DEFINITION
What is Integrative Psychiatry ?
Integrative Psychiatry looks past the diagnosis and the prescription pad to ask what's actually driving the symptoms. The question isn't "which medication will quiet this." It's "what is happening in this person's mind, body, and life, and what do they need to heal."
Family history, hormonal imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, chronic inflammation, gut-brain axis dysfunction, poor sleep, unresolved trauma, lifestyle factors: any of these can fuel or worsen depression, anxiety, and mood instability, and a standard psychiatric visit rarely screens for them. Integrative Psychiatry looks for all of it.
In practice, that means combining the full diagnostic and treatment toolkit of board-certified psychiatry with integrative modalities that have evidence behind them: functional medicine testing, nutrition, mindfulness and yoga, herbal medicine, homeopathy, aerobic exercise, psychotherapy, medication when it's warranted. We think mind, body, and spirit have to be treated together, not because it sounds nice, but because leaving one out tends to leave the treatment plan half-finished.
Qualifications & Background
Dr. Misty Embrey trained in Western medicine, then traveled to India and China during medical school to study directly with practitioners of Ayurveda, Homeopathy, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. She documented the trip in a film, The Healer Within, which won her medical school's Scholarship in Medical Humanities Award. "Integrative" isn't a label she added to her title later. It's where she started.
INDICATIONS
What conditions does it help with?
ADVANTAGE
Why Seek Integrative Psychiatry at GWCIM?
Dr. Embrey brings a broader, more integrative lens to her work than many others in her specialty. Rather than practicing in isolation, she collaborates closely with GWCIM's multidisciplinary team—naturopathic doctors, somatic practitioners, nutritional counselors, and other specialists—all under one roof, ensuring patients receive coordinated, whole-person care rather than fragmented treatment across disconnected providers.
The practice also offers Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), a treatment option for individuals facing treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. This is delivered with robust psychiatric oversight and therapeutic support, ensuring the treatment is both safe and clinically integrated into each patient's broader care plan.
APPROACH
List of Mental health issues
- Depressive disorders (major depression, persistent depressive disorder, postpartum depression)
- Anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, health anxiety, panic disorder)
- Bipolar disorder
- Schizophrenia and psychotic disorders
- Personality disorders
- OCD, tics, and Tourette syndrome
- PTSD and complex trauma (C-PTSD)
- Eating disorders
- ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)
- Addiction and substance use disorders
- Psychiatric aspects of gender transition and LGBTQ+-related concerns
- Burnout and demoralization
- Grief and complicated loss
- Insomnia and disrupted sleep
- Anxiety and depression related to chronic illness
- Psychiatric sequelae of environmental exposures
- Hopelessness and loss of meaning or purpose
- Deeply ingrained patterns of thought, behavior, and emotional reactivity
Look at Your Whole Life (Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit)
Genetics, past hurts, relationships, even your beliefs about yourself: any of these can be driving what's going on. We look at all of it, not just the symptom that brought you in.
Address the Real Causes, Not Just the Symptoms
Medication can mute sadness or worry. We'd rather find what's underneath it, whether that's gut health, a nutrient deficiency, or something else entirely.
Make a Custom Plan with Your Body's Clues
Genetic and lab testing help us choose the right medication or natural treatment for your biology specifically. Less guessing, more evidence.
Mix the Best Tools Together
Medication, counseling, nutrition, mindfulness, yoga, acupuncture, herbs: we combine what actually helps, in whatever mix your case calls for.
Prevention, Resilience, and Lifestyle Optimization
Sleep, diet, exercise, mindfulness, social connection. These build the resilience that keeps you well after treatment ends.
Care Options
Psychiatric Consultation: in person and telemedicine
A full evaluation with Dr. Misty Embrey, covering your psychiatric, medical, and lifestyle history, and ending in a treatment plan built around what you actually need. Follow-up sessions track progress, adjust treatment, and review lab findings as things change.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Appointments
Dr. Embrey completed fellowship training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital and applies the same integrative approach to younger patients
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
Dr. Embrey is one of the GWCIM providers who reviews patient history and provides medical clearance for KAP, offered here for treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and chronic pain.
EXPERTISE
Recommended Providers
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What to expect as a patient
- Time and attention: Your first session is a real conversation — unhurried, wide-ranging, and focused on understanding you as a whole person, not just your diagnosis.
- Functional testing when needed: Dr. Embrey may recommend functional medicine labs to uncover biological drivers of your symptoms that standard psychiatric workups typically miss.
- A plan that's built for you: Treatment may combine medication, supplements, dietary guidance, mindfulness, and referrals to GWCIM colleagues — and it evolves as you do.
- Integrated team care: Dr. Embrey works directly with GWCIM's naturopathic doctors, nutritionists, and somatic practitioners so your psychiatric care connects with your broader health picture.
FAQ
Common Questions
Conventional psychiatry diagnoses conditions and prescribes medication to manage symptoms. Integrative psychiatry does that too, and then keeps going. Dr. Embrey adds functional medicine testing, nutritional analysis, and lifestyle assessment to figure out why the symptoms are showing up in the first place. Medication is one tool among several, not the automatic first move.
Yes. Dr. Embrey is a board-certified psychiatrist and prescribes and manages psychiatric medication when it's clinically indicated and the patient wants it. She starts at the lowest effective dose and treats medication as one piece of a larger plan, not the whole plan.
Yes. Dr. Embrey regularly sees patients who arrive already on medication. She'll help you evaluate what you're on, optimize it, or (if it's appropriate and you want to) taper off it gradually using an evidence-based approach. Nothing changes without a conversation first.
Yes. Dr. Embrey completed a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital and works with younger patients using an integrative, developmentally appropriate approach.
Nutritional status, hormonal balance, gut health, sleep, exercise, environmental exposures: GWCIM's functional medicine doctors assess all of it as part of your evaluation, because it directly affects brain chemistry and mood. Dr. Embrey may recommend dietary changes, supplements, or herbal remedies, and she'll loop in GWCIM's naturopathic and nutrition team when you need more support than she alone can give.
KAP pairs low-dose ketamine with therapeutic support for treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. It works by rapidly boosting neuroplasticity, which opens a window where therapeutic work tends to land differently than it does in ordinary talk therapy. Dr. Embrey is one of the physicians who provides the required medical review and clearance. Sessions run 3 hours and cost $600 in a private room at GWCIM. Worth asking about if prior treatments haven't worked.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is a body-centered approach to healing trauma and chronic stress. Psychiatry and talk therapy tend to work top-down (thoughts, narratives, behavior). SE works bottom-up, releasing the physiological imprint of trauma that's stored in the nervous system. It's not a replacement for mental health care. It works alongside it, reaching what words alone sometimes can't. At GWCIM, SE is offered by Angela Gabriel, L.Ac., SEP, a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and licensed acupuncturist.
EDUCATION