Gail Serruya, M.D.

Approach

 

Dr. Gail Serruya has extensive training in multiple modalities of therapy.  Early in her career, she trained in both traditional psychodynamic therapy as well as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT, developed by Dr. Aaron Beck, is a structured, collaborative therapy that involves understanding the relationship between maladaptive thinking patterns, emotional distress, and behaviors. 

 

Later in her career, Dr. Serruya strove to understand how to work beyond the limitations of the cognitive, thinking mind, and became interested in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy as a way for patients to achieve more profound healing.  Dr. Serruya learned techniques in hypnosis, internal family systems and somatic frameworks.    She is currently level 1 and level 2 trained in IFS (internal family systems). 

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Dr. Serruya completed her medical training at Rush Medical College and her psychiatric residency at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania.  After completing her residency, Dr. Serruya worked for two years at the University of Pennsylvania with Dr. Aaron Beck, the father of CBT. At Penn she developed an expert knowledge of CBT for treatment of anxiety, depression, and psychosis.

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Dr. Serruya recently founded a ketamine assisted clinic in Philadelphia, Voyage Healing. (Ketamine is currently used off-label to treat treatment resistant depression).  She has been impressed with how ketamine's antidepressant effects can be augmented with psychotherapy.   She and her team at Voyage Healing are working to develop cutting edge techniques to treat mental health conditions like treatment resistant depression, PTSD, OCD, bipolar depression and suicidal ideation.