A founding member of the CNS Healthcare Memphis team, Valerie Arnold, M.D., is a principal investigator there and has earned a reputation as an excellent researcher with outstanding clinical skills. 

Dr. Arnold has 16 years experience in psychiatry, earning her medical degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and completing her residency and fellowship at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. She is board certified in general adult psychiatry and child/adolescent psychiatry. Dr. Arnold is also the acting chief of the University of Tennessee department of child and adolescent psychiatry. She is on the board of trustees of the Tennessee Medical Society and is a past president of the Shelby County Medical Society. 

Dr. Arnold also serves as medical director of the adolescent sexual offender program at Parkwood Behavioral Health, and she is extensively published in the areas of schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, pediatric depression and anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Role model? My husband, who is a neurologist. What I admire in him is his continued interest in learning, the thoughtful and kind way he treats his patients and the careful way that he gathers all the data before he makes decisions.

What motivates you? I believe that everyone can get better, so I am always trying to improve.

What is your greatest accomplishment? My children, no question. Each of them are so wonderful and special in different ways. I look back at having two of them during medical school and one during my fellowship and think that is impressive too.

What would you be if you weren’t a doctor? A gardener… in a lot of ways it’s like Psychiatry. You provide the best support; treat what you can - but it is really up to them to make it. Success in both areas gives me tremendous pleasure.

What is the most exciting medical breakthrough you’ve witnessed in your career? It has been working with drugs that are only known by numbers and have worked on animals. It is exciting to see that develop into to helping people with significant mental illness.

What is your favorite quote? Strange is truther than fiction.

Where do you see your specialty in 10 years? I wish I knew, as president of the medical society, I have met so many doctors that just want to take care of patients, but it seems to becoming more and more difficult. I wish our health systems (including insurance companies) supported more preventative and early intervention instead of waiting for patients to have a diagnosis before they are covered. 

My patients… can get better!

Good health advice? I have two: Try to smile every day, and pick your battles.