Most people who contact me have been dealing with something difficult for longer than they’d like to admit. The illness was there — depression, anxiety, mood instability, something harder to name — but seeking help felt complicated. If that’s where you are, you’re in the right place.
Why So Many People Wait
Mental illness is significantly underdiagnosed and undertreated — not because effective treatments don’t exist, but because the step of seeking psychiatric help still feels like a big one. People wonder whether what they’re experiencing is “bad enough.” They worry about what it means. They aren’t sure where to start. The result is that many people spend months or years in unnecessary pain.
I’m Dr. David Brendel, MD, PhD — a Harvard-trained, board-certified private psychiatrist in Belmont, MA, with over 25 years in practice. What I find most often is that people who finally come in wish they’d done it sooner. The evaluation itself provides clarity, and clarity is usually the most valuable thing I can offer at the start.
What Happens When You Come In
My starting point is a one-hour consultation. I’ll ask about your symptoms, your history, and your life — not just medications and diagnoses. The goal is to develop a working understanding of what’s actually happening and build a treatment plan we can work with together.
For most conditions I treat — depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and others — treatment involves some combination of medication management and talk therapy, calibrated to who you are and what you need. There’s no fixed protocol. The plan depends on your specific situation, and it changes as we learn more.
My Approach: The Four P’s
In my book Healing Psychiatry: Bridging the Science/Humanism Divide (MIT Press), I describe a framework I call the four P’s of psychiatric practice — a way of thinking about care that I’ve refined over decades of clinical work:
- Practical — focused on what actually works for each patient, not on fitting a predetermined model
- Participatory — treatment decisions made with you, not for you
- Pluralistic — drawing on medication, psychotherapy, mindfulness, and other approaches as warranted
- Provisional — open to revising the plan as we learn more
This reflects something I believe strongly: rigorous science and genuine respect for the individual aren’t in conflict. Both are necessary, and good psychiatric care requires both.
I see patients primarily from Greater Boston and New England, and I also accept patients from throughout the United States for consultations, second opinions, and ongoing care.
"Dr. Brendel is kind, smart and understanding. He is very knowledgeable about all of the medicines and treatment options. He has been a big help to me."
— J.B., Patient of Dr. Brendel
Executive Coaching
Another dimension of my professional practice is executive coaching, which helps high-level professionals and business leaders to manage stress, avoid burnout, and develop leadership skills which can help them advance their careers.