Breaking out of Pain, Legacy of Dr Sarno, Interview with Dr Segal about her new book.
Dr. Andrea Leonard-Segal is a board-certified rheumatologist and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Segal sees patients at the GW Center for Integrative Medicine in Washington DC. She graduated from the University of Michigan and with distinction from the George Washington University School of Medicine where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Medical Society, which is the medical school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.
She completed her Residency in Internal Medicine at the George Washington University Hospital and her Fellowship in Rheumatic Diseases at the Georgetown University Medical Center. She practiced general rheumatology and taught Georgetown rheumatology fellows for many years until she became interested in mind-body medicine in 1990. At that point, she decided to dedicate her clinical practice to treating patients with Psycho-physiologic Disorders and moved the practice to the George Washington University Medical Center which was opening its Center for Integrative Medicine. There she teaches residents and medical students and early on served on a GW Medical Center research committee assessing integrative medicine.
She has been treating patients with physical conditions caused by psychological tension, what Dr. Sarno termed Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS) since 1991 and worked collaboratively with Dr. John E. Sarno for over 20 years. Dr. Sarno trained her in TMS diagnosis and treatment and referred patients to her on a regular basis during all of those years and also after he retired from practice. He invited her to write a chapter in his book, The Divided Mind. They became personal friends in additional to being colleagues. In The Divided Mind, Dr. Sarno wrote of Dr. Segal ‘We are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Segal’s contribution to this volume. She is an erudite rheumatologist and a clinician of great warmth.’ In 2023 she wrote the book, Breaking Out of Pain: Living the Legacy of John E. Sarno, MD, as first author along with Dr. Eric Sherman, Dr. Arlene Feinblatt, and Dr. Frances Sommer Anderson.
In 2016, it was Dr. Segal’s great honor to have been given the opportunity make the presentation at the Columbia University Medical Center Psychosomatic Conference: ‘Healing Unexplainable Pain’ paying tribute to Dr. Sarno’s life’s work and achievements. Dr. Segal was also interviewed in the documentary film about Dr. Sarno entitled, ‘All The Rage’, which premiered in 2016.
Dr. Leonard-Segal has published in peer-reviewed academic journals in the areas of rheumatology and of drug development. She is skilled in clinical trial design and analysis and served as a Division Director at the Food and Drug Administration from 2005 – 2013. Because of that experience, she is sought after as a clinical and regulatory consultant for drug development projects.