December 2005 | Whole Health
Uncommon Healer
By Nancy Ging
Practitioner Profile
Who: Paul J. Kachoris, M.D., is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and a facilitator for many weekend workshops for males. Kachoris also is a poet.
Quick Take: Kachoris is board-certified in pediatrics and in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. After practicing psychiatry based on the conventional medical model for many years, he underwent a significant shift. “It was only after I ventured deeply into myself, doing my own inner personal work in the late ’80s — meeting the good, the bad and the ugly therein — that I was able to have greater compassion and my work with others became more fulfilling,” he said. This “transformative” experience came about from participating at a “Victories of the Heart” weekend in 1987, he said. The Victories program, created by Bob Mark and Buddy Portugal, was originally called “The Men’s Room.” Since 1991, Kachoris has co-led “Victories of the Heart” weekends and “Shadow Weekends” with Kevin Fitzpatrick that, Kachoris explained, “take groups of 20 men from their heads to their hearts in ‘the hero’s journey’.”
Old Vs. New: Originally trained to approach his work from a purely biological aspect, the new Kachoris is not confined by any one angle and is aware of the energy exchange between aspects of ourselves and between individuals.
“At this point, I’m more holistic. When I work with people, I see no division between psyche and soma, the mind and the body,” he said, adding: “Separating mind, body and soul is the worst thing that has ever happened in medicine. I know how the brain, biology and psyche work and I see it as a wholeness. It all leads to a spiritual understanding.”
Knowing the Difference: Kachoris said that at his weekend workshops men do not run around naked in the woods and hug trees or bash women. “The men don’t use their last names, don’t talk about sports, politics or work,” Kachoris said. “They come in with only their first names, and they talk about themselves. Each man comes in as a stranger and leaves as a brother. There are a lot of beautiful things about being a man. It’s a lie that men don’t have feelings.”
During the Shadow Weekend, men start with their shadow, their dark, hidden dimensions, and end with the gift of learning how golden they are. “The core of the work is this: If I ‘get’ myself and know my own nature, then I really ‘get’ other human beings,” he said.
Biggest Myths: It is a myth to think we can be whole without knowing, owning and embracing our shadow. Kachoris likes to quote Carl Jung: “I’d rather be whole than good.”
Personal File: Kachoris received both his B.S. and M.D. degrees from Indiana University. After serving two years in the U.S. Air Force as a flight medical officer, he did his residency in pediatrics at Children’s Memorial Hospital, continuing with a child psychiatric fellowship. An adult psychiatric residency at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute followed. He was on staff at University of Illinois Medical Center and taught in the medical school there as well as at the Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Institute for Juvenile Research. In 1981 he started one of the first inpatient child psychiatric units in the Chicago-area at Old Orchard Hospital, Skokie. In 1986 he became the medical director of Old Orchard Hospital. He has also been on staff at Rush Medical Center and Evanston Hospital.
His poetry is on a CD entitled “Falling Free — A Journey of Transformation in Poetry and Music.”
Kachoris is a husband, father and grandfather. He has an outpatient practice at 5225 Old Orchard Road, Suite 32, Skokie. Ill. 60077. Phone: 847-491-0799. victoriesoftheheart.org.
Nancy Ging, A.C.S.W., L.C.S.W., is a Chicago-area holistic psychotherapist, consultant and author.
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