Gregory B. Gisla, Psy. D. - 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award

0:06Since our foundation in 1999, Divine Mercy University has conferred 412 master's graduates and 71 doctoral graduates. In the pursuit of their vocation to heal, a growing number of our alumni are making an impact in the field of psychology, in the church, in the world. The ever expanding reach of the mission is truly become inspiring. To mark and recognize this history, the university presents its distinguished alumni award to a graduate who has made significant contributions to society and whose accomplishments, affiliations, and career have honored the legacy and the mission of our alma mater. Recipients of this award are accomplished in the following areas, professional achievement, leadership, service, faithful advancement of the mission and vision of our university.

1:05So it's with great pride and joy that we present the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award to doctor Gregory class of 2014. Doctor Giesla is recognized for his many professional achievements, his faithful spirit of service, and his enduring example of the mission and vision of our university. He completed his doctoral degree from the Institute for Psychological Sciences in May 2014 with the dissertation entitled, Sexual Self Control as Essential to Psychosocial Maturity in Adolescent Males. Doctor Gisler was born and raised in Sacramento, California, the youngest of seven children. He graduated in 2009 with a BA in liberal arts from Thomas Aquinas College in San Paulo, California, and he subsequently attended our Institute for Psychological Sciences doctoral program in clinical psychology.

2:12After graduating in 2014, doctor Gisla, his wife, and daughter returned to Sacramento where he completed his one year post doctorate fellowship at the Sutter Center for Psychiatry, the only freestanding inpatient psychiatric facility operated by the prominent nonprofit Sutter Healthcare System. This was the beginning of doctor Gaisler's career in Sutter, where over the next seven years, he worked across all three settings of the mental health continuum, emergency department, psychiatric, and partial hospitalization outpatient programs. He is currently the director of emergency psychiatric response and patient access. His departments are responsible for the psychiatric crisis evaluations at three of Sutter's medical facilities and to arrange the transition of care to inpatient psychiatry for rapid stabilization.

3:06He additionally operates a small outpatient private practice providing individual and couples therapy, and he also specializes in working with severe mental illness and suicide assessment. Doctor Giesler currently resides in Carmichael, California with his wife and two young children. Doctor Giesler is a true representation of a distinguished alumni, having made significant contributions in the field of psychology and a constant dedication to the mission and vision of our university. We are honored to present doctor Gisla with this award. Doctor Gisla, will you please come forward? Thank you so much. This was such an incredible surprise. To be nominated for this award is really quite humbling, knowing that each of my fellow alumni and all of the unique members of this community are doing extraordinary work every day and making a difference in the lives of so many people.

4:40To be selected by the DMU administration is a great honor, and I'm so grateful to be invited back to this community that holds such a fond place in my heart and to be able to share in this experience with each of you today. Today is a momentous day, one each of you earned with hours upon hours of work and great sacrifice from both you and from those who supported you throughout these years. I recall so clearly during my third year at IPS how overwhelmed I felt with classes and clinic. Then I saw my schedule for the following year, and I thought, I just can't do it all. I returned home to my beautiful wife and our infant daughter, and I confessed in a tone of total despair, I just think I'm gonna have to spread out these classes and finish this program in six instead of five years.

5:33There just isn't any other way. My wife tenderly looked in my eyes and responded so calmly, there is no way in hell we're spending an extra year in grad school. We will get this program done together one way or another. And that was just the push I needed, and I literally would not be here today without her. So I know that each of you find yourself here at the end of one incredible journey, having experienced loads of love and support from people who cheered you on every step of the way. So I wanna thank all of those here today who supported these graduates through it all. I've been asked to share with you some reflections about how my education at IPS impacted my career and then offer a few lessons and insights that I've learned along the way that may be helpful to you.

6:28I am very aware that I am still so young in my career and learning new lessons myself every day. I hope, though, that these insights and recommendations help at least one of you in in your future endeavors. As was was stated in our my bio, after I graduated from IPS, I returned to my home state of California and completed my fellowship at Sutter Center for Psychiatry. Sutter is a inpatient psychiatric facility serving patients across the life spectrum as young as four years old. I find myself now the director of psychiatric emergency response and patient access. I lead those departments responsible for assessing patients and mental health crises in our medical facilities and then determining whether they need further stabilization in inpatient or can safely discharge, back home to the community.

7:17My my team is embedded in the emergency department as consulted only when a patient presents as a danger to themselves, others, or with such acute symptoms of psychosis that their ability to meet their basic needs is almost entirely impaired. Our busiest emergency department is located in Downtown Sacramento where homelessness and drug use are rampant. We complete a little over 300 evaluations each month. When a patient enters the ED and presents with these concerns, a safety protocol is triggered that feels to most patients like a total loss of self agency and something very few are prepared for. The patient is escorted by security and a nurse to the bathroom where they must remove all their clothing under observation and change into a blue colored gown, unique from all other colored gown, unique from all other patient gowns in the hospital.

8:05Their belongings are removed and stored separately, which for many of the homeless population we serve, may be all the belongings they currently have to their name. They must provide a urine sample so that we can run basic labs for medical clearance along with the toxicology screen to identify whether drugs are a contributing, factor to their current presentation. They are then placed in a room or a hallway where they will remain under constant one to one observation by a psychiatric technician to ensure they remain safe. They cannot leave the hospital or really even their room. And for those patients who meet criteria for have no support with them, which means they are alone in crisis being told what to do, when to do it at all times.

9:02Unfortunately, many of our medical staff are entirely burned out and overwhelmed caring for this population. The symptoms of a psychiatric crisis can be severe. Total emotional dysregulation, anger, aggression, even violence. Unfortunately, I know this from personal experience, having been charged by patients on multiple occasions and one morning finding myself on the receiving end of a firm slap to the face by a very manic young woman. Many of my patients are experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations, acting incredibly bizarre and with severe disorganized behavior. So what cute can these present presentations be that at times, you find yourself entirely stunned that another human being could act in such a way?

9:49When we see these symptoms enough, a subtle desensitization occurs. We begin to treat the patient in front of us as a bed number instead of a person. We become more aggressive ourselves, usually out of fear or because we feel helpless to meet their needs. We use sometimes offensive humor to reduce the intensity of the situation and to create a buffer between us and the crisis unfolding before us. Our patients rarely express gratitude or offer us any form of validation that we're being helpful, often resulting in a hardened response and a subtle resentment. Suddenly, I'm not treating a human being. I'm dealing with a problem. I'll hear some of our medical staff say, here's another psycho or borderline.

10:37I don't think he's really suicidal. He's been demanding sandwiches since the moment he's arrived. He's just here for two hots and a cot. I'm so tired of this meth head taking up a bed from someone who really needs it. I try to give these staff the benefit of the doubt. They don't hate these patients. They're frustrated with a system of care that feels like it's failing people more often than helping them. However, it's in this exact moment where the rubber meets the road and my education and training in IPS shines through. I know that the patient before me is a human person, one created inherently good in the image of a god who does not have favorites. Their goodness was not earned and cannot be taken from them.

11:21He knows and loves this specific person with all of their strengths and all of their limitations. Their integrity is inherent even when they deny it themselves or act in ways that appear abhorrent. He created them as relational beings, one who is incomplete without God and with an inherent need to make meaningful connection with others. We are body and soul, and we must satisfy the needs of both in order to truly treat the whole person. He, in fact, does need that sandwich before he can even begin to share his emotional distress. I know that sin and trauma can create unimaginable pain, and that pain can lead us to make terrible decisions and push away others who don't who want to love and help us.

12:08And although this pain can feel like a prison, there is always hope of freedom no matter what. So even before I assess the presenting complaint and symptoms or come to a diagnosis or treatment plan, I must first acknowledge the human person. When I start there, I can so much more clearly see what is needed from me in that moment. I can see that this patient's behavior and response toward me is a symptom of their crisis, not a reflection of their worth. I cannot reject this person in front of me because I share the same fragile human nature. So I know as well how great pain can dramatically reduce our sense of choice and lead us to ends that contrast so starkly with our good. I can, however, create a connection amid this chaos that can start to feed that deep desire for relationship.

12:59I can validate them and reduce their sense of being a burden on others. I'm so glad you're here today and that you're safe. You came to the right place. No matter how they present, whether they just swallowed an entire bottle of ibuprofen or haven't bathed in a week, they, without a doubt, deserve my time, my respect, my help, and and, really, my love. And when that is freely and authentically given, you see the powerful impact it has on that imperfect and beautiful person in front of you. You see the softening, and then the resilience and grit emerge, and you stand back in complete admiration. I know you know these things already, but now you must be ready to live it every day with the people you care for.

13:46I'm so profoundly grateful that my education at IPS helped establish within my practice these basic yet invaluable truths. So what can I offer you that may be of some help as you each begin your career in this fantastic field? First and most important, stay close to God. You won't be successful in this field without him. If you try to take on human suffering alone, you'll get buried in all the pain, and you'll lose sight of the hope and redemption guaranteed through his resurrection. God got you this far. Trust that he will give you what you need to be successful in this vocation. Second, do not be afraid of this field and others who practice in it. After I graduated from IPS, I was nervous that what I had to offer was so unique and so countercultural that I would be, at minimum, rejected and, at most, attacked.

14:40I'm pleased to say that hasn't been my experience. In fact, I found that what I have to offer, what you have to offer is so desperately needed and genuinely wanted by others. And I'm not alone. I am surrounded by solid Christians and people of faith at every level of leadership. When you work with the mental health population, you find that most people don't want nor have time for the superficial or unsubstantial. They can't afford to when their lives are sometimes hanging by a thread. People want the meaningful, and they want the truth. Now it's really important, though, that you learn how to speak the accepted language and develop the skill set to share these incredible truths in ways that others can understand and are willing to listen to.

15:26If you can't speak the language and others won't listen, it doesn't matter what incredible gifts you have to offer. In addition, be exceptional in your clinical skills in every possible way. I've worked with incredible clinicians and supervised brilliant trainees, So I know we have lots of competition in this field. You won't be invited to the table unless you know your practice as well as, if not better, than everyone else. I want you at that table. So don't let your education stop here today. Third and lastly, be ready to respond to the call for leadership. You will be asked to take on a leadership role in some capacity because you will stand out among your colleagues. The call to lead will always feel like it's come too soon, but lean into every opportunity to lead, both great and small.

16:19I volunteered to be part of our hospital's LGBTQ policy committee. Why? Because I want clinicians with our training and our values to be making policies that most vulnerable populations. If you're not on those committees, then it's left to others who the secular world will praise, but who offer very little to the people those policies are meant to serve. You are now the leaders in this field. And with your gifts, you will change the world by changing the organizations you serve and by changing the lives of the people you care for. May god continue to be with you and your families every step of the way.