Meet Dr. Baker

Anne Baker, PhD, LCSW

I started my career as an undergraduate at Furman University, where I studied psychology and history, with a minor in Latin American Studies. During this time, I began a formal meditation practice at Furman’s Place of Peace. Together, psychology and meditation shaped much of my personal and professional path forward.

After undergrad, I worked in the western US at a wilderness program for high school students with learning disabilities and behavioral issues. Then I went back to school for my MSW and became interested in tailoring mind-body therapies to treat autoimmune diseases.

In that endeavor, I completed an internship at the UNC Chapel Hill Program on Integrative Medicine, where I received formal training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self-Compassion. That internship helped me see how inadequate our treatments are for complex illness, and I wanted to change that. So I decided to get more training in mind-body medicine and pursued a PhD.

I earned my doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Eric Garland at the University of Utah. At the Center for Mindfulness & Integrative Intervention Development, I served as the therapist on multiple clinical trials for chronic pain and substance use disorders. I discovered that I love working with individuals who experience physical pain and began learning more about how to understand and treat chronic pain.

I received training in Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement, as well as extensive training in pain neuroscience. Neuroscience allows me to ask “how does this work?” in a different way, and in my work with clients I aim to balance the unique perspectives afforded by my joint training as both a psychotherapist and a neuroscientist.

After completing my PhD, I went on for even more (yes, more!) specialized training in pain neuroscience. I completed a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Human Affect & Pain Neuroscience Lab at Duke University. In that role, I began to work on building a solid bridge between psychotherapy and neuroscience. Since then, I’ve been focused on tailoring psychedelic-assisted, somatic/experiential, and mindfulness-based therapies for trauma, functional pain syndromes (e.g., fibromyalgia, CRPS, IBS), and painful autoimmune conditions (e.g., MS, lupus, RA).

I’ve also completed a considerable amount of non-academic training, including numerous courses and experiential trainings in Internal Family Systems (IFS), ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) and psychedelic-assisted therapy, ketamine-assisted IFS, cognitive processing therapy (CPT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). Questions about my training? Feel free to ask!

Away from work, I enjoy building local community with my partner, hiking, yoga, gardening, and baking.