Dr Christopher Bench
MBBS, FRANZCP
Consultant Psychiatrist
Background
I completed my psychiatric training in New York and Los Angeles, prior to returning to Australia twenty years ago. Most of my early psychiatric career was in and around a forensic setting of one kind or another. Invariably, I would treat people with serious and persistent mental illness, such as Schizophrenia. However, after being in private practice for many years, I soon realised that the suffering of the walking wounded was profound and impairing. Furthermore, our medications weren't that helpful for a large swathe of people. Let alone the side-effects these medications are inducing. There are few effective treatments for so-called treatment-resistant mental health disorders. Electroconvulsive therapy (shock treatment) is a highly effective treatment, but potentially can induce irreversible memory deficits.
Current Practice
Dr. Bench maintains a general adult private psychiatric practice. Emma has been my practice manager and personal assistant for six years. For the past decade or so, I have treated more and more emergency personnel. The current psychiatric model is one of relatively brief psychopharmacological appointments. It is hardly surprising such a model fails to relieve, at times, intractable suffering in up to 30% of individuals. This led me to investigate the potential role of novel agents to treat resistant depressive and anxiety disorders. I have completed the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy by Mind Medicine Australia and a training completed by the Psychiatric Institute of Australia. I have completed training in the provision of ketamine by the Black Dog Institute. I have also completed a training in Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy.
I have now pivoted towards specialising in medication-assisted therapy. Dr Bench is only accepting referrals for medication-assisted therapy.