Dr. Harvey Shapiro M.D.

Dr. Shapiro brings an unusually rich background to his psychiatric work with his patients. His education goes beyond pre-medial and medical school courses, beyond psychiatric residency training, for it extends to his studies of and love for great poets and writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers who have enriched human life over the centuries. Dr. Shapiro holds a degree with highest honors (Phi Beta Kappa, Woodrow Wilson Scholarship) in English literature.

Yet, in Dr. Shapiro’s view, those formal pieces of paper mean nothing without empathy. It is empathy which enables one to absorb the beauty and wisdom which gifted and wise people, some of whom suffered greatly, have through the centuries left to us as blessings beyond price. It is empathy that allows people to understand one another. The addition of medical education, specialty training, and many years of experience allow an empathetic physician to help a patient find a better future emotionally, biologically, and both.

Dr. Shapiro graduated from George Washington University Medical School and did his psychiatric residency at the University of Oregon under Paul McHugh, MD, one of the foremost psychiatrists of the last 50 years, a wise teacher very far ahead of his time.

In his over thirty-five years of experience, Dr. Shapiro has worked with every sort of psychiatric patient. He knows the full range of how psychiatric conditions can present themselves. He has extensive experience with all psychiatric medications, not only the newer ones which everyone has heard of, but also older ones which can have special benefits in certain situations. Dr. Shapiro treats patients of almost any age. His practice has always been at least 25% children and adolescents. He is not a child psychiatrist; if a child has an unusual problem, Dr. Shapiro knows when and how to refer to a child psychiatrist. He searches for medical illnesses that can masquerade as psychiatric problems. He orders tests and makes referrals accordingly.