Valerie Tutson

Growing up seeing her mother work as a nurse, Dr. Valerie Tutson had her calling early on to pursue medicine. She entered medical school with clear intentions of becoming a pediatrician and a long-term goal of working with adolescents with emotional problems. After some soul searching, she found her way to psychiatry as it more closely mirrored her goals of medicine and was a place where she felt she could best make a difference in her patient’s lives. She enjoys hearing the story of someone’s journey and helping them reach a better baseline of functioning either with therapy, psychopharmacology, or other treatments.

Her style is somewhat eclectic in that she approaches each patient individually and meets them where they are, making sure they feel valued and listened to. She is respectful of past negative experiences and wants to uncover those as to not replicate the same mistakes. She also tries to glean from any past negative experience with treatment side effects or particular medications, and always takes a broad look at other psychodynamic factors that may be contributing to the treatment impact.

She has always stayed engaged and in-tune with the cutting edge of psychiatry. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a newer technology that allows patients who may have had refractory illness and depression to improve when they may have given up hope of normal functioning and a better baseline.