SHOUTOUT LA
Meet Dr. Denise Mcdermott | Multidimensional Medicine
November 18, 2024
We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Denise Mcdermott and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Dr. Denise, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Authentic Intentionality is the most important factor in my mission to help change the way we think, talk and act about mental health.
When we are leading with the heart with awareness and self love we are able to help others in ways we could not imagine!
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I will never forget my experience when I was a third year in medical school on my pediatric rotation when I interviewed a teen suffering from stomach pain confiding her experience with unrelenting bullying. The attending doctor was surprised when I walked out of the room to report that she had just tried to kill herself that morning. Her family thanked me for creating a safe space for her to confide her deepest fears and difficulty transitioning to the United States from Africa. After unloading many of the pressures and feeling of despair she no longer wanted to commit suicide an
d even shared she was inspired to thrive academically and wave goodbye to her tough high shool years.
This was one of my many “AHA moments” of compassionately asking the right questions guided by my intuition to help others through emotionally rough times during my medical school rotations that made me realize I wanted to pursue psychiatry. Looking back to the mid 1990’s there was a lot criticism by my peers when they found out I was pursuing this path as there was an absolute stigma and shame around mental health. I followed my heart and my inner voice and did my adult psychiatry residency at Emory University and child psychiatry fellowship at UCLA.
Denise McDermott M.D.
