Professional Background

Jerry Wyker, MD

My interest in a major aspect of holistic medicine, psychological health, arose from my early medical practice as a family physician in my home town in Ohio. I was the chairman of the Committee on Mental Health for the Ohio Academy of General Practice and facilitated a collaborative continuing medical education venture with the Ohio Psychiatric Association. We were successful in securing a National Institute of Mental Health grant to train primary care physicians in "useful psychiatry for non-psychiatrist physicians."

The next 20 years of my medical practice were in emergency medicine in high-volume hospital emergency departments. The last five years of that tenure as a full-time emergency physician were with the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. The most recent 10 years of my emergency medicine practice were with Doctors On Duty as an urgent care physician, and Medical Director of the Lighthouse Avenue facility in Monterey. However, during this entire 30-year period, I continued an eclectic study of transpersonal psychology.

The core content of holistic biomedicine has been my primary area of scholarship and evolving clinical practice for the last seven years. To become briefed in this clinical focus, please see the Advanced Therapies link.

I became a Founding Diplomat of the American Board of Holistic Medicine in the December, 2000. The following epochal statement appeared in the Call for this new specialty board. “Unconditional love is life’s most powerful healer.” I am in personal appreciation and professional gratitude to the leadership of the American Holistic Medical Association who established the certification process for the American Board of Holistic Medicine.

I created ABE STORIES, a primer textbook for patients about the principles of Joy-Based Psychotherapy, in the Fall of 2000. In December, 2000, I was asked to author a chapter for a comprehensive textbook for mental health professional about Joy-Based Psychotherapy. This comprehensive textbook is edited by Scott Shannon, MD, and is titled Alternative and Complimentary Therapies in Mental Health. It will be available from Academic Press in the Fall of 2001. In May, 2001, I delivered an original paper to the American Holistic Medical Association in Miami titled, Joy-Based Psychotherapy: An Original Science in Psychology and Holistic Medicine.

To remain abreast of the extensive core content of holistic and conventional medicine, I am a member of the following professional organizations:

For a list of holistic biomedicine lay newsletters and professional journals which I recommend – see questions #1 and #2 under the Questions and Answers link.