Meet Shahla Ali of Allen Psychiatry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shahla Ali.

Shahla, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The desire of becoming a physician blossomed on the day when my father returned from his overseas trip to the U.S. & brought home a plastic, toy stethoscope. Anytime somebody would become sick in my family, I would press that toy stethoscope to their chest and assure them they would feel better soon. It felt invigorating to take care of anyone who was sick or not feeling well.

This desire kept flourishing with time & I studied meticulously to get accepted into medical school. The day I received the news of being accepted into medical school was probably one of the happiest days of my life. Once I entered medical school, the real face of life was laughing at me. I saw people suffering and dying because they couldn’t afford to pay for treatment. I remember spending all my lunch money to help one poor family in the hospital, and my mother knew I had starved when I asked for an early dinner upon returning home. She would annoyingly ask me:

”You didn’t buy your lunch again today, didn’t you? Where do you spend all your money?” I felt very helpless when I saw people dying of poverty & neglect. I often wondered as a kid why God wouldn’t talk back to me. Why wouldn’t He answer me when I asked Him a question? Why would He let all this misery occur? After coming to the field of medicine, specifically psychiatry, I realized He does talk, but in another language. The connection that had been missing from prayers & worship, I found after listening to a wounded heart. I had to move to the U.S. in 2001 after getting married & I thought I could fulfill my dream of higher education by getting trained in one of the best healthcare systems in world.

To my dismay, the horrific incident of 9/11 occurred, & as I watched the Twin Towers collapse on my TV screen, I saw my dreams burning with it. I was still not a citizen at that time, as I came on a work visa to the US & our green card was still pending. We later found out that our green card was waiting on security clearance just like millions of other immigrants who had names like Muhammad, Ali, Omer etc. I had successfully passed all my licensing exams, and had secured a residency position in a very credible residency program, but the program asked for green card.

I informed them that I had work authorization, however, my green card had been pending for the past 5 years as it was awaiting security clearance. They flatly turned me down. It was 2007 and we were fighting a war against terrorism. My husband saw me suffering, as it was a lifelong dream of mine to practice medicine. ”Why don’t you write them a letter?” my husband asked me. I said, ”Who will read a letter from an unknown Pakistani girl among the huge walls of the White House or offices of local senators??” He answered calmly, ”Do it anyway”.

So I sat down and wrote a letter to then First Lady, Laura Bush. I poured my heart out in that letter. I wrote in my letter, “The U.S. stands for liberty & justice for all, women empowerment, & diversity. Then why me, who has entered this country legally and been trying all the legal means to get empowered, cannot practice medicine due to my last name being ”Ali”? I made a few copies of that letter and also sent it to local senators along with sending it to Laura Bush.

I started working as a phlebotomist for a local lab, thinking that my dream of practicing medicine might not ever come true. I would talk to patients while drawing their blood and would feel happy when they would tell me it didn’t hurt at all. I had forgotten about the letter I wrote, thinking somebody would have thrown it in the trash, without even reading it, until my husband received a phone call from our lawyer. He said he received a call from a higher office telling him our green card was expedited and we would receive it in 3 days. Sure enough, I got it in mail within 3 days and was able to start my residency at Meharry Medical College, in Nashville.

To this day, I don’t know who read my letter & how one thing led to another, but I was able to successfully finish my residency, & after working briefly for VA & Private Dallas hospitals, I decided to make the leap to private practice. It occurred to me that every patient in my practice had their own unique story & I didn’t need their chart to remember their story. The stories they share verbally and the stories their eyes convey to me, settle down in my heart and I connect with them right away.

The trust & faith they place in my clinical judgement is my asset. They know my office is a very secure & safe place for them where they can share anything without being judged. I enjoy each and every moment of my work. Every fall, slip, and avalanche was worth reaching this peak.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I am immensely fortunate to have the most kind and thoughtful patients. I have received a great deal of respect and appreciation from my patients and their families, however, there have been a few incidents during this journey where I’ve faced a load of criticism, and even cursing from patients who were addicted to alcohol, opioids, and other controlled substances, & became very aggressive when I refused to assist them in their addiction.

I am a particularly cautious psychiatrist and with the raging opioid epidemic, I do frequent drug screens & check patients’ prescription data from the Texas prescription monitoring program to hold them accountable in their own treatment. I do not hesitate to confront patients if I discover that they are not serious about their treatment, and even though they don’t like it initially, eventually they see the benefits of accountability. It is also a challenge to treat patients when they are surrounded by family members who are either enablers or are skeptical about treatment.

Please tell us about Allen Psychiatry.
Allen Psychiatry was established as a company in 2014, when I realized health care was slowly converting into a business and if I really wanted to practice medicine based on my ethics and morals, I had to do it on my own. I do mostly medication management of common psychiatric issues like depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, mood disorders, eating disorders, ADHD, and substance use disorders.

Our practice is known for the quickest approach to our patients. We have reduced our wait time to less than 1 week by introducing our Nurse Practitioner Njideka (NJ) Domrufus, APRN, NP-C. NJ completed her degree from South University, MSN program. She has years of clinical experience in treating psychiatric disorders and specializes in treating major depression, substance use disorders, eating disorders, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, OCD, PTSD and ADHD.

She has served at various facilities including the behavioral health unit at the Texas Health Arlington Memorial hospital and the JPS Health network. NJ has a full scope of therapeutic skills and she uses the most innovative forms of treatments including psychotropic medications, individual therapy, CBT, DBT, brain mapping & Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). NJ believes in working one to one with each patient to provide expert medical treatment, guidance and care tailored specifically for their health concerns.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my sweetest childhood memories is exploring the woods with my brothers in our backyard for all kinds of butterflies, dragon flies, and other small creatures. The best part was to watch them under our small plastic microscope and feel fascinated by the beautiful colors and intricate patterns of their anatomy. It was that practice that developed my intuition which later helped me in making most important decisions of my life.

Pricing:

• Initial psychiatric Evaluation: $275
• Follow Up Visit: $125

Contact Info:

• Address: 1333 West McDermott Drive, Suit 150
• Website: www.allenpsychiatry.com
• Phone: 469-340-2777
• Email: office@allenpsychiatry.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allenpsychiatry/
• Other: https://psychiatrists.psychologytoday.com/rms/name/Shahla_Ali_MD_Allen_Texas_225004

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.