Dr. Kirsch is the President of the American Institute of Stress and Chairman Emeritus of Electromedical Products International, Inc., a medical technology company he founded in 1981 and retired from in 2020. He has four decades of experience in the medical field, including extensive clinical practice experience. Throughout his career Dr. Kirsch has designed medical devices and their applications and developed clinical systems for implementing pain and stress control technologies.
In 1992 he was a guest of His Excellency the Minister of Public Health, Dr. A. Wahab Al-Fawzan of Kuwait, where he presented a three day post traumatic stress and pain management program titled, Electromedicine: The Other Side of Physiology to 400 physicians to teach them about managing the aftermath of the first Persian Gulf War. While in Kuwait, Dr. Kirsch also gave multiple grand rounds at eight hospitals over a month long period.
Dr. Kirsch served as Clinical Director at the Sports Medicine Group in Santa Monica, California in association with Karlis Ullis, M.D. from 1988 – 1989, and in 1985 – 1986 as Clinical Director at the Center and Laboratory for Pain and Stress Related Disorders at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York in association with Kenneth Greenspan, M.D.
In 1981, he founded Electromedical Products International, Inc., in Hawthorne, California. The company moved to Mineral Wells, Texas in 1994.
From 1980 to 1981 he was Vice President of McCall’s Research Laboratories in Reseda, California where he consulted with engineers on the development of a specialized electromedical device and wrote all of the marketing support materials. During that time he also served as Clinical Director of Electro-Acutherapy Pain Center in Palm Springs.
He was Director of Education and Research for Biomedical Affiliated Services/Biomedical Design Instruments in Burbank from 1978 to 1980 where he contributed to the design and introduced an electromedical device to the market.
He was Clinical Director of Electro-Acutherapy Medical Group in Laguna Beach from 1979 through 1980 in association with F. P. Meyer, M.D.
While a graduate student, he was proprietor of two small businesses engaged in the sales and training of electromedical devices. During this time he gave 84 weekend seminars in electromedicine.
After attending Queens College of the City University of New York (17th century philosophy major for 3 years), Los Angeles City College (premed major for 2 years), he earned a bachelor of science in biology from Southern California University of Health Sciences in 1979, and a doctorate in neurobiology from City University Los Angeles in 1981 where he served as a professor of electromedical sciences from 1985 until he moved to Texas in 1994. Dr. Kirsch was board certified in pain management by the American Academy of Pain Management in 1990. In 1997 he was recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute of Stress. In 1999 he became the only American ever awarded an Honorary Membership in Inter-Pain (the Germany-Swiss pain organization for physicians). In 2005 he was appointed a Member of the President’s Council at the University of North Texas. He is also a member of the International Society for Neurotherapy and Research. In 2013 he accepted a position as a member of the Board of Scientific & Professional Advisors of The Institute for Traumatic Stress. In 2020 he accepted an invitation to join the global mental health movement, #Samehere,
He was the First Editor of the American Journal of Electromedicine, and has been on the Board of Directors of two non-profit organizations in the field: the National Institute of Electromedical Information in New York City and the International Society of Bioelectricity in Shreveport. He was also a Patron Member of the National Chronic Pain Outreach Association and served on the Advisory Boards of The Canadian Journal of Clinical Medicine and Practical Pain Management, and served as guest editor for the journal NeuroRehabilitation, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2002. He is currently on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurotherapy: Investigations in Neuromodulation, Neurofeedback and Applied Neuroscience and is the Electromedical Department Editor for Practical Pain Management. He is also the Editor in Chief of two quarterly e-magazines published by the American Institute of Stress, Combat Stress and Contentment.
Dr. Kirsch conducts Grand Rounds at US Army, Navy, Air Force, VAMC’s and civilian medical institutions worldwide. He has been on the faculty of several medical specialty boards annual relicensing conferences including the American Academy of Pain Management, American Academy of Orthopedic Medicine, Inter-Pain, The American Institute of Stress, International Society for Neurotherapy and Research, American Association for Sensory Medicine, American Society for Pain Management Nursing, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Nevada Psychiatric Association, Texas Osteopathic Medical Association and the American Osteopathic Association. In 2003 he organized and was moderator for a full day track on electromedicine at the American Academy of Pain Management’s annual meeting with eight health care professionals lecturing (available on DVD). He served as an expert research and practice consultant at the Houston VAMC, San Antonio Military Medical Center and the US Army Institute for Surgical Research. In 2005 he was the first speaker at the 3rd annual Complementary and Integrative Medicine conference at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Ft. Bliss. In 2006 he lectured at the VA Employee Education System’s 2nd annual Pain Management Symposium. In 2007 he presented at the 13th Annual San Antonio Trauma Symposium in COL Gaylord’s mental health track and at the 10th Annual Force Health Protection Conference with COL Kathy Platoni. In 2008 he presented at the American Veterinary Medical Association annual meeting, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and at the Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. In 2011 he presented at the First Colloquium on the International Progress of Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention in Mental and Emotional Disorders at the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and at the Academy of Clinical Sleep Disorders. In 2012 he gave Grand Rounds for the Marines at Camp Pendelton and the Navy Seals on Coronado Island and was the first American accepted to present at the Psychiatry Branch of the Chinese Medical Association. In 2013 he presented Grand Rounds on pain management at DeWitt Army Community Hospital at Fort Belvoir, USMC Wounded Warrior Regiment Medcell at Quantico and Psychiatric Continuity Services at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. In 2014 Dr. Kirsch fell ill to an incurable disease that took him two years to find a cure for, but he has only worked part time since then (see details at http://www.stillexaggeration.com/#/testimonials/)
Dr. Kirsch is listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders in America, Two Thousand Notable Americans, The International Directory of Distinguished Leadership (U.K.), Men of Achievement and other biographical reference books. He was recognized as the 2007 International Health Professional of the Year in Stress Medicine by the International Biographical Centre in Cambridge, England. Dr. Kirsch is the recipient of the American Academy of Pain Management’s 2008 Richard S. Weiner Pain Education Award. This award is given to an individual who has contributed to the advancement of the field of interdisciplinary pain management through the training of pain management professionals. The author of four books, several book chapters and articles, he is frequently interviewed on television, newspapers and magazines and has been a guest on hundreds of radio programs. Dr. Kirsch was awarded several US Army Coins, and two Navy Coins. In 2009, he began working with Chaplain David Fair, Ph.D., president of the American Association of Police Officers to promote stress management for law enforcement officers. As a result he joined the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security and studied and passed the required exams for certification to CHS Level III.
He is author of the chapters, Electromedicine: The Other Side of Physiology, and A Practical Protocol for Electromedical Treatment of Pain in the American Academy of Pain Management’s textbook, Pain Management: A Practical Guide for Clinicians (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2002), and the chapter Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation for Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia, Cognitive Dysfunction, and Pain in the textbook, Bioelectromagnetic Medicine (Marcel Dekker, 2004). Books by Dr. Kirsch are The Science Behind Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (Medical Scope Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta, 2nd Ed. 2002), and Schmerzen lindern ohne Chemie CES, die Revolution in der Schmerztherapie (Internationale Ärztegesellschaft für Energiemedizin, Austria 2000; in German). He is also a chapter author of Healing War Trauma: A Handbook of Creative Approaches (Routledge, 2013).
Dr. Kirsch was a guest co-editor for a special edition of Psychiatric Clinics of North America Journal: Stress in Health and Disease in 2014, and also co-authored two chapters in the book, Bioelectromagnetic and Subtle Energy Medicine, 2nd Edition, Rosch, Paul J. (Ed) CRC Press Boca Raton, 2015.
Most recently he contributed to the book, Complementary and Integrative Treatments in Psychiatric Practice (American Psychiatric Association, 2017), was featured in Justin Smith’s 2017 documentary movie, Body Electric: Electroceuticals and the Future of Medicine, and the 2019 sequel, The Brain Electric, and he co-authored a chapter on CES in a book by the American Psychological Association, titled Using Technology in Mental Health Practice (2018).