From Traditional Psychiatrist to Transformational Coach

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with psychiatrist Dr. Fred Moss about the evolution of his practice. While his initial interest in psychiatry was to expand on communication as a primary healing tool, a shift in the medical paradigm in the 80’s led to physicians prescribing “magic pills” as a primary way of dealing with emotional distress. The medications, which initially seemed to briefly quell the symptoms, appeared to be exacerbating—even causing—the symptoms they were prescribed to treat. In 2006, he began to change his practice to one based on communication, connection, creativity and radical listening. He is now using these principles as a restorative, transformational coach.

Dr. Fred Moss is a graduate of Northwestern University Medical School and a licensed psychiatrist who has consulted patients, practitioners, medical facilities, non-profit organizations, and community groups for nearly four decades. In 2006, he began taking a new approach with his patients, working with a chosen few to assist in reclaiming their lives from the clenched fists of medication. Over time he saw that those who persisted gradually and reliably improved once they were free of the medication.

Patients began to report frequent success stories that began to open up a whole new set of questions about the actual definitions of mental illness and mental health and the conversations that are created around those definitions. It is around these basic principles that Dr. Moss began to shape his methodology and his work with clients. He is now dedicated his efforts to establishing his brand, Welcome To Humanity (welcometohumanity.net), as a "home base" for his work as a speaker, consultant, and advisor, and for his mental health and life coaching practice as a "non-medicating psychiatrist."