Gretchen Hermes, MD, PhD

Gretchen Hermes, MD, PhD, MTS is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, and educator whose work explores the intersections of neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and theology in the understanding of trauma, addiction, and human vulnerability. Her scholarship and clinical work focus on how experiences of social disconnection, stress, and illness shape brain function, identity, and recovery across the lifespan.

Dr. Hermes earned her MD and PhD in neuroscience and human development from the University of Chicago, where she trained under the mentorship of Martha K. McClintock. She completed residency training in psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, pursued psychoanalytic training at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, and holds a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

Her early research used preclinical models to investigate how social isolation and disruptions in attachment influence stress physiology and disease vulnerability. This work established a scientific foundation for her subsequent clinical and scholarly focus on addiction, trauma, and the neurobiological consequences of relational loss. Dr. Hermes has published widely across neuroscience, psychiatry, and addiction studies and is currently editing a special issue of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association devoted to addiction.

Dr. Hermes has held leadership roles in addiction treatment and psychiatric education, including serving as Medical Director at the APT Foundation and contributing to research and clinical work with the Yale Interdisciplinary Stress Center. She has taught and supervised medical students, residents, and fellows at Yale School of Medicine and has developed prison-based educational initiatives that use memoir writing to explore trauma, identity, and mental health.

She currently serves as Medical Director of Psychiatry at Gaylord Hospital, where she provides psychiatric consultation for patients with complex neurological, psychiatric, and medical conditions and collaborates with interdisciplinary rehabilitation teams. Her work at Gaylord is focused on developing a psychosocial recovery research program examining the interactions between trauma history, substance use, cognitive vulnerability, and rehabilitation outcomes.

Dr. Hermes is the founder of Reward Reimagined (rewardreimagined.org), a public initiative exploring addiction, reward, and human meaning. She is currently completing book-length projects that bring neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and theology into dialogue around a central question: how can psychiatry respond to suffering in ways that restore connection, meaning, and the possibility of belonging?