He graduated from Yale School of Nursing, and completed a residency at the San Francisco Veteran’s Hospital. He is an unique psychiatric prescriber in that he is openly critical of psychiatry and psychiatric medications. This does not mean that he does not support the usage of medications, it means that he is intricately aware of the risks involved in doing so. He feels it is his job to thoroughly discuss the risks and benefits of using psychiatric medications in order to help you feel fully informed of the options you have in addressing your concerns.
He has particular interests in helping people be on the least amount of psychiatric medications as possible in order to reduce the risk of potential negative impacts they can have, and he has an understanding of the potential challenges with psychiatric drug withdrawal and medication tapering. He also has interests in working with people in therapy who have experiences that have been labeled as psychosis or schizophrenia. He values and enjoys taking sufficient time in connecting with his clients and working together to figure out how to best achieve your goals.
There are several guiding principles he uses in his practice:
– People are inherently good
– We do the best we can under the conditions we are given
– Often the conditions we find ourselves in are extremely stressful, and this significantly affects our experience in the world.
– Under extreme stress, we often do things we would not normally do. These behaviors may seem irrational, but when seen in the larger context, they are understandable and reasonable.
– Mental health symptoms are often a message to us, which if understood and learned from, have the potential to liberate us from our suffering.
He acknowledges that we live in a society where racism, sexism, income inequality, homophobia, and transphobia are powerful forces that often negatively impact our lives in significant ways. He acknowledges that various traumatic experiences including and not limited to those just listed, influence the way that we live, and can be the main reason we are experiencing the types of distress we find ourselves in.
In his therapy practice, he is heavily influenced by feminism, radical therapy, mindfulness, and psychodynamic therapy. This means that he has an understanding of how various forms of oppression may be impacting you, and am sensitive to the complexity of the dynamics involved in your life. He also believes there can be meaning discovered in the distress you are experiencing. His goal is to work with you in a way that you find useful, and not to rigidly fit you into any particular modality. He uses principles from CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), CBT for psychosis, and DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy). I also use EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), also known as “Tapping.” This modality is very useful in helping people release emotional distress and trauma from our body in a way that cognitive and behavioral methods cannot.
He enjoys kundalini yoga, hiking, cycling, reading, chilling by any body of water, and disconnecting from technology.
Please Call Pohala (503) 572-4196 to schedule an appointment today with Tyler Mostul PMHNP
