Gretchen Kahre, Jeanne Christensen, Earle Shugerman and Jeffrey Fortuna
Dear Friends,
I hope you enjoyed the previous journal entry about my experiences as a psychotherapist with clients as they navigate their journeys with psychiatrists and medications. Here, we present you with a podcast which continues to explore the subject of medications and the relationship between psychiatry and Windhorse teams. This is a small group discussion between some of Windhorse’s senior clinicians and Dr. Earle Shugerman.
Dr. Shugerman has been a close colleague of Windhorse Community Services for many years. He is the treating psychiatrist for many of our clients, he participates in periodic team meetings, and he consults with our Team Supervisor group once a month.
In this discussion, he offers insights into the uniqueness of the Windhorse approach to supporting clients in their recovery processes. He explains how beneficial it is as an outside treatment provider to have input from the Windhorse team as well as from the client. He answers some intriguing questions from our clinicians, such as how to protect and maintain a wakeful quality of mind while taking psychiatric medications, and how clients can have a sense of their own agency while working with a psychiatrist and a Windhorse team.
The people in this discussion are Jeffrey Fortuna, Gretchen Kahre, Earle Shugerman, myself, and Chuck Knapp, who is our host. We share our various reflections on the collaborative nature of our work together, and we explore current issues in psychiatry as well as how psychiatry is evolving. Many thanks to Dr. Shugerman for being our special guest in this thoughtful conversation.
Thank you for listening,
Jeanne Christensen
Earle Shugerman, MD attended medical school at Duke University, where he was elected to the AOA medical honor society. After completing psychiatric residency at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, he served as medical director for the Jefferson Center for Mental Health, and then for the Behavioral Health program at Boulder Community Hospital. He has been in private practice in Boulder, Colorado since 1989. Dr. Shugerman is board certified in psychiatry. He is a member of iSNR, AAPB and the American Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Shugerman carefully incorporates advances in psychiatric medicine, selected nutritional supplements when appropriate, and a willingness to utilize effective alternative approaches to achieve health and wellness in his medical practice. He has worked extensively with attentional disorders and brain injury in adults and older adolescents throughout his career.
Gretchen Kahre, MA, earned her master’s degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University in 1989 and has been licensed as a professional counselor in Colorado since 1994. She served as adjunct faculty at Naropa University for 5 years. Gretchen has been part of the Windhorse community, practicing this approach since 1990, and has held several positions in the organization.
Jeanne Christensen, MA, has been with Windhorse Community Services since 2004. She currently serves as an Intensive Psychotherapist and Team Supervisor, and she has prior experience on Windhorse teams as Basic Attender and Team Leader. She received her MA in Counseling from the University of Northern Colorado in 1985, and her BA in Psychology from Florida State University in 1982. For many years before coming to Windhorse, she worked as a Psychotherapist and Case Manager at the local community mental health center in Boulder. Jeanne combines a deep understanding of traditional approaches in mental health treatment with the Windhorse model.
Jeff Fortuna, MA, received his MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy at Naropa University in 1980, and served on the Naropa faculty until 1989. In 1981, he co-founded the first Windhorse center, Maitri Psychological Services in Boulder, CO. From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Fortuna founded and directed a Windhorse group in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1992, he co-founded Windhorse Associates, Inc., and served as Executive/Clinical Director. In 2002, Jeff returned to Boulder as a co-director of Windhorse Community Services, Inc. He retired from his co-director role in 2013, yet continues to serve as a senior clinician and educator. He has taught widely, and written a book chapter and journal papers in the area of Windhorse treatment.