I completed my addiction fellowship in 2006, here at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and then went to Hawaii to pursue an additional fellowship in addiction medicine research and then became the assistant addiction fellowship director under William Haning, MD at the University of Hawaii John A Burns School of Medicine. While there I was given the opportunity to participate in a National Institute of Drug and Alcohol national clinical trial. Interestingly, while serving in these academic roles, I was given the opportunity to serve as a psychiatric consult for a private, for-profit, abstinence-based residential program.
When my wife and I moved back to Denver, I had the opportunity to work in various public health agencies (Denver VA, Arapahoe Douglas Mental Health) as well as an academic and private for-profit inpatient program (CeDAR on the CU Anshutz Medical Center) as an addiction psychiatrist. I have served as a psychiatric consult to several private abstinence-based programs as well as served as medical director for several methadone/harm reduction clinics.
These various clinical experiences and academic/research roles, began to shape my professional and treatment philosophy. I felt compelled to give “voice” to this philosophy in the form of a clinic that specializes in substance use disorders and co-occurring psychiatric illnesses.
We picked the name The Mind Store for our clinic because it means “one who is worthy” in Sanskrit. We felt that our patients needed to be reminded that they are worthy human beings because the label of “addict” caused them to forget this.
In medical school we are taught to think of our patients in their entirety, not as “cases.” The current understanding of addictions is that it is a chronic medical illness with strong biological, genetic, and psychological underpinnings, much like hypertension and diabetes; just as hypertension and diabetes have an approximate 40-60% genetic/biological underpinnings and 60-40% behavioral aspect to these illnesses, alcohol and drug addictions are thought to have this same 40-60% split in biology/genetics versus behavior.
In medicine, we are taught to avoid calling our patients “diabetics” or “hypertensives.” In the field of addiction treatment, however, we continue this tradition of defining a person based on their one disease. It is estimated that 70% or more of patients with addictive disorder have a co-occurring psychiatric disorder, usually a depressive or anxiety disorder. Furthermore, a significant percentage of patients with substance use disorders have experienced traumatic events, either preceding the phenotypic manifestation of their genetic vulnerabilities to addictions or during the expression of their genotypes. This suggests that we need to treat all of our patients’ psychiatric and psychological illnesses simultaneously.
Just as other physicians don’t tell patients “we will be happy to treat your hypertension as soon as your diabetes is under control” we don’t tell patients in our clinic to come back as soon as their substance use disorder or psychiatric illnesses are under control. Our treatment program is designed to address all of our patients’ psychiatric and psychological illnesses simultaneously. Our treatment philosophy and the name of our program is set up to remind our patients that there is more to them than just their illness; they are people in our eyes not “addicts” or “alcoholics.”
– E.M.
"Their entire team is FABULOUS. They have always treated me with dignity and respect. I have watched them with other clients as well and I see their genuine compassion for everyone that walks thru the door. I initially went to them because I moved to CO in late 2017 and they were the first place that had an opening. I needed a psychiatrist to keep me on my Rx. I was surprised when Dr Park spent more than 15 mins going over my past Rx history with me, as has been my experience for many years. Not only did we discuss Rx, he then spent another 45 mins talking to me as a counselor. I had never had a psychiatrist/counselor combo before and was amazed at how effective it is when your Dr hears more about what's going in your life than just the effects of your current Rx. This treatment model is not practiced by someone that doesn't care about his patients. He could offer the basics that most psychiatrists offer and still bill insurance the same amount but he wants his patients to succeed and is invested in their progress. He also doesn't believe in keeping someone in therapy forever. Even if it means less income for him, when you stabilize to the point that you have better things to do than spend 30 mins with him, it's a sign that you may be ready to engage in therapy less often and he will tell you that. Dr Park has been a life and marriage saver for me and he is amazingly efficient. He gets done in 1-2 sessions what would take 6 months for another counselor because he doesn't dance around the issues. To do this, he may be more blunt with you than you might have experienced before and that may be off putting to some. If you are ready to do the hard work to make your life enjoyable again, Dr Park is your man! He also got me hooked up with TMS. If you are someone that has struggled with depression for a long time and taken Rx that hasn't been effective, talk to someone about TMS. It's a game changer. It may sound like hokey fake science. It's not. It works and works fast. THANK YOU!"