It’s official… I jumped through all of the registration hoops and I am back at U of T for a clinical fellowship in Buddhism and Psychiatry.

I attended the orientation session for Clinical Fellows last week. I wasn’t sure what I would get out of it but came away with the insight that there are so many people who know more than I do about particular things, so if we collaborate more we will be more productive. This was in the context of publishing more papers (it’s U of T, after all) but I think it applies to many things in my life.

When I look back on things I wrote about 1 or 2 years ago, a lot of it had to do with running an office and DIY electronic medical records. Having been there and done that I would say in retrospect that it makes more sense for me to let someone else do that so I can focus on other things. It really isn’t efficient to manage an office and practice medicine at the same time, and even though doing everything yourself may keep more money in your pocket it’s really a drag on quality of life. It’s not really all about maximizing billable hours (that means seeing patients!) either. I found out that a lot of the satisfaction in this work comes from having some quiet time to look up the answer to an interesting question or just look out the window.

Doing the fellowship so far has given me a new appreciation for learning and it has been a good excuse to dig deeper into Buddhist philosophy and psychology than ever before. It is also kind of amazing how being “officially” a clinical fellow seems to give permission to talk to other people and share ideas. Hopefully it will be a good year of collaboration and producing something new and creative. Maybe get a couple of papers published too.

p.s. Not to worry – my private practice is still going. It’s full – but still running.