About
Welcome to the Integrative Virtual Clinic!
Periel Shapiro MD
What is Integrative Mental Health?
Integrative medicine is the practice of drawing from multiple healing traditions to provide an evidence-based and individualized care plan that treats the whole person. I aim to provide state-of-the-art medication consultation, psychotherapy, and mindfulness meditation in a seamless way that fits your care goals.
What is Psychotherapy, or ‘Talk Therapy’?
Psychotherapy is a way of learning to notice and reflect on your patterns of thinking, feeling, and doing. By better understanding your own self and how you tend to act and react, you can break unhealthy cycles. There are many traditions within psychotherapy. I am trained in both cognitive and behavioral therapies and modern psychodynamic therapy and can offer a hybrid or focus on one approach, per your individual needs and preferences.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
This therapy approach examines thoughts and behaviors and assesses them objectively to identify elements that are untrue or unhelpful. In doing so, emotions, which arise from and also influence thoughts and behaviors, may also be changed. Sessions are often more structured, with specific techniques to be practiced or behavioral changes to implement between sessions. Work can be done to identify important past relationships or experiences that shaped current patterns of thinking and doing, but most attention is focused on present problems and concerns.
Psychodynamic Therapy
This approach is longitudinal and often less structured, really getting into the depths of your life experience. The aim is to foster personal insight by unpacking relationships and experiences and how they forge you as an individual. More focus is placed on the past and on early life. Together we explore patterns and associations formed by core relationships and major life events.
What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness can be defined simply as a state of full, open, non-judgmental attention to present moment experience. By opening ourselves up to the present as it unfolds, rather than dwelling on a past that we can’t change or worrying about a future that we can’t predict, we can detach from unhelpful patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. Mindfulness meditation exercises help us develop and foster a state of mindfulness.
Mindfulness meditation exercises offered by our integrative clinic include sitting meditation, walking meditation, and mindful yoga.
Sitting meditation: This is a classic mindfulness practice which is done while sitting still, either in a chair or on a meditation cushion. The focus of the practice may be on breathe awareness, body awareness, or thought processes.
Walking meditation: The purpose of this practice is to foster a dynamic, moment-by-moment awareness of the complex and intricate movements of the body. Participants bring attention to their bodies with slow, intentional walking exercises.
Mindful yoga: Unlike the yoga you might find in many yoga studios, the focus of mindful yoga is not to move quickly, or to perfect certain poses. Rather, the goal is to improve body awareness and to carefully explore the limits of the body via gentle stretching. The practice can be tailored to all ages and ability levels.
