I'm back baby!!! I finally got the chance to chat with one of my fellow content creators and man-crush, Dr. Ashvin Sood, aka. The Psych Doc of TikTok. Dr. Sood is a child and adolescent psychiatrist working out of New York City. I was most excited to talk with Dr. Sood about an important topic I haven't seen discussed elsewhere: the importance of collaboration between therapists and med providers. Therapy and medications are the two most common tools for treating mental health disorders. Many of my clients are on medications, and I refer clients for med consults. The same goes for med providers referring to therapists.

This was a fantastic conversation that lasted way longer than we expected. Still, there was no break in the conversation and plenty to talk about. We went deep on many great discussion topics and had quite a few laughs along the way. Some of what we discussed are as follows.

• How we got into the field and content creation
• Criticism of the ideological narratives that form on mental health social media and how to challenge them
• The rapid onset of rare disorders in teens due to TikTok
• Working with teens vs. adults
• Dr. Soods family that's full of psychiatrists and the history of Indians and Indian Americans getting into the field of psychiatry.
• My experience working with addiction and some of the approaches I take
• The importance of psychiatry and therapy working together and collaborating.
• Dr. Sood's unique practice providing psychotherapy along with med management
• Dr. Sood's training in psychoanalysis and the tradition of psychoanalytic theory in New York City
• The importance of transparency with clients when it comes to fees
• Most importantly, Dr. Sood's routine for getting his ridiculously impressive smile.

I hope you all enjoy this conversation as much as I did. I think you will learn a lot as well.

Please check out my new newsletter through Substack. I am writing articles going deeper into the topics I discuss on TikTok. Some of my favorite journalists like Matt Taibi and Bari Weiss are on Substack so I thought I'd join.