Yevgeniy Mayr, DO, is a psychiatrist who specializes in helping people overcome struggles related to mental illness and substance use disorders. He works with patients in an intensive outpatient program (IOP) and at a continuity care clinic, both in New Haven.
“What I love about psychiatry is that I get to listen to a person’s story beyond the physical, biological, and physiological processes,” says Dr. Mayr. “Much of psychiatry is driven by the narrative of someone’s life and integrates components that are often overlooked in medical care. I also enjoy building relationships with people and using that relationship to facilitate recovery from the burden of illness.”
He was drawn to helping patients with substance use disorder because of its pervasiveness in society. “If you dig deep enough, even in the absence of a formal substance use disorder, you will most likely discover some aspect of behavior that has an addictive mechanism,” he says. “Addiction is really just a habit gone wrong, and oftentimes psychological struggles boil down to maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling and relating to ourselves and others that end up hurting us in the long run.”
Often, patients come to a psychiatrist thinking the physician is only focused on prescribing medication, but that is only part of the solution, Dr. Mayr says.
“Medication can play a supporting role, but the overarching theme is that patients hold the keys to their own recovery and I am there to guide them,” he says. “And while we might need to make a diagnosis of some kind, that is only to provide a point of reference and it does not have to be a label one carries for the rest of their lives.”
Dr. Mayr says he also emphasizes lifestyle changes as a part of the recovery process. “Exercise, diet, optimizing sleep and having strong social relationship is key,” he says. “Much of recovery is about doing less of the things that harm you and more of the things that nourish and restore you.”
He has a background in global health as a member of the nonprofit Doctors United for Ukraine, where he spearheads an initiative entitled Project Minerva, aiming to provide Ukrainian clinicians with standard of care educational materials from the world’s leading institutions. He also has a special interest in implementation of AI-based tools in ways that enhance the patient experience and enable a more personalized approach to care and recovery.
An assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Mayr received his doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency at State University of New York Upstate Medical University and his fellowship in addiction psychiatry at Yale New Haven Hospital.
