Mark is a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner licensed in California with extensive experience working with adolescents, adults and older adults with both acute and chronic psychiatric conditions, with a particular emphasis on building rapport and creating treatment plans collaboratively with patients in acute distress. During his sixteen years with the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, Mark focused on stabilizing patients in emergency, acute inpatient and a variety of outpatient psychiatric settings, often building years-long therapeutic relationships. Mark next worked in Germany where he specialized in the assessment and stabilization of those evacuated from war zones. Since relocating to San Diego in 2015, he has worked with a variety of patient populations including homeless high users of emergency services, people struggling with mood and anxiety disorders, older adults with neurocognitive decline/dementias, and patients experiencing all manner of psychiatric concerns while simultaneously dealing with acute and chronic medical conditions.

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Mark's first interest in any therapeutic interaction is a client's story, both the lifetime of experiences that helped shape the individual as well as the current pressing concerns--including thoughts, emotions, social circumstances and psychiatric symptoms--that bring the person into treatment. Utilizing a variety of therapeutic modalities, Mark works to expand a client's understanding of self, to stabilize his or her story, and to gently encourage the client toward a more positive trajectory. However, as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, the crux of Mark's work happens while simultaneously listening through to the deeper story that exists at the mind-brain interface, utilizing his knowledge of neurophysiology and psychopharmacology to determine what, if any, medication intervention might be of help to the client. Mark's philosophy of pharmacotherapy is, "The fewest medications at the lowest doses to effectively treat." This may mean multiple medications for depression, tapering down to a single medication for schizophrenia, or no medication at all for a cannabis-related condition. Mark is intimately familiar with treating a broad range of psychiatric, neurocognitive and substance use disorders, and he has a special affinity for helping those in acute distress.

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Mark's passions outside of work include family, cycling, surfing, yoga and travel.