Justin Johnson, MD, DFAPA

Psychiatrist & Director of Veteran and First Responder Services at HopeWay

Dr. Johnson is a board-certified psychiatrist and serves as HopeWay’s Director of Veteran and First Responder Services. He has expertise in mood and anxiety disorders, PTSD and TBI, men’s mental health, military and Veteran mental health, and complex medical-psychiatric disorders.

Military Background

In addition to HopeWay, Dr. Johnson serves in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he is a Command Psychiatrist based at Fort Liberty, NC. He has completed Medical Officer Basic Leadership Course, Combat and Operational Stress Control Course, Captain’s Career Course, Intermediate Level Education (ILE), and Basic Airborne Course. He has deployed several times in support of contingency operations. Given his expertise, he is a regularly invited speaker and author on the topic, including the primary author on the “Military Psychiatry” chapter for the Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry textbook.

Additional Leadership 

He is the co-director of behavioral health training for the NC Governor’s Institute and the NC Department of Veteran Affairs, where he trains Veteran Support Officers for the state of North Carolina. He previously worked at the Durham VA and is an Assistant Consulting Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University. He is formerly a representative to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Assembly, where he advised the national-level APA on mental health related policy. He remains involved in mental health-related policy work in North Carolina.

Awards & Recognition

Dr. Johnson continues to publish in academic journals and textbooks and is a regularly invited speaker on a variety of topics at conferences and on regional media outlets. For his professional work and impact on the community, Dr. Johnson was selected by the Charlotte Business Journal as a 2023 “40 Under 40” Award Winner. In 2024 he was selected by the American Psychiatric Association as a Distinguished Fellow (DFAPA), a prestigious recognition by his peers of his exceptional impact in the field of psychiatry.

Background and Education

Born and raised in North Carolina, Dr. Johnson attended UNC-Chapel Hill, followed by medical school at Johns Hopkins. He completed his psychiatry residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital combined program at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Johnson served as the Chief Resident at Harvard before moving back home to North Carolina to complete a fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine at UNC Hospitals. There he developed expertise in patients with complex medical-psychiatric disorders such as TBI. In addition, he has done extensive training in psychotherapy after his residency.

Working With Dr. Johnson

Dr. Johnson’s treatment approach involves careful attention to medical and psychiatric concerns with an emphasis on holistic care. As a physician, he has the ability to prescribe medications, if necessary, but incorporates psychotherapy, exercise, and holistic approaches, when appropriate, to get patients well.

In his spare time, Dr. Johnson enjoys reading, playing bass guitar, watching sports and professional wrestling (aka wrasslin’), and spending time with his family.

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