Monica Faria, MD, FASAM
From the Brink to Redemption C ON N E C T I NG T H E P I E C E S Born in Los Angeles, Monica Faria’s Guatemalan family spoke no English. The multicultural childhood laid the foundation for her career in psychiatry, making the young Dr. Faria sensitive to what others were saying and feeling. Despite being drawn to sciences, animals, and nature in high school, she did not have the selfconfidence to see medicine as a path forward. That changed in college. While attending Northern Arizona University (NAU), an advisor helped her to connect the pieces, pointing out that medical school was within reach. Dr. Faria was studying the burgeoning field of neuroscience, which merged her favorite studies of psychology and biology. When she started hearing about Freud’s theories
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for emotion predicated upon molecules and neurotransmitters, she was hooked. Dr. Faria recalls in influence of books such as Molecules of Emotion by Candice Pert, which presented the body and the mind as a fluid system.
R E S I DE NC Y T O T H E BR I N K After surviving the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Dr. Faria accepted a general surgery residency because the specialty symbolized strength and courage and was a way for Dr. Faria to deliver immediate results to her patients. But the second year of residency pushed her to the brink. Overburdened by long hours and constant paging, working thousands
