Daniel T. Williams, MD

Daniel T. Williams, MD has been on the faculty at Columbia University Medical Center since 1974 and has served as clinician, researcher and teacher in the areas of both adult and child psychiatry, with a special emphasis on neuropsychiatry and psychosomatic illness. During this time, he became a clinical professor of psychiatry and was the founding director of the Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Service, subsequently expanded to be the Developmental Neuropsychiatry Program. He has also served as a consultant to the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center & continues to serve as a consultant with the Division of Movement Disorders in the Department of Neurology at CUMC.

He has authored over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals and standard textbooks in the fields of psychiatry and neurology. Since 2005, he has increased his emphasis on clinical practice with adults and children, as well as continuing to teach and supervise trainees at Columbia in the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. He has also continued to teach post-graduate courses on somatic symptom disorders and hypnosis at the annual meetings of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

In addition to ongoing clinical practice, Dr Williams has served as a forensic expert witness in a broad variety of cases, including those involving somatic symptom disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders and child custody.

Dr. Williams' clinical approach is eclectic, with a biopsychosocial perspective that emphasizes the need for a thorough diagnostic assessment addressing constitutional as well as environmental factors that contribute to clinical problems. Such an assessment is a prerequisite for a comprehenive treatment plan that has the best prospects of alleviating clinical syndromes. Relevant treatment modalities of particular interest & experience include individual and family-based psychotherapy, including psychodynamic, CBT and other approaches, as well as relevantal psychopharmacological strategies.