Today we will be interviewing Dr. Craig Beach, a double board certified psychiatrist, CEO, and Chief Medical Officer of Open Mind Health from San Diego, California.
What motivates you to be a mental health specialist?
“As a teenager growing up in a very small town in Canada, I wanted a job for extra money and one of the largest employers was the psychiatric hospital. I volunteered and eventually ended up working there — that was my first and very significant exposure to the mental health field and certainly influenced my pathway into medicine, and eventually into psychiatry. I’ve now been working in the mental health field for almost 20 years and in many different capacities. I’ve worked in hospitals, corrections, for counties, in private practice, and now in tele-mental health with my own company, Open Mind Health. I’ve combined my experience and passion to promote mental wellness into our evidence-based treatments, holistic care, and professional outreach that focuses on the mind-body-spirit connection and healing”
How long have you been practicing mental health?
“I’ve been professionally practicing mental health for 15 years, but I’ve been involved in the industry for 30 years, in one way or another.”
When did you move from Canada to California?
“I completed my residency training at Columbia University. Then I did a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. After that, I went back to Canada for a couple of years. I moved to California in 2018”
Do you have any general advice on how to maintain a good mental health?
“The most important component to good mental health is understanding and treating the intricate connection of the mind, body, and spirit. We don’t normally hesitate to seek treatment for a physical symptom…but because we don’t understand as much about mental health and emotional struggles, most people are more reluctant or afraid to get help if they are having emotional issues. Some feel asking for help shows weakness or that they will be labeled or stigmatized.
The mind is the most sophisticated organ of the human body, and we must give it proper care. We need to educate people that emotional struggles are common and, with the right approaches, highly treatable. And today, due to the impact of the pandemic on all of us, emotional issues have increased. There are more people struggling than ever before. Isolation, depression, fear, anxiety, loneliness, addiction as but only several examples … it’s important for people to know they don’t have to suffer alone. We want to help people realize that there is support that is only a phone call or email away…and there’s no need to commit to having treatment for the rest of your life. At Open Mind Health, we get to the root cause of the issues to develop long-term solutions so that you stay healthy.
The good news is that mental health treatment is becoming more accepted and accessible. People are talking more openly about it. I guess the most important thing I can say is this: you are not alone—there is help if you are struggling and the best thing you can do is to reach out. Because as things progress, they just get worse and then you struggle more.”
Last thing you want to say about mental health that we have not discussed yet?
“If you’re struggling — reach out. You are not alone. It shows strength reaching out for help. Once you take that first critical step, you’ll soon find that you can feel happier and stay healthier. We all look back on our lives and wish we had done something sooner — well, do it today! Make your life better.”
More about Open Mind Health:
In a very short time, Open Mind Health has made a crucial impact in the mental telehealth industry and has been listed as one of the top global mental health startups. We’re striving to reach the highest bar in quality care through our amazingly diverse team of expert holistic providers. We disseminate care ranging from medication management to talk therapy, inspirational/life/executive coaching, to more specialized areas like breathwork/yoga/meditation, movement/exercise, hormone therapy, pain medicine, hypnotherapy, and music therapy. Our team is comprised of subspecialist experts in child and adolescent, integrative, addiction, and forensic psychiatry.
We are unique in our approach to treating issues through our proven wellness tracks, which provide our clients clarity, structure, and an evidence-based collaborative approach to optimizing their mental wellness. We have found this approach demystifies mental health care in a field traditionally plagued by misconceptions and stigma – barriers to accessing and fully engaging in treatment.
Some of our featured wellness tracks include:
- PIVOT (Planning in the Volatility of our Times) – Improves psychological resilience while adapting to the challenges of an ever-changing world, including COVID.
- Integrative Medicine: Heal Your Mind, Body, and Spirit – Designed to help you restore your body’s natural equilibrium in the least intrusive pharmacological way.
- Stabilizing Symptoms – Assesses, stabilizes, and monitors symptoms ranging from depression, anxiety, and ADHD to anger, trauma, and psychosis to the various aspects of personality that influence behavior.
- ADHD: Focus and Flourish – Addresses ADHD symptoms, challenges, and other co-occurring conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety, addictive behaviors). The recovery plan is approached from a perspective of strength rather than deficit and includes skills training, therapy, coaching, and/or medication management.
- Transcending Trauma – Focuses on the root causes of trauma, loss, grief, and cumulative impacts throughout the lifespan and across all environments.
- Reworking Relationships – Improves relationships by developing effective interpersonal communication and behaviors.
- Capturing Communication – Teaches critical skills to enable effective communication with a broad range of people in various situations.
- Realizing your Full Potential – Identifies interests, strengths, and talents to realize and express your best self, both personally and professionally.
- Positively Queer – Focuses on all things from a queer lens, including the history of the LGBTQIA+ community, relationships and family dynamics, questioning, transitioning, and coming out, stigma/stereotypes, psychological vulnerabilities/risks, and more.
- Living While Black in a Race Conscious World – Addresses the impacts of oppression and systemic racism while empowering individuals, couples, families, and communities to utilize adversity and resilience to thrive.
- Altering Addictions – Pinpoints the multifaceted roots of addictive behaviors such as substance abuse, food, gambling, hypersexual behaviors, and others to implement a sustainable recovery plan.
- Asians & Pacific Islanders and Proud — Addresses topics critical to the impacts of oppression, systemic racism, acculturative stress, harmful effects of the model minority myth, and the rise in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate and targeted violence due to COVID-19.
- Empowering Older Adults – Helps older adults cope with changes in physical and mental health as well as improve their quality of life, identify and achieve their legacy.
- Child and Adolescent Care — Offers support and treatment to those under the age of 18, their families, and loved ones. This is implemented in collaboration with your OMH psychiatrist to assess and address a range of concerns.
- Sports and Mental Health: Getting and Staying on Track! — This track helps athletes address issues around sports and learn tools and techniques to improve mental health symptoms including stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, eating disorders, and substance abuse.
- South East Asian – Building Positivity — Offers support and treatment to people of South Asian descent, which includes people from India, Pakistan, and surrounding regions. It focuses on collaboration with you and your family members to address a range of concerns, such as coping with language and cultural barriers, which can cause feelings of isolation, depression, anxiety, and more.
Visit our website at www.openmindhealth.com and view the additional attachments for more information on Open Mind Health.
In addition to offering treatment, we also work to promote mental wellness through our content, videos and podcasts, radio interviews, conferences and webinars. Here is but a sampling:
