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About Us
Dr. Vanessa
Board Certified Psychiatrist
Born and raised in New Jersey, studied in numerous urban settings across the United States and trained in Detroit, Michigan at Henry Ford Health System. Dr. Vanessa is a psychiatrist in Delaware with licenses for neighboring states. She currently serves as the medical director for Christiana Care's outpatient program and serves on various committees throughout the organization.
Over her years of research and training she discovered a passion for working with individuals with chronic illnesses, like chronic pain. She solidified an intensive therapy-based approach to treating chronic pain by fine-tuning skills, identifying values and creating an overall better emotional and physical functionality. She volunteered her time at a dermatology-psychiatric clinic working with individuals experiencing delusional parasitosis and anxiety-driven skin picking behaviors. She leads community projects which aim to provide support for individuals who have lost a loved-one to covid-19, are survivors of covid-19 and/or are struggling with coping through the changes during these unprecedented times.
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When not working, Dr. Vanessa can be found spending time with her family, listening to music and having living room dance parties with her boys. She enjoys hiking, crafting, cooking and doing jigsaw puzzles. She is building a Safe Space in Wilmington that offers great coffee and therapy in a caring community environmnet.
Her practice focuses on respecting individual client values, hopes, and dreams. She values collaborative healing, with clients as partners in treatment. She questions cultural narratives and operations of power in society that may be harmful to people. She believes that problems and mental health symptoms are undeserved and people are doing their best to resist them. With their struggles, they also have cherished morals, meaningful intentions, magnificent talents and vibrant souls. Tapping into those aspects of a person’s experience, one can find inspiration for growth by overcoming mountains and moving forward in the direction that they choose.
She helps individuals let go the pursuit of perfectionism by graciously enhancing awareness and acceptance of individual strengths/values and guides them in mindfully taking steps towards their vision of “happiness”.
Dr. Hersh
Board Certified Pain Physician and Anesthesiologist
Hersh Patel, M.D., M.B.A. was the section chief for Christiana Care’s interdisciplinary chronic pain management program in Newark, DE and currently serves as a pain physician for Veterans at the Wilmington VA in Delaware. His experience in the private practice and academic sectors guided his strategies for coordinating the complex care required for chronic pain patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings. The program focused on managing high-impact pain patients, while providing the Delaware community with opioid minimizing treatment modalities for pain.
Dr. Patel uses the narrative approach to provide holistic pain management services to patients with a focus on the biopsychosocial model of pain. He specializes in unique interventional therapies including stem cell and PRP injections, ketamine and lidocaine infusions, interventional psychiatry (such as US guided stellate ganglion blocks), minimally invasive spine procedures (epidurals, facet denervation, discograms, discectomies, lumbar decomression, etc) and neuromodulation (peripheral and dorsal column stimulation).
Dr. Patel is a double board certified anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician who began his journey into medicine through Drexel University’s 7-year accelerated B.S./M.D. program. He earned his executive M.B.A. with a focus on entrepreneurship at Drexel University’s Lebow College of Business. He continued with an internship in internal medicine at Hahnemman University Hospital in Philadelphia followed by residency and fellowship training at New York University in Manhattan. He served as a chief resident for the Department of Anesthesiology at NYU and received various awards for his leadership there. After fellowship, he gained experience in private practice in Detroit, MI, where he served as the medical director for an interventional pain practice. Dr. Patel is a proud alumni of the Leadership Delaware program.
