CO-Ψ

     Co-Psych.com

  
 

       Corvallis Psych' Clinic  

 James Phelps, M.D.

Who is Dr. Phelps?

How do you know if this website represents a "real psychiatrist"?   Is that photo really Dr. Phelps?   Fair questions.  Here is a link to the hospital where I maintain staff privileges:  their page on Dr. Phelps which is in their master directory of physicians (to find me there, scroll down to the non-affiliated alphabet, on the lower half of the page).  

You could also check out my book version of my education website, from McGraw-Hill. Here's a book description, with a link to Amazon, which has some independent reviews. 

Finally, you could look at BipolarWorld.net, where I've been the ask-a-doc for several years, and where you'll see they have no reason to represent me as something I'm not.  You'll probably notice that the writing style in my answers there is pretty much the same as what you'll find on this site, and my education website www.PsychEducation.org. 

Here's some more information that I hope will also seem too complex to be made up, ending with a link to my "CV" (good old medical Latin for "resume"). 

 

How I landed in Corvallis, Oregon after once being a kayak instructor
Well, it was mighty fun, but teaching kayaking didn't seem to be something I could support a family doing, and although I tried to stay 23 years old for as long as possible, it did seem ultimately impossible, as well as perhaps unwise.  However, as further evidence I'm real, you can check out the kayak school where I taught, which is still the best outfit for this kind of thing in the country (I was a sneak-in-the-back-door instructor; now they only have the absolute best) -- Otter Bar Lodge. 

And after my residency at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, I was looking for someplace smaller and with a bit more water, and closer to the west coast ocean again, thus Corvallis. 

Why so much interest in bipolar disorder?  Will I "overdiagnose" you as bipolar?
Another fair question.   In our area, there are few psychiatrists taking new patients, so most people have already had a primary care doctor try to treat their condition, and in the case of depression problems, most times they've already had an antidepressant -- or 2, or 5, or more.  So most people who make it to see me ought to consider whether their depression might include some aspect of bipolar disorder, BUT...

Every patient is an individual.  Every patient needs an individual approach.  There are no answers that apply to everyone.  I may ask you to learn enough about bipolar disorder to help us decide, together, whether that could be part of your problems.  Or we may be thinking about some quite different way to explain what's been happening to you.  

Resume/CV

This should open as a "pdf" file.