Driftless Integrative Psychiatry

11/14/2025

People with psychotic disorders often ask me whether there are options besides antipsychotic medications.

It’s a fair and important question.
And the honest answer is this:

There’s no single alternative that replaces antipsychotics.

But there are non-medication pathways with meaningful evidence, especially when psychosis has metabolic, immune, or neuroinflammatory drivers.

10/24/2025

I'm so very happy and truly ecstatic to announce that I will be joining my friend and colleague Dr. Kat Hopkins, DO, and her team at Olos Integrative and Functional Medicine starting in January 2026.

I’m grateful to expand on my whole-system, integrative psychiatric care alongside a team that leads with heart, depth, and integrity in all they do.

When I announced I was closing my practice, Dr. Kat texted me that same day and asked if I’d consider joining hers even if it was just one day a month. I was so touched by her support, and after some rest and reflection, I knew her clinic was where I wanted to be practicing.

Learn more about Olos Clinic: https://drkathopkins.com/

10/20/2025

We talk about depression, anxiety, and psychosis like they are single diseases - but they’re not. They are patterns that arise from probably hundreds of different biological, psychological, and environmental roots.

The future of psychiatry isn’t about abandoning DSM-5 and diagnoses but expanding it to include why the brain became deregulated, not just how someone presents.

Unlike most other fields of medicine, psychiatry rarely investigates the underlying causes. Integrative and immune-informed psychiatry x precision medicine = part of where we as a field need to go.

10/18/2025

I get asked a lot what makes integrative psychiatry different, or what my background entails. Everyone in the field of integrative psychiatry has a little bit different of a path, background, and interest.

This work and my approach is about bridging worlds — medicine, psychology, and the body’s own intelligence — in a way that honors complexity and hope.

I plan to resume seeing patients through a new clinical practice rather than my own private practice. Details about the clinic and location will be announced very soon! ❤️

10/13/2025

A common concept that arises on social media is inflammation as a root cause of mental health symptoms.

It can be - but this isn't the case for everyone. Depression, for example, is not an inflammatory disorder. However, some individuals with depression are thought to have an inflammatory subtype.

This is an example of how psychiatry is evolving to be more precision-based and individualized.

09/03/2025

Being empowered with your health means understanding the scope and training of the practitioners you are working with.

When choosing holistic health support, ask about training, collaboration, and whether they know when it’s time for medical evaluation.

06/04/2025

It is tick season. Infections, Immunity, and the Mind: A Field Guide.

1 | Why this matters more than you might thinkRecent studies have moved the “infection‐psychiatry” link from interesting footnote to front-page science: • Lyme & tick-borne illness. A 2024 scoping review of >700 papers found that neuropsychiatric symptoms—brain-fog, mood lability, panic su...

05/22/2025

I’m excited to share that I’ve completed the ILADS Physician Training Program with Dr. Casey Kelley at in Chicago!

This comprehensive training in tick-borne infections and complex chronic illness honed my ability to evaluate and manage psychiatric symptoms rooted in infectious and inflammatory processes.

A huge thank-you to Dr. Kelley and the ILADS community for an inspiring experience.

I’m not taking patients right now, but I do keep a waitlist. We have 100+ people on it and I anticipate returning to doing some outpatient work starting early Winter 2025. If you’re dealing with treatment-resistant mood, anxiety, cognitive fog, or other psychiatric concerns linked to tick-borne or inflammatory illness, visit: www.driftlessintegrativepsychiatry.com ➡️ Work with Me

Dr. Erica Burger

05/15/2025

Psychiatrists are often characterized as "prescribers" and while that is one facet of our work, we have four years of general medical school training and one year of residency dedicated to working on internal medicine, neurology, pediatrics, and emergency medicine services.

This experience is essential because it helps us think critically and holistically to address a broader etiology of mental health symptoms - rather than just prescribing medications.

One of the conditions we assess for and manage is catatonia, which often has both medical and psychiatric manifestations. Infections and autoimmune conditions are known to cause catatonia, as well as psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression.

In pediatrics, kids with autism and genetic disorders are much more likely to develop catatonia than those without.

There is so much we don't know but likely some underlying denominator of immune system dysfunction.

Learn more about catatonia and the role the immune system plays in this condition here:

Traditional teaching: think benzodiazepines, think ECT. Emerging science: also think immune system.

05/15/2025

Teaching ketamine assisted therapy in Marquette, Michigan and working with two incredible women - therapist and therapy practice owner, JoAnne Garrow and Dr. Shawn Brown, fellow NMU alum, ED doc, and owner of Marquette Medical Urgent Care.

We had therapists, psych NPs, graduate researchers, and family med physicians here to learn how to support the biomedical approach to ketamine with psychological and spiritual approaches.

This work coincides with mental health awareness month and I'm so grateful to be able to keep advocating for and advancing innovative approaches to rural mental health care here in the Midwest.

✨✨✨

05/01/2025

For decades, mental health treatment has largely focused on symptom management. The dominant paradigm in psychiatry has been about identifying a disorder in the DSM and prescribing a medication that modifies brain chemistry—usually with the goal of reducing symptoms like anxiety, depression, or intrusive thoughts.

While this approach has helped many people, it also has limitations.

Psychedelics such as ketamine offer something different. Instead of suppressing symptoms, these medicines can facilitate a deeper, more expansive experience—one that can help patients process trauma, access new insights, and create lasting changes in how they see themselves and their lives.

This is a paradigm shift in how we think about mental health care. We’re moving from a model focused on symptom reduction to one that includes nonordinary states of consciousness as a tool for healing.

Excited to share more at the Minnesota Holistic Medical Group meeting on Saturday and in training with the Caught Dreamin' Therapy Clinic team in Marquette, MI next week.