Hi, it’s Dr. David Kaminester, also known as Dr. K.  Thank you for finding my website, and I am greatly excited to tell you about my unique practice and, hopefully, answer some frequently asked questions about it!

 I am dually-board certified in General and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and I have been in continuous practice since 2004.  Prior to this, I got my B.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago (Class of 1995), my M.D. from McGill University Faculty of Medicine (Class of 1999), and completed a combined residency training program in Psychiatry (Class of 2003) and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Class of 2004) at University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

What it actually means to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist in practice in this day and age is an open and interesting topic!  In its original incarnation, most child and adolescent psychiatrists were primarily child psychotherapists who met with their patients and their families frequently and used talking and playing skills, as appropriate, to communicate and help.  Biological treatments such as medications, in those days, were a very limited option!  As biological treatments were further developed, researched, and made available over the last half century, the field of child and adolescent psychiatry evolved into one where such physicians principally became medication specialists who focused on symptoms and side effects in short and far less regular meetings.  Treatment of a child (and their surrounding family) went from a more holistic model to a split model, with different practitioners handling the psychotherapies and the medication sides, hopefully (but not always) in active collaboration with one another.  This is the model which dominated during my training and my early career.  

While all pieces of treatment are important and can be quite helpful, over the course of my training and early career I realized that the child and adolescent psychiatrist-as pharmacologist-only model had significant limitations.  I often felt less connected to the kids and families with whom I worked, and felt myself ancillary to, rather than central in, their treatment.  The gradual takeover of health care by private insurance companies most definitely did not help.  The part of the job I liked the best and, in my view, proved to be the most helpful, was having the time and space to get to know my kid/teen patients, establish a real therapeutic alliance with them, and use that part of myself which very much remembered the joys and challenges of childhood and adolescence to connect with my young patients in a manner which actually spoke to them and their experience!  I realized that my ability to speak fluent “kid” was my superpower and what I believe separated my practice from other child and adolescent psychiatrists.  I embraced the child psychotherapist in me and, when I had the opportunity, broke away and established a full-time private practice doing this work, which has been the case since 2011.

What does it mean to speak fluent “kid”?  I’m glad you (probably) asked.  A little secret about working with children in the mental health domain is that they almost never will “talk” in the sense most people have come to expect happens in a therapist/psychiatrist’s office.  It’s not that they’re silent- well, they are sometimes, but that’s a different kettle of fish- it’s that they don’t typically come in, plop down in a chair, and speak directly about all the stuff they have going on inside them which bothers them.  I imagine many parents can relate to this!  But here’s the fascinating part- they do “talk” about all of this, but in their own unique and idiosyncratic manner, often not directly about themselves.  The fancy term for this is that children, writ large, do therapy in “displacement”.  Depending on their age, they mostly talk about movies, YouTube channels and streamers, video games, their Pokemon and Magic card collections, sports, activities with their friends, etc and/or engage in play activities where they melt into their imagination and reveal their inner worlds in a manner far richer than they frequently are able to convey verbally.  Every child I work with does this in their own way, and I feel that one of the most important parts of my job is to learn the language in which they are speaking to me and speak it with them.  Being a lifelong musician, movie and pop culture fan, and video gamer certainly helps!  When kids feel understood and that I “get them”, they tend to feel better, with the goal of bringing this greater confidence and sense of self back into their world outside of my office.  Frequently, they will develop an increasingly effective capacity to put their thoughts and feelings into words when they feel and appreciate this safety and acceptance, particularly as their normal brain development supports this.

While I borrow freely from many traditions of psychotherapy which I have studied and had ample clinical experience with- play therapy, dynamic therapy, relational therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, etc- I have a developed my own style which I think is a unique amalgam of all of these, and more.  This versatility allows me to tailor my clinical interactions to what each patient individually needs and could benefit from, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.  Helping me along the way is my ultra-friendly and sweet therapy golden doodle Honey, who never fails to make anyone feel better when she walks into a room.

Part of my job as a child psychiatrist, along with being a psychotherapist, is to assess from a medical perspective as well, and, when indicated and judicious, prescribe and monitor medications.  I pride myself on keeping very up-to-date with the latest research and recognizing the importance of prescribing according to the emerging evidence-base.  For many of my patients, I am both their treating psychotherapist and prescriber- a model called combined treatment.  For some, I am their psychotherapist only- typically when I assess that medication interventions are not required at the time, although this assessment is obviously ongoing!  And, finally, for some patients who are well-established in psychotherapy with another provider, I act as prescriber only and work in active collaboration with their therapist to optimize their treatment.  

Regardless of the modality in which I am working, it is done in active collaboration with the parents/guardians of my patients.  In many cases, this entails individual sessions with the kids and teens in my practice and periodic family consults to discuss progress and any changes in treatment which may need to be implemented.  When appropriate and necessary, I bring parents/guardians into their childrens’ sessions.  I also work in active collaboration with my patients’ schools and medical providers.

While I am not a member of any insurance panels and am compensated directly by families, I do make every attempt to make my work affordable for as many families as possible, and will provide, when requested, detailed clinical receipts so that the families with whom I work can put in claims to their insurance carriers themselves, should they choose to do so.  This structure allows me to keep my focus solely on helping the children and families in my practice.

If you are interested in making an appointment with me, the best ways to reach me would be via email (doctork@doctordavidk.com) or office cellphone (617-633-7622).  I very much look forward to helping!