Quarterly essays on integrative psychiatric care, Christian convictions, and the work of becoming whole.
Why we built Vine & Branch.
Modern psychiatric care, particularly for women, has been compressed into fifteen-minute appointments and pharmacological algorithms. What is lost in that compression is attention — and attention is the precondition for healing. This essay describes the convictions, both clinical and theological, that shape every visit at Vine & Branch.
A clinical primer for prospective patients.
Integrative psychiatry is not the same as functional medicine, and it is not psychiatry with supplements added. This essay explains, in plain clinical language, what the practice actually does — and what patients should expect from a model that takes the body and mind together.
The clinical reasoning behind a conservative posture.
Stimulants, benzodiazepines, opioids, and sleep medications are among the most casually prescribed drugs in psychiatry. The outcomes literature, particularly in adult populations and long-term use, does not justify the casualness. This essay walks through the reasoning behind one practice's decision to not prescribe them.
A reflection at the one-year mark.
After twelve months of doing the work I built Vine & Branch to do, here is what has surprised me, what has hardened into conviction, and what I still don't know.
We publish quarterly — not because we have less to say, but because care for what we publish matters more than volume. Each essay is read by someone outside the practice before it appears here. Each one takes the time it takes.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”