About Dr. Karl Benzio
Welcome
Dr. Karl Benzio, MD is a board-certified Christian psychiatrist, bestselling author of Transformed by His Promises, and one of the most trusted voices at the intersection of cutting-edge psychiatric science and Biblical truth.
With over 35 years of clinical experience, Dr. Karl has dedicated his life to one mission: helping people renew their minds by becoming consistent, Godly decision-makers. His conviction is simple yet powerful. Decisions determine our lives, and God gave us the ultimate decision-making guide in His Word. Just as Jesus empowered Dr. Karl’s own comeback story, he wants everyone to know how to access and infuse God’s power into their own healing and transformation journey.
Dr. Karl currently serves as Chief Psychiatric Officer of Honey Lake Clinic, a pioneering Christian residential treatment facility where spirit, mind, and body are integrated with clinical depth to deliver psychospiritual healing that is truly life-transforming. He also serves as Medical Director of the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) and serves on Focus on the Family’s Physician Resource Council. Beyond those roles, he teaches, speaks, writes, performs media interviews, and provided testimony for HHS, SCOTUS, POTUS Commissions on BioEthics and Religious Liberty, state legislatures and international parliaments bringing Bible-informed psychiatric science into controversial social policy issues. He is proud to serve churches and ministries including the Christian Medical and Dental Association, the American Academy of Medical Ethics, Liberty University Global Center for Human Flourishing, the Mental Health Collective, and many others.
Get to Know Dr. Karl
Fueled by a God-given calling, Dr. Karl is on a mission to re-ignite the Behavioral Health Revolution that Jesus started, confronting the modern pandemic of anxiety, depression, addiction, and suicide with the healing power of Scripture, science, and the Holy Spirit. He has trained and consulted healthcare professionals across the country while being called to international hotspots of conflict and trauma – the first psychiatrist invited by the Iraqi Minister of Health into post-Hussein Iraq to teach the healing power of Godly decision-making to Iraq’s healthcare providers.
Outside of his clinical and ministry work, Dr. Karl is a devoted husband to his best friend Martine since 1991 and a proud father of three daughters and grandfather to two. He loves Jesus, family, the Jersey Shore, all things sports, and is addicted to pickleball and ice cream. But he genuinely hates when Satan wins any battle.
Karl’s 4 Primary Missional Passions
Dr. Karl’s passion to help people blended with his unique expertise of integrating spirit, mind, & body flow into these 4 Primary Missional Goals:
Equip Christians to understand & utilize psychological science from a Biblical worldview to live out their God-given potential with Peace, Joy, Freedom!
Equip non-Christians to understand Biblical principles from a psychological-science-informed view to access God’s unlimited psychospiritual healing in all spheres: spirit, mind, body.
Revolutionize the Behavioral Healthcare system so excellent Bible-based, Jesus-centered, psychiatric care is the standard for our society. Real psychospiritual healing is understood, pursued, and easily accessed to reignite the Behavioral Health Revolution Jesus started.
Train behavioral health providers regarding faith-informed decision-making sciences to meet the growing demand for psychological services needed to renew minds and transform lives, thus revolutionizing our society.
Excerpt from My eBook:
Practical NeuroTheology
Why I’m a Psychiatrist
The Church’s dismissive view of science, especially psychiatric science, although it initially frustrated me, has actually been one of my significant motivators. You see, I am a very curious person, always wondering “why” and asking questions. Ever since I can remember, I wondered how God designed our physical body and our psychological mind. Because I was bullied for my bad stutter, I was always in my head having to think about what word I would start a sentence with to minimize my stammering and stutter. At age 5, God laid ‘decision-making’ on my heart. That’s all I ever wanted to be (other than a pro athlete), a person that understood decision-making and helped others have a better life by being better decision-makers. So even when close relatives discouraged me from pursuing psychiatry, saying it was “psychoheresy”, I followed my dream to be a doctor/scientist, receiving a Bachelors in Science (BSE) in Biomedical Engineering focusing on central nervous system imaging, a Medical Degree (MD), and a board certification by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology to be a full-fledged psychiatrist. Obviously, I love science and see God as the generator and designer of all good science. In order for me and my patients to understand and interpret all science more easily, I came up with a simple definition that I know will help you engage and apply psychiatric science with greater comfort as we overcome this science vs. faith struggle.
