Holistic Wellness & Psychiatry: A Look at Our Founding Vision and Opening

Holistic Wellness & Psychiatry was founded in August 2023 in North Liberty by Laurie McCormick with a vision to focus on the root causes of illness. Laurie wanted to create a space where patients could receive care that integrates functional medicine and psychedelic therapy with ketamine. The goal was to not only alleviate symptoms but to optimize mental, physical, and spiritual health.

The ultimate mission is to help people heal holistically, mentally, physically, and spiritually, by addressing the root causes of illness and offering innovative, personalized treatments that lead to lasting recovery from conditions like treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Our philosophy is rooted in treating the root causes of illness, rather than just managing symptoms. They focus on optimizing health and well-being through a holistic, whole-person approach.

We offer functional medicine approaches within the constraints of commercial insurance and also deliver ketamine with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to truly help people change their story and meaning-making to get people out of chronic depression, anxiety and/or PTSD. We de-prescribe and offer treatments that actually work for treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and/or PTSD.

We take a holistic approach, consider the whole person’s history, biology, and cultural factors when coming up with a comprehensive treatment plan, and partner with our patients to tailor a plan that best suits where they are in their healing journey.

We have a warm and inviting culture that we co-create together, which makes it a fun place to work and look forward to the rewarding opportunity to help our patients live their best lives.

Patients should know that they are truly valued and cared for by the entire treatment team. The clinic is dedicated to their healing and well-being.

Our proudest moment is seeing patients, particularly veterans, feel happy and hopeful again after struggling with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Warm, inviting, and encouraging.

Our providers build trust by actively listening to patients and showing that they genuinely care about their well-being.

Yes, I have seen how anxiety and overthinking in family members limit their enjoyment of life and prevent them from becoming the best version of themselves. There are many new treatments now that finally work for treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and/or PTSD that finally work and help people break free of mental anguish so they can live their best lives.

I have volunteered at the Free Medical Clinic in St Thomas, which has been a rewarding way to bring life-saving mental health treatment to some of the most vulnerable in society, so that they have the chance to have more meaningful interactions with family and friends and to take care of their body and mind.

I come from a long line of nurses who have been dedicated to helping people who are sick get better. I pursued a career as a medical doctor, as a board-certified psychiatrist and family doctor, to find a way to help those with not only physical disease and discomfort, but mental and spiritual anguish. I felt early on in my career that even if one’s physical body is fine, if one’s mental state is in distress, that isn’t proper health.

I was a tenure-track assistant professor and research scientist at the University of Iowa College of Medicine for the 1st decade of my career and have published numerous 1st author original publications on better understanding how brain stimulation brings about a reduction in depressive and anxiety symptoms in depression, the neurobiology of anorexia nervosa as a form of severe OCD and brain stimulation for severe OCD. I have authored several book chapters and continue to have my original research publications still cited within the top 11% of all researchers on Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Laurie-Mccormick-2, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Laurie-Mccormick-2/stats

Laurie is a member of several professional organizations, including:

• American Psychiatric Association (APA)
• American Medical Association (AMA)
• Iowa Psychiatric Society (IPS)
• Iowa Medical Society (IMS)
• Virgin Island Medical Association (VIMA)
• Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM)
• Psychedelic Medicine Association (PMA)
• Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

• M.D. — Doctor of Medicine
• DFAPA — Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association
• Board‑Certified in Psychiatry (and also holds a Family Medicine background)
• Completed certification in Functional Medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)
• Certified in Psychedelic‑Assisted and Ketamine Therapy through the Integrative Psychiatry Institute (IPI) and Numinus
• Over 25 years of clinical experience in integrative & holistic psychiatry and family medicine.
• Former tenure‑track clinical research scientist/Assistant Professor at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, following psychiatry & family‑medicine residency and a neuropsychology fellowship.