.
00:32:45
Speaker
so Exactly. Even if you take the time and put in the effort to come up with this plan and execute this plan of better sleep hygiene, even if that's like, okay, that didn't completely solve what I initially came to you for. That doesn't mean that you don't still need to be doing those things.
00:33:00
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. It's just one part of the puzzle. It's one part of the puzzle. And in sleep, the more that I have learned about it and and listened to, I've listened to some really great podcasts um with some sleep specialists, like the more I realize how crucial it is. I'm in bed like at 930 every night. I completely changed my schedule. um It's so protective for your brain. And so even if again, like it doesn't completely solve the anxiety or whatever it is that they're initially complaining about, you can still encourage them to say but keep this practice up because it is a piece of the puzzle that even though it wasn't the single solution, you keep that piece in place.
00:33:40
Speaker
Right. And again, this is the the whole purpose of the integrative psychiatry is kind of focusing the whole body, right? So it's not like just because this didn't work that you should just give up all hope. You use this in combination with whether it be medication, whether it be supplements, what other things that we can kind of talk about to kind of address why is the root cause of why are you having these issues? Are you more stressed at work due to XYZ? What are you doing to manage that stress so you're not up at night thinking about those things?
00:34:10
Speaker
You also mentioned the gut-brain connection, and I'm so fascinated by this. um Is there anything that you can share with us about just kind of your stance on that and how to improve? So nutritional psychiatry is also a blooming field these days, which is also part of integrative psychiatry, right? So what are we eating day to day? The gut actually contains more than 100 million more neurons or cells, actually more than our spinal cord.
00:34:39
Speaker
And recent research has been showing that the gut can actually influence emotion, stress, and also even the brain neurotransmitters a lot more than we think. yeah So your gut is made up of good bacteria, bad bacteria, otherwise known as acrobiodata. And it's actually involved in brain signaling and and how the brain can alter the gut's composition. right So long story short, they say healthy gut equals healthy brain. right What does that mean?
00:35:08
Speaker
basic concepts are we try to eat food that is minimally processed, clean, whole foods. What does that mean? Maybe things that are grown naturally in the environment. You can think of maybe what our ancestors used to eat a lot of days. Unfortunately, the foods on the shelf contain a lot of processed sugars. Things like that is something that we should avoid. Try to get the fresh food, try to get that organic, non-GMO food.
00:35:38
Speaker
Avoiding things like fast food, especially these days, you know they have many different types of diets, paleo diet, Mediterranean diet. Stick with one of those diets and see how they can help you.
00:35:52
Speaker
And actually, you know we talk about SSRIs a lot. The gut actually produces produces a lot more serotonin than any other part of your body. So if you have alterations in your gut, that can actually impact, for example, you know how you're feeling like we talk about emotion and depression. So the gut and microbiome influences the production of serotonin and secretion of that. So it's pretty much a direct result of what we eat.
00:36:18
Speaker
So kind of going on a little bit on a tangent here, you know I had someone who was really working a high stress job and they found that they would be eating fast food all the time. They were struggling with anxiety, they were struggling with depression. And it's not easy to change the way you eat. If you're used to getting the Whopper at lunch every single day,
00:36:43
Speaker
it's gonna take you some time and maybe work with someone like me to work on what can we do? you know what What can we talk about your nutrition? And for them, time was it. They didn't have that much time to go home, cook dinner, working a very high, stressful job, right? So the good thing is these days, everything you can get at Publix, Costco, whatever, they sometimes even have pre-marinated salmon. Exactly.
00:37:10
Speaker
So we talked to them about that, about getting that and and maybe just using an air fryer and and maybe taking the lunch with them to lunch so they can have lunch at work rather than having to go get a whopper. So after some time, they started naturally starting to feel better because they started working on their diet. This wasn't something that got better in two or three days. This was a months long process where you eventually transformed the way that they were eating and they naturally started feeling better about themselves.
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah, you know, um, gosh, that's so fascinating to me. I couldn't ask you a million questions about that. Um, but I think that for so many of us, women, especially we've only ah really been conditioned to care about what we eat from a weight loss perspective. Like exactly.
00:37:56
Speaker
we're obsessed with weight loss and not not in a healthy way necessarily. like It's just about being thin. you know like We haven't noticed anything like that. And so to hear that there are reasons to care about what you put in your body for for reasons that have nothing to do with weight loss is so encouraging to me because we're literally saying that you have the power to change the way that you feel by the the small decisions. And I say small decisions, but you're right. like It does take a lot of effort for Busy working folks that have like a million things on their to-do list like it It does take effort to make those kind of lifestyle changes for sure but to think that like I can make my body work for me instead of against me if I give it what it needs and
00:38:42
Speaker
maybe Maybe weight loss is a side effect of that, but but that's irrelevant, right? like We're not talking about changing diet for that reason. We're talking about it to like honor our body and take care of them, and we're doing it out of love instead of coming from a place of um like shaming yourself into eating broccoli. You know what I mean?
00:39:02
Speaker
Exactly, right? And no one is saying that you have to eat broccoli every single day, every single meal, right? But if you can incorporate, you know, broccoli one day, switch it out for some quinoa or something the next day, you still have that variety. A lot of people these days are into meal prepping. For some people, that works great. But for a lot of people, meal prepping doesn't work because you're eating the same thing every single day for lunch.
00:39:25
Speaker
So like I said, you so you switch out something for something else, switch out a green for a different green. you know One day you didn't experience this. One day you're eating broccoli. So yes, it's still a green, but at least the taste is a little bit different for you. And your base can be, you know for example, salmon or some type of other healthy type of thing like chicken or something like that. So you just try to switch them up. One green for a different green, one protein for a different protein. Yeah.
00:39:50
Speaker
yeah And even scientifically, you know, processed foods, they make up like 60% of the food that Americans actually eat. And a bad side effect is when you start getting processed food, you kind of, your body and your mind kind of, they need it otherwise you can't survive. So you have this craving. For example, have a big sweet tooth, right? So if there's a cake or something like, you know, I'd rather eat cake than eat apple, right?
00:40:19
Speaker
But you have to kind of slowly train your mind that, okay, so if you eat something maybe small, um maybe it's okay to have a cake size every now and then, but something you should be eating on a day-to-day diet. And I'm talking a lot, but one more thing that I'll kind of touch on is portion size, right? So whether you want to lose weight or whether you want to eat healthy, everything is about moderation.
00:40:44
Speaker
So I was reading a study about the portion size in America. So for example, the 1970s, if you got two slices of pepperoni pizza, it was about 500 calories. And today, if you get that same two pepperoni slices, we're looking at more like 850 calories to almost 1,000 calories, right? Almost double. So portions portion size is very big. It's the same thing here in America. If you get a small, it may be a large if you go to Europe. Absolutely.
00:41:13
Speaker
So, when we're talking about the gut microbiome, um if you have a client that you're encouraging to make some of these changes to um eat some of these healthier foods, how long does it take before they can expect to start to see some of those changes?
00:41:30
Speaker
It can take a few weeks to a couple months for them to see those changes, right? um Your body system and system is slowly reacting to things. It's not like if you start getting something healthy today, you're going to start feeling better tomorrow. yeah It does take time for you to change the way you eat. It takes time to change how you eat, right? A lot of these days also, intermittent fasting is is a big topic of discussion, right? There's a lot of research showing that if you eat between certain number of hours, it's actually better for you as well.
00:42:00
Speaker
So it does take a couple of weeks and a couple months for you to see the results, but that's true with anything in life. there's even traditional psychiatry, there's no pill I can give you today and for you to feel happy tomorrow.
Mindfulness, Meditation, and Mental Health Practices
00:42:13
Speaker
Right. Otherwise I'd have a line out my door. Yeah. i But that's good to know because I think that, um, sometimes, I mean, we do like instant gratification. And so if we're making these changes, we want to see instant results. But I think that like having that patience to know your gut really is healing and it does take time to make that shift internally. Um, I don't know, but I,
00:42:37
Speaker
There's something about that, that that's such good self care. Like when we talk about self care, I think most people think about like having a spa day or you know what I mean? And that's great. I'm not saying we don't realize, but real self care is usually not comfortable at first. Um, going to therapy is self care. Um, changing the way you eat that self care, because it really is at the very core of who you are saying, I love myself enough to do the hard thing now so that I can read exactly a bit later.
00:43:07
Speaker
Exactly right. And I think you nailed it. Nothing is easy if you want to better yourself in life, right? Everything takes hard work and dedication. There are no shortcuts. And a lot of times, like you said, self care is not comfortable. But as long as you stay dedicated, you're able to succeed.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it does get easier after time. Like those changes are always tough in the beginning because it's just not what we're used to. But once you make it a habit, like after a while it sticks and it's, it's so much easier.
00:43:39
Speaker
right and it's It's the same with someone when you first start telling them to to start exercising. It's called activation energy, right anything. Getting up and just doing the action is usually the hardest part and this is even true for even household tasks, getting up and just washing the dishes.
00:43:59
Speaker
getting up and doing the laundry. If you can just get up and start moving, things will start coming along. It's the same with, like I said, but with your nutrition, with your exercise, just getting up and taking that first step. And like you said, after some time, it'll just become second nature too. yeah um So going back to integrative psychology or psychiatry, so we talked about sleep hygiene, we talked about um nutrition as it relates to our gut health. Is there any other like pillars that you look at of things that are really important when it comes to looking at the whole person?
00:44:34
Speaker
And we also look at things like mindfulness. What does mindfulness encompass, right? They have ancient Chinese alternative medicines that people look into, for example, acupuncture and things like that. We look into yoga, we look into meditation. And for me personally, I think yoga and meditation are key in these things. When you're involved in these activities, you literally are just focused on that activity.
00:45:02
Speaker
So it gives you that sense of inner peace that in a normal day to day most people don't have. yeah And you can look at all these articles that come out every single day about how these very successful CEOs, they wake up at 5am, they have a personal you know yoga instructor, personal person personal exercise and trainer, and they get up at 5am and they do this religiously. If you see that these very successful CEOs, billionaires, and everyone are doing this, chances are that this is something that we can all incorporate into our lives to find that 5-10 minutes of mindfulness before we start our day.
00:45:45
Speaker
Absolutely. Mindfulness and meditation is a huge part of my practice. And I would encourage anybody, um this is something you can do on your own. But if you're in therapy, talk to your therapist about incorporating it in your session. um like I have a ton of clients that we spend the first five minutes before we dive into whatever we're planning on doing that day or whatever you know they're bringing into session. We just give their system five minutes of calm.
00:46:10
Speaker
And so we either do like a brief body scan um meditation or a gratitude meditation, something like that. And I think also sitting with like a trusted person for people that aren't used to doing that, there, there's such like human connection there. um I think it's just so beautiful. So if anybody's in therapy, talk to your therapist and say, Can we start a session that way? Or can we end a session that way?
00:46:32
Speaker
Um, and for anybody listening in the first season that I did, I actually recorded a couple of mindfulness meditation. So there's one that's a, um, I think with the de-stress one's definitely a body scan meditation. Cause those are my favorite for really like getting people in their body because we actually struggle with that pretty bad as a society of just being present and being connected with our body.
00:46:56
Speaker
so much of our lives take us into our brain and outside of ourselves that we have a really hard time with even being able to feel where we hold our attention what our body is telling us about what's safe what's not safe um what's good for us we have so much intuition in our body if we learn how to listen to it.
00:47:18
Speaker
No, I think what you brought up is something that I've never really thought of, right? People that do seek help with a therapist, it is very it a very good idea for them to stay with you and maybe do that five-minute meditation. They may not find time to do that outside of that session, but if you can incorporate that, at least you're kind of getting used to doing that.
Dr. Atta's New Practice: Altum Psychiatry
00:47:38
Speaker
I also tell people these days,
00:47:40
Speaker
Anything and everything is available to you, right? If you don't have a meditation app or you don't have an instructor or you're not in therapy, hop up on YouTube and type in 5-minute, 10-minute anxiety meditation. You can start your journey like that and then transition to maybe a paid app. and again I tell people to use whatever works for them. They have head space, they have comms, they have all these different apps where they have instructors on there and you actually can track how many days you've been meditating, how long have your sessions been. Like I said, everything is about data these days, but you have to start somewhere.
00:48:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I always recommend, I don't know if you've heard of this one, but it's called Insight Timer. Oh, I haven't heard about that one. It's free, which is why I always recommend it because I love, I love a good free resource. It's kind of like YouTube where anybody can create a channel and upload.
00:48:30
Speaker
There are meditations and so there's thousands of free meditations on there and you can just type in what you're looking for. And so you can type in um again, body scans are one of my favorites. Progressive muscle relaxation is also a huge one for people really learning how to be in their body and learning about where they carry tension in their body. So there's a ton of those on there.
00:48:53
Speaker
You can search for things like forgiveness, gratitude, um even if you're looking for something like, um I have several people that have a lot of medical anxiety, and so before they go in for any kind of procedure or something like that, they do really good mindfulness meditations about, I can trust my healthcare care provider, I trust that I'm gonna be okay after this, I can trust my body to heal. um So there's just like thousands of different topics that you can, and you know, some meditations are,
00:49:20
Speaker
45 minutes long and you fall asleep listening to them, but you can do them for two or three minutes. And it's just, it's so beneficial to build that practice, but it is a practice because you have to practice it. Exactly. in exact week Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:36
Speaker
Okay, so before we wrap up, I want to hear a little bit about your new practice that you've just opened. um And I don't know about you, but starting my own therapy practice was just like the best thing that I ever did for myself because you totally get to do things your way and the things that are just the things that align with your values the most and your passions the most, you really get to offer those services. So I want to hear a little bit about your new practice and what makes it unique and um also we'll talk about where people can find you and I'll make sure to put that in the show notes too so that anybody in the Atlanta area can find you.
00:50:10
Speaker
Sure thing. So I started a practice called Altum Psychiatry and the reason why I actually chose that name is because Altum is pretty much like going above and beyond or reaching your mass potential. So the goal of this practice which is an integrative psychiatry practice or a hoof holistic psychiatry practice as we kind of mentioned those can be used interchangeably.
00:50:31
Speaker
is to pay specific attention to those things, right? So it's a mental health approach in which we focus on the patient as a whole, not just the symptom. So you come and tell me you're having sleep issues. I'm not going to necessarily just keep your medicine and send you on your way. I'm going to talk about what what exactly is going on. What can we kind of do? What can we change?
00:50:51
Speaker
And we consider exactly that your physical, your mental, your social, and your spiritual well-being. I personally have a special interest in mood and anxiety disorders. I hope I have a little bit in PTSD and also ADHD topics as well.
00:51:06
Speaker
And so usually that first session is where we dig into what's been going on, a little bit about your childhood, what are some things that we can kind of target when we come up with a good treatment plan going forward, whether that be adjusting your medicines, whether that be using supplements, whether that be targeting more things like sleep hygiene. um So that is personally where I come into play. The good thing about my practice is that it's more of a concierge practice, right?
00:51:35
Speaker
So that means that we are able to actually get people in a lot faster, and usually in one to two weeks, and we have a hybrid approach. So for those people that prefer tele, we have tele options. For those people that prefer in person, we do have an office based in Alpharetta, which we're able to see patients and clients come there. And again, usually one to two week availability, you're able to call the number also. There's also a little packet on there you can fill out and we'll get right back to you.
00:52:05
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So the office is in Alfreda, but do you serve anyone in the state of Georgia or how does that work? and Anyone in the state of Georgia is welcome to apply for people in person. I know some people like to sing people in person are welcome to come to Alfreda location, but yes, I'm licensed in the state of Georgia. So for anyone and everyone who needs help, they're welcome to do that.
00:52:26
Speaker
oh A lot of people ask, what does concierge medicine mean? That means we provide the individualized approach to you so we don't necessarily deal with the insurance companies. That's why we're able to get you in a lot faster. Most psychiatrists, unfortunately, these days have a three-month to six-month wait time. um so That is one part of working with us. We're able to get you in faster and get you feeling a lot better.
00:52:51
Speaker
One thing that I, um as we're wrapping up, I just wanna say that I appreciate about you so much is that for some people, um again, like it can just be so daunting to sit down and talk with, um like talk with a doctor. Like I think some people just have like the white coat fear and you're just so down to earth. You're just so um easy to talk to. And I think that you make this just such a, like a comfortable experience. Like I think you bring so much humanity to it to say,
00:53:18
Speaker
I'm here to help, like I want you to feel better. I want to know about the things that are causing you this stress or causing you things. Like I, I can just tell that you care so much about the person. And that I think is going to make or break people's experiences with you. You know, like I have so many people that come in and they talk about these horror stories, they're like, I'm never going to go back and see a psychiatrist again, because I just was I was dismissed. They didn't listen to me. um I felt like I was just another number. And I cannot imagine somebody leaving your office feeling that way at all. I really appreciate that. And again, that is my goal is to make sure that you're heard. And one of my attendings when I was in training said, you know, we want to make sure that the best version of yourself every day. And that is my goal, right? So yeah,
00:54:05
Speaker
Reaching your max potential, making sure that you're feeling the best you can, and giving you the tools to be able to do that is what my goal
Conclusion and Reminder on Therapy's Importance
00:54:13
Speaker
is. I just appreciate that so much. um This was so awesome. I feel like I learned a ton from you too, so I know people listening did as well. So thank you so much for being here today.
00:54:23
Speaker
um And everybody listening, I will make sure to list um Dr. Adda's information in the show notes so that you can get in touch with him. um Make sure his website and everything is there. So if you are looking for, if you're in Georgia and you're looking for a psychiatrist, he just comes highly recommended for me. um So thank you again so much for being here today.
00:54:42
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me on this show. I'm looking forward to to hopefully collaborating more. Yeah, absolutely. We'll have to do this again sometime. um I hope everybody enjoyed this episode and has a good week and we'll talk to you next week. Bye.
00:54:57
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of outside of session. Remember while I am a licensed therapist, this podcast is not a substitute for individual therapy. The contents of this episode are for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you are having a mental health emergency, please dial 911 for immediate assistance or dial 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline.