Interview with Dr. Cara Kaul and Dr. David Beaman
By Krista Martinelli
Tell us about your backgrounds and how you decided to join forces to create Tranquility Psychiatry. How many years have you been in business?
CK: We are entering our 3rd year in business. As far as my background, I’m originally from Nevada, came to Florida for medical school and stayed here for psychiatry residency training and that’s where I met David. We became friends in training, and when both of us were graduating and getting into the job market, that’s when we decided to create our own practice and shape it the way we were hoping. We wanted to create something unique, rather than find a job that fit into that box.
DB: I’m from Kentucky. I moved down here for a residency a couple years after Cara. She actually interviewed me for residency, which was fun. At the tail end, we saw what was out there and decided we would do things ourselves instead of falling into the traps of other businesses, for example. We wanted to incorporate at least some elements of therapy, even if we’re not doing formal psychotherapy. We wanted to make sure we had a very good idea of what our patients’ lives look like, what is missing, where is there room for improvement. We wanted to not just prescribe medications, but to be able to do more for our patients.
How do you tailor your work to your clients’ individual needs?
CK: We take a very collaborative and holistic approach in our practice. We’re collaborative with the patients themselves. We’re making decisions as a team with the patient. We collaborate with the other providers – like any therapists, other doctors – we try to bring it all together. From the holistic side, we focus on the patient as a whole, not just on the medication, working with things like supplements, herbs, diet, exercise. All of those basics of living a good life and making sure people are connected to their community as well.
What are some steps that people should take to ensure their mental health every day?
DB: Exercise is one of the biggest things that people can do and makes a really big difference. I really like the approach of caring for yourself as you would a friend. If you’re not engaging in the things that are meaningful to you, caring for yourself and treating yourself with kindness, you’re going to start to not feel as well. Really taking the time and reflecting on how you care for yourself helps you live a more fulfilling life.
CK: Engagement, connection, purpose – those are words that come to mind with having a life worth living.
Tell us about your work with perinatal mental health.
CK: We both have taken extra training in perinatal mental health. When we talk about perinatal health, it’s really from the planning, conception, during pregnancy and then post-partum and beyond. It runs the gamut. We also have a certification in the perinatal health field, which allows us to have expertise in how hormones might play a role. We cover women’s cycles from young adult to monthly cycles all the way up and through perimenopause or menopause.
DB: Cara kind of got the ball rolling during our residency program. She very rightly recognized that there is a very big gap for when you’re going through pregnancy and around pregnancy. There’s a really big pressure for women going through pregnancy to change or stop all of the medications and to adjust everything in their lives, rather than to address it properly. I think the extra training we have helps to set us apart and to care for these women to make sure they’re set throughout the pregnancy and beyond.
In what way do you stand out from other psychiatric practices?
DB: We get to know our patients really well. I think I know my patients well enough to know what has brought them to this moment in time when they’re needing help.
CK: Our practice is unique and it is just the two of us. So if a patient calls us, they’re reaching one of us directly. If somebody has a question in between appointments, we’re super easy to get a hold of. If someone needs to get in to see us urgently, we can usually accommodate that within the same day or within a few days. And that’s done intentionally. We’ve kept our practice on the smaller side, almost like a concierge model without officially being concierge.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your practice?
CK: Getting the word out that we’re here. People don’t know where to turn when it comes to mental health.
Without using real names, what are some success stories?
CK: I think what makes the most impact is seeing somebody have a big turnaround and basically get their life back or get back to feeling like themselves. I can think of a lot of examples. One that might resonate with folks is I had a man in his in his 40’s going through a divorce, which was a bit of blind side and triggered a lot of anxiety, depression, panic attacks. He was generally not feeling like himself and not sleeping well. We took the whole-person approach, starting from the basics. We had to make sure that his physical health was taken care of and make sure he’s sleeping. We had to make sure he’s eating and getting up brushing his teeth, staying hydrated, staying connected socially. In addition to those things, adding medication and psychotherapy treatment helped him really have a huge turnaround. His takeaway was, “Why didn’t I do this sooner? I could have been feeling like this so much earlier on in life.” I do hear that a lot. People kicking themselves for not getting help sooner, and I think there is still, unfortunately, a stigma. Anytime I’m able to see someone overcome that stigma and make a good turnaround is a good success story in my book.
DB: I think that one of the things that’s challenging about our job is that we can get people feeling 50 to 70% of the way they want to feel relatively. And it’s that last 30%, where people feel mostly fine but not really the way they want to feel. We really have to take a holistic approach to get that changed. We want to be looking at their lives – what’s going well, where is there need for improvement, in addition to medication of course. For me, some of the most meaningful stories are when we get someone who’s feeling really crummy to living a life they are proud of and really happy to live.
What are the advantages of being primarily a telehealth-run practice?
CK: There’s advantages on both ends. For us working from home is nice, but from the patient perspective it really does open up the access for some of those specialty services. We may not be in someone’s local area. And also it limits the amount of stress that can go along with going to doctor appointments from traffic to taking off time to getting baby sitters. We’ve met, I think, everyone’s kids at this point.
DB: We try to preach that we want mental health to be easy to access. I think having to take a half day off work just for an appointment is no longer the best plan, when you easily schedule an telehealth appointment during lunch, for example.
What role does empathy play in psychiatry?
DB: I think it’s a critical part of the career. People don’t often have the tools to voice what they’re struggling with. Being able to tune into how they’re feeling and understanding their struggles is super helpful. We try to figure out what their challenges are, address them and at least come up with a game plan.
CK: I always talk to patients about having a safe space in their visits with us. This is also important in talk therapy. Whether a virtual space or a physical space, it’s a space where someone can go, truly be themselves and not be afraid of being judged and not be afraid of opening up. They have a safe space to let their emotions come out. I think that is integral. It’s not going to work if you don’t have that.
How do you get the word out about your practice?
DB: We’ve got multiple approaches. Things like this where we talk to people in the community. We also do Google ads, professional networking, connections with previous mentors and local therapists. Some of our being known in the area is by word of mouth from previous patients.
CK: We’ve also been doing more on our website, including educational info through our blog posts on all sorts of topics related to mental health.
Tell us about your families.
CK: I’m married to another psychiatrist. My family has migrated to Florida with me, so my close family is here. Fun fact about my family – I have 4 nieces, and all of their names start with the letter A.
DB: I’m also married – my wife is a teacher in Boynton. My family is spread throughout the country. I’ve got 12 nieces and 3 nephews.
CK: And we both have cats. Mine is evil, but David has a nice cat.
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Call 561-203-5625