Dr. Spiro was born in 1954 in a small log cabin in New England. He had to walk 5 miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways. Or so he tells his children.
He attended Harvard College from 1972 - 1977, graduating cum laude, with a degree in biology. After spending a year driving a cab in Boston, volunteering on a local ambulance squad and travelling to the Gaelic-speaking parts of the British Isles, he attended medical school at Yale University. Dr. Spiro earned his medical degree in 1983.
He left medical school to venture south, starting a residency in general surgery at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill North Carolina. He completed his internship but was drawn to general practice and spent two years working as a general practitioner for the National Health Service Corp. He served as the Medical Director of the Columbia Clinic in Columbia, North Carolina from 1984-1986. As the only physician in Tyrrell County he treated a wide variety of medical and surgical conditions.
Leaving Columbia in 1986, Dr. Spiro began his psychiatric training at Duke University Medical Center. He served as Chief Resident from 1989 - 1990. In addition to the standard course of training Dr. Spiro concentrated on the treatment of the psychiatric aspects of chronic medical conditions and chronic pain syndromes. He also focused on learning to combine biologic and non-biologic treatments for all forms of psychiatric distress.
Dr. Spiro opened his practice in June of 1990. In addition to his private practice, Dr. Spiro served as a psychiatric consultant to the NC Department of Corrections from 1988 - 1997. He has also maintained a teaching position with the Department of Psychiatry at Duke and actively supervises residents there in their clinical work. In addition, he teaches an ongoing course on Psychodynamic Theory and Interpersonal Psychotherapy.
Dr. Spiro maintains a commitment to continuing professional growth and has received postgraduate training in psychodynamic psychotherapy from The Masterson Institute in New York. He has also been trained in the use of EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) which he integrates into his regular clinical practice.