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(Oconomowoc, Wis.) A board-certified psychiatrist, Jennifer Bleak, M.D., has joined the medical staff at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Madison and Kenosha, where she will provide support and psychiatric services for adults in the areas of depression, anxiety and addiction programming.
“I want to support patients in focusing their minds so as to use the body’s resources to feel alive instead of suffering with depression, anxiety, anger, insomnia, addiction… or whatever the case may be,” Dr. Bleak said. “As a provider of mental health care, it’s my goal to reassure patients that they are not flawed and empower them to heal. I apply mind/body approaches such as mindfulness and somatic experiencing, as well as psychological approaches to relieve pain.”
According to Dr. Bleak, somatic experiencing offers an enormous advantage for trauma patients because painful events don’t have to be remembered to be successfully treated. “Somatic experiencing focuses on the bodily sensations that are inseparable from emotion. Through this therapy, we can redirect attention and energy that is expended in another way that might not be beneficial, like a panic attack.”
Dr. Bleak is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. She completed her residency in psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center, her internship at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago and her fellowship in psychotherapy at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill. Most recently, she served as a general psychiatrist and supervisor of addiction treatment at Beloit Memorial Hospital in Beloit, Wis.
Dr. Bleak also lived in Japan for 11 years, where she worked as clinical director of a nonprofit mental health organization for English speakers. “I came to realize how very differently various cultures view social relationships,” she said, “and I believe this adds value to my approach to therapy.”
