Joan Mathews-Larson, PhD
Joan Mathews-Larson holds a doctorate in nutrition and is the founder and executive director of the pioneering Health Recovery Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an orthomolecular (psycho-biological) model for treating addiction and emotional disorders. This unique focus combines therapy with physiological intervention to repair biochemical damage that often manifests as impaired mental functioning and behavioral problems. Her work has received national recognition because of the high recovery rates this model produces.
The loss of her seventeen-year old son to suicide directly after he completed a treatment program fueled Dr. Larson’s on-going search for more effective solutions. Her clinic has now successfully treated many thousands of people over three decades. Her published research in the International Journal of Biosocial and Medical Research in 1987 and 1991 describes this work.
Dr. Larson’s national best-selling books Seven Weeks to Sobriety and Depression Free, Naturally (Random House) have led to over 500 TV and radio appearances. Her books have been reprinted in Finnish, Japanese, Icelandic, and Russian. Articles about her work have appeared in Psychology Today, Let’s Live, Alternative Medicine, Chicago Daily Herald, Harper’s Bazaar, Prevention Magazine, Natural Health, Minneapolis, St. Paul Magazine, Minnesota Physician, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, New Orleans Times, Norway Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Townsend Letter for Doctors.
Recent speaking engagements have been in Orlando, Florida, where she addressed the American College for the Advancement of Medicine, and in Toronto, Ontario, at The International Orthomolecular Medicine Conference, as well as The International Health Expo in Toronto, which she keynoted, and the 2006 Nutritional Medicine Today Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Dr. Abram Hoffer, the brilliant co-founder of orthomolecular psychiatry, describes Dr. Larson’s work as “The Orthomolecular Model of Addiction Treatment.” Dr. Julian Whitaker’s 100th issue of Health and Healing: Tomorrow’s Medicine Today lists Joan Mathews-Larson as one of an elite group of six national researchers and practitioners who have made a significant contribution to the world of medicine.
