About

Dr. Jonathan “Jonny” Gerkin is board certified in both General Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He is the former (inaugural) Director of Student Wellness for the UNC SOM and is a past director of both the UNC Psychiatry Consultation Service and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program, which he helped design, implement and gain ACGME accreditation. Jonny’s primary clinical activities include general hospital psychiatry consultation supervising fellows, residents, medical students, physician assistant students, and mental health counseling interns in the evaluation and management of psychiatric presentations in the medically ill. He enjoys incorporating brief trauma-informed psychotherapeutic interventions at the bedside that are based in mindfulness practices and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Other clinical activities include collaborating with subspecialty medical outpatient clinics such as the UNC Infectious Disease and Pain Medicine Clinics, supervising a general psychiatry residency outpatient clinic that integrates instruction and application of Trauma-Focused ACT (TFACT), and maintaining a small, private TFACT-informed outpatient practice. His academic activities have include designing and implementing training programs and curricula, most recently consulting to Novant Health and Navy Medical Center Camp Lejeune to support the design, accreditation and implementation of a combined military and civilian General Psychiatry Residency Training program. He has also directed and co-directed preclinical and clinical curricula across multiple levels of expertise, experience, and disciplines, including directing the pre-clinical and clinical behavioral medicine courses for the UNC Physician Assistant Training Program and precepting Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling Master’s Program Interns. Administrative interests have included admission and transfer referral review as a member of the Psychiatry Patient Care Coordination Team. Service interests have included hosting weekly guided mindfulness practice session for UNC faculty, staff and trainees affiliated with UNC Hospitals or School of Medicine, and delivering multiple mindfulness based curricular projects with medical staff, providers and trainees that target stress management, burnout and effective clinical practice.