About Dr. Monica Slubicki
Creator of Wise Recovery
Dr. Monica Slubicki is a board-certified psychiatrist who also has personal experience with mental illness and recovery. She understands how overwhelming mental illness can be for individuals and families, particularly when they are trying to navigate a complicated mental health system and find the help they need.
Professionally, Dr. Slubicki has worked with adults and families in both inpatient and outpatient settings and has participated in provider education initiatives. Her work has given her a nuanced understanding of the strengths and limitations of mental health systems, as well as the challenges organizations face in keeping people engaged in care and creating services that are genuinely useful to them.
Her personal and professional experience allows her to bridge clinical expertise with the realities of living with mental illness. She believes recovery is supported by a strong understanding of one's experiences, choices, and personal goals—and by meaningful involvement from family, providers, and the broader community.
Why Wise Recovery
Living with mental illness involves more than symptoms and treatment. The mental health system is fragmented, with a wide gap between intensive services—hospitalization, PHP, or IOP—and outpatient care. People and families have important questions, but often little time or a dedicated place to work through them.
Patients need space to process what happened, understand their experiences and treatment, learn to advocate for their needs, and find practical ways to stay connected to care. Families need a better understanding of mental illness and a place to consider how to support someone, communicate about care, and navigate questions of privacy, safety, or independence.
Wise Recovery fills this gap with structured group education for patients and families, grounded in recovery principles. Informed, empowered participants are better equipped to ask questions, express concerns, make decisions, and take part in care. These groups support patient and family engagement while giving clinicians more room to focus on individual clinical needs and treatment decisions.
Dr. Slubicki consults with each organization about its services, priorities, and the education needs it sees among patients and families. She recommends a program and tailors its focus and schedule to complement existing care.