About The-POV Conversations with David Kopacz & Usha Akella
We are motivated by curiosity—about people, their points of view, professions, passions, and work. These people are shaping the world through their dedication to humanity. The-POV is a celebration of voices and visions making the world a better place.
David R. Kopacz, MD works as a psychiatrist at Seattle VA in primary care mental health integration. In his clinical work, he has been developing a holistic health class and a hero’s journey class, using mythology, narrative, culture, poetry, and art to help Veterans return home after military service. David is an education champion with the national VA Office of Patient-Centered Care & Cultural Transformation, where he teaches Whole Health to VA staff across the USA. He is board-certified in psychiatry and holistic & integrative medicine and is an assistant professor at the University of Washington. He has worked in many different practice settings, including holistic private practice, community mental health, and as clinical director of Buchanan Rehabilitation Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. David is the author of Re-humanizing Medicine: A Holistic Framework for Transforming Your Self, Your Practice, and the Culture of Medicine (2014), and with co-author Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow) Walking the Medicine Wheel: Healing Trauma & PTSD (2016), and Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality (2020).
