Shawn Barnes MD

Shawn S. Barnes's journey to medicine has been a bit unconventional. Originally from rural Pennsylvania, he is the grandson of coal miners on both sides. After college, he joined the Peace Corps and spent two wonderful years volunteering as a teacher in a small village school on the island nation of Samoa. Enamored with Pacific Island culture, he moved to Hawaii where he finished graduate school in anthropology and worked as an archaeologist throughout the Pacific. He loved his time as an archaeologist, but he wanted to learn skills to make more of a positive difference in people’s lives. This led him to medicine. While in medical school at the University of Hawaii, he found himself relating to patients as people, rather than a collection of diagnoses, leading him to a residency in Psychiatry at UC San Diego. During his study and practice of conventional psychiatry, he became more aware of both the limitations of psychiatric medications and the value of a holistic approach that considers the mind, body, and environment. He now practices integrative psychiatry, which is the intelligent combination of conventional and complementary medicine.