Dr. Alaa Ahmed, MD

Media Releases

Get to know Psychiatrist Dr. Alaa Ahmed, who serves patients in Carbondale, Illinois.

A prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Ahmed is affiliated with SIH Medical Group at Center for Medical Arts in Carbondale, Illinois. 

The people of Southern Illinois Healthcare, a not-for-profit health care system, are dedicated to promoting the health and well being of all of the people in the communities they serve. Their mission is guided by their values: compassion, collaboration, quality, stewardship, integrity, accountability and respect.

Throughout her academic career, Dr. Ahmed graduated with her medical degree from Alexandria University Faculty of Medicine in Egypt. Upon graduation, she started working in the biggest psychiatric governmental hospital in her hometown Alexandria,Egypt for 3 years before she decides to pursue more training to better serve her patients, this ambition lead her to Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar, the only tertiary teaching hospital in the area and it is affiliated with Weill Cornell Qatar, there she served this community and learnt how culture affects psychiatric conditions and how different yet universal a human experience can be.Dr.Ahmed has a passion for psychotherapy and that passion drove her to relocate once again this time to the United States  where she completed her residency in psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Medical Center,trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy in the psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia and became a member of it,she was also trained in DBT (Dialectical behavioral therapy) and CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) as well as motivational interview techniques.

She is medically trained to work with kids, adolescents, adult and geriatric patients as well as special populations like people struggling with addiction. Dr. Ahmed’s believes in a holistic approach when it comes to mental health.She listens to her patients and guides them through their journey.She conducts  thorough psychiatric evaluations to diagnose different psychiatric and mental illnesses and maladaptive behaviors, develops a personalized treatment plan including medications and therapy and evaluates treatment results. She is a strong advocate for mental health and works actively to improve the stigma attached to it.

Dr. Ahmed speaks Arabic, French and English fluently. In addition, she enjoys spending time with her dog.

Dr. Ahmed is a live example of a persistent, hard working and a compassionate female physician who overcame multiple life challenges to make her dream of being a highly trained psychiatrist to help her patients attain their fullest potentials.

Recommended Articles

• What is Postpartum Depression?

  After delivering a child, a mother can succumb to overwhelming emotions of fear and anxiety, which can ultimately lead to her development of depression. Postpartum depression (PPD) is a multitude of depressed emotions in the mother, which develop within four weeks of delivery. Baby blues, which most...

• Do You Have Trypophobia?

  What is trypophobia?Trypophobia is the fear or feeling of disgust of closely packed holes. Individuals who have trypophobia tend to feel very unsettled the moment they look at surfaces that have small clustered holes. Few of the examples would be the head of the lotus seed pod or the body of a...

• Everything You Need To Know About Agoraphobia

  Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder in which you feel extremely fearful of places and situations that are uncomfortable and dangerous according to you. These are the places that make you feel trapped and assume that the escape might be difficult in the case of a panic attack, such as an elevator, a...

• Side Effects of Trintellix

  What is Trintellix?Trintellix is an antidepressant used for the treatment of a type of mental disorder called major depressive disorder (MDD). The common side effects of this medication are:...

• Everything You Need to Know About Anxiety Disorder

  It’s quite normal to feel nervous and have butterflies in your stomach before going to a job interview, a blind date or making an important decision. This anxiousness is body’s natural response to stress and danger. It is an automatic alarm that rings when you feel threatened, under pressure, or...

• Cognitive Dissonance and How It Works

  Cognitive dissonance definitionPsychologically speaking, cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort (stress) that a person undergoes when he/she goes through simultaneous contradiction of ideas, values, or beliefs when doing something that runs counter to one or more of the ideas, values, or...