Offering comprehensive patient care to the Summerville community since 1989.
Welcome to Summerville Behavioral Health, conveniently located near Hutchinson Square. Here our professionals know that mental health is vital to all aspects of a happy life. Our mission is to help our patients accomplish their personal goals in a compassionate, caring and efficient way.
We aim to nurture our patients in a safe environment while offering them necessary and comprehensive care. We understand that therapy requires an individualized approach and aim to create a distinct treatment plan based on this concept. By combining the latest technology, holistic treatment options and traditional techniques, we have access to an array of options to help our patients accomplish their goals.
Rhonda Burke, L.P.C., EMDR Trained
Rhonda is a Licensed Professional Counselor and has been practicing for more than 30 years. She is a National Board Certified Counselor and specializes in treating depression, anxiety, panic attacks, grief/loss, PTSD/trauma-related issues, and life transition issues. Rhonda utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, relaxation and mindfulness training, as well as a blended form of other therapeutic techniques to help clients move towards healing and achieving emotional, spiritual, and physical balance in their lives.
Rhonda and her husband, William Burke, Ph.D., started Summerville Behavioral Health almost 30 years ago. The practice has continued to grow and thrive since that time and still strives to maintain the highest standards of behavioral health care.
William Burke, Ph.D., L.P.C.
Dr. Burke along with his wife Rhonda opened Summerville Behavioral Health in November of 1989 in the wake of Hurricane Hugo. Since that time they have provided counseling services with psychiatric co-joint therapy with various psychiatrists. Dr. Burke focuses his private practice on adults suffering from depression, anxiety, or trauma. He also provides Pain Evaluations for pending surgeries and assessments to rule out Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Additionally, he is an Assistant Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina where he is the clinical director of the Sex Offender Treatment Program and assists with teaching and research. He specializes in risk assessments for individuals convicted or charged with a sexual crime.
James Fox, MD
Dr. Fox graduated from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA with a degree in physics and was a distinguished graduate in AFROTC. He then spent 4 years at Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts where he worked in the Air Force Research Lab. During this time, he decided to pursue medicine. In 2007, he graduated from MUSC and then completed his residency in psychiatry at MUSC in 2011, serving as a chief resident during his last year. He was then the medical director of psychiatric services at Rappahannock General Hospital before returning to MUSC from 2013-2018. He has experience with TMS dating back to 2009 when he did research with TMS and fMRI. He believes that TMS is underutilized and hopes to increase access to this life changing treatment.
Christine Hamolia, APRN
I am an Advanced Practice Nurse with prescriptive authority who specializes in the treatment of adults with mental health problems. I received my Bachelors and Masters degree from Boston College and have been a nurse for over 35 years. Throughout my career, I have worked in a variety of environments including inpatient, partial hospitalization programs and outpatient settings. For more than 20 years, I have been working with outpatient clients and have developed expertise in evaluation and diagnoses of many mental health problems including mood disorders, adjustment disorders, depression, anxiety, post -traumatic stress disorders and eating disorders.
I retired from the Medical University of South Carolina after 30 years of service and have utilized that experience in a private practice setting. I believe in a bio-psychosocial model of care that takes into consideration the effects of medical problems, genetic vulnerability and stress on the manifestation of illness. I also believe in including the supportive and protective factors of family, friends and spirituality in assisting clients in developing a plan for recovery. I believe each person is unique and has strengths that can aid in their recovery.
I provide comprehensive psychiatric assessments and medication management to patients age 18 and over.
Kathy Waters, PMHCNS, NP
With over 40 years of experience, Kathleen Waters is an Advanced Practice Nurse who is certified both as a Psychiatric Mental Health Clinical Specialist and as an Adult Nurse Practitioner and has attained prescriptive authority. She completed her Bachelor’s and Master Degree at MUSC and a degree in Counseling from the Citadel. Her post graduate Certificate was completed at the Uniformed Services University of Health Science in Bethesda, Maryland. The American Association of Psychiatric Nurses honored her as a recipient of a National Award for Innovative Practice. She retired from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The last 9 years of her Practice have been spent working at the Charleston Center, which is a DAODAS Center for treatment of multiple addictions. Initially she was the only Adult Nurse Practitioner covering admissions to their Withdrawal Management Unit, implementing withdrawal management protocols for patient safety and devising patient treatment plans to support sobriety. Patient discharge was accomplished only after follow- up was arranged in the local community.
An integral part of her practice occurred in Outpatient Care. She provided care to all patients admitted to the Opioid Treatment Program. Initially working within the Methadone Clinic, she carefully titrated patients’ dose of Methadone over time, and provided changes in patient dosage. She was one of the first 400 Advanced Practice Nurses in the US, to become credentialed to administer Suboxone for Opiate Dependency. She has administered Vivitrol to patients who are alcohol or opiate dependent. In the last year of her practice, at Charleston Center she worked to establish a program using Sublocade. Sublocade is a monthly injection of Buprenorphine that provides symptoms relief for patients who are opiate dependent.