From the prestigious Amen Clinics, a psychiatrist’s practical, authoritative, straight-forward guide to the use of herbal medicine to treat mental health struggles.

Millions of Americans suffer from depression, anxiety and a host of other mental health issues, and many get psychiatric help.  For many of those patients, medication is a necessary part of treatment.  But pharmaceuticals are not a cure-all. Sometimes they are ineffective, leaving patients feeling hopeless, as though nothing can be done.  Some medications also have terrible side effects, leading patients to discontinue the drug. More and more, patients are turning to more natural products, supplements, essential oils, and herbs to solve their problems…
 
But what are herbs really? Are they a replacement for the medications? Do they work? Are they safe? Have they been studied? How are do you even figure out where to start? Start here. This book takes those question head-on with simple, practical answers from a trusted and experienced psychiatrist, so patients and practitioners alike can discover how herbal medicine can be an effective part of treatment.

Dr. Lillian Somner has been in practice since 1990. She became board certified in psychiatry after doing her residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey while also training in psychodynamic psychotherapy in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute. She is also board certified in metabolic medicine, a perspective of looking at the why something is wrong, not just that something is wrong. This training allows a deeper understanding of both physical and mental illness. She incorporates into her thinking an understanding of the body-mind connection and the underlying metabolic problems that may be contributing to the issues. She has also been trained in the Bredesen Protocol, an approach to stop the decline of Alzheimer’s dementia and its possible reversal.