I am an internist and rheumatologist and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (GWUSMHS).  I graduated with distinction from the GWUSMHS, where I was elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Medical Society.

Formerly, I was the director of the Division of Nonprescription Clinical Evaluation at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research of the Food and Drug Administration, where I was responsible for overseeing the development and approval of many drugs.

Prior to my years at the FDA, I was a physician in the Division of Rheumatology at the Washington, D.C., Veterans Administration Medical Center, which was affiliated with the Georgetown University Medical Center Division of Rheumatology. There, I took care of patients, trained internal medicine residents and rheumatology fellows, conducted clinical research, and reviewed clinical trial protocols for the hospital’s institutional review board.

During that time, I developed low back pain. In 1989 became a patient of Dr. Sarno’s and subsequently his colleague and friend. He referred patients to me in Washington, DC and we had countless discussions about the patients and how to best care for them. For over 30 years, I have integrated Dr. Sarno’s brilliant work on neuroplastic conditions into my practice of medicine and into my teaching of young physicians at the GW Center for Integrative Medicine. During these years I have had the opportunity to care for patients with just about every presentation of neuroplastic symptoms and help them feel well again.  I understand the suffering of patients with these symptoms and how to help them.

I have authored many articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals and am the author of a chapter in Dr. Sarno’s book The Divided Mind.  I am also first author of the book Breaking Out of Pain: Living the Legacy of John E. Sarno, MD that I wrote with three preeminent psychologists who worked with Dr. Sarno for decades and pioneered effective psychotherapy approaches to help his patients.

Neuroplastic illness is an area of medicine that has been historically underappreciated and is still not well taught in medical schools. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to help fill this gap at GWU.