After receiving his M.D. degree at Columbia University, he completed a medical internship at UNC in Chapel Hill, a residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and a fellowship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, in Boston. For 38 years he has been a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. A Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, he has received several awards teaching awards and published numerous papers in the areas of psychosocial oncology, addiction, and the clinical interface between spirituality/religion and psychiatry. His authored or co-edited books include Doing the Right Thing: An Approach to Moral Issues in Mental Health Treatment, Handbook of Spirituality and World View in Clinical Practice, Depression and the Soul: A Guide to Spiritually Integrated Treatment, Spiritual and Religious Issues in Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Research Agenda for DSM-5, and The Soul of Medicine: Spiritual Perspectives and Clinical Practice. He serves as president of the American Psychiatric Association’s Caucus on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry.