Loss Of Dad, Brother To Suicide Pushes Man To Help Others At Columbia Practice

COLUMBIA, MD — Not one, but two heartbreaking losses of loved ones led a businessman to take the helm of a facility in Howard County that helps those who need support.

The Mood Center started serving patients in Columbia in February 2025 and expanded its operations, staffing and treatment availability there in May 2026. It's located at 11055 Little Patuxent Parkway, Suite 209, in the Columbia Medical Center, adjacent to Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center. The Mood Center also has a location in Annapolis.

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Brad Masters, chief executive officer of The Mood Center, lost both his father and brother to suicide. Suicide Prevention Month happens in September.

Masters has written openly about his personal life experiences, especially the pressure that men feel to remain silent about their struggles.

"Losing my father and brother to suicide has profoundly shaped the way I view the work we do at The Mood Center and why that work means so much to me personally," Masters told Patch. "I know firsthand what suicide can take from a family. If the work we do can help someone find another path - and help another family avoid experiencing that kind of loss - that makes this work incredibly meaningful to me."

His father died by suicide in 2007 and his brother died by suicide in 2014. Masters described both as "good, strong men who carried a tremendous amount internally, often without allowing the people around them to fully see what they were going through."

"Those experiences changed the way I think about mental health and gave me a much deeper understanding of the barriers that can keep people from asking for help," Masters told Patch.

Since Masters has spent most of his professional career in behavioral healthcare, joining The Mood Center as CEO allowed him to continue making strides in that line of work, helping others.

"What makes our work especially meaningful to me is that many of the people who come to us have been suffering for years and feel like they've already tried everything," Masters told Patch.

"For someone in that much pain, time matters. If we can quickly reduce the intensity of someone's depression and create some space between that person and the hopelessness they're experiencing, we may create an opportunity for them to engage in treatment, reconnect with the people around them, and begin healing," he added.

The Mood Center provides advanced, evidence-based mental health treatments for people who have not found sufficient relief through traditional medications or therapy, Masters told Patch.

Services include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS, often covered by insurance), IV and intramuscular ketamine therapy, Spravato (esketamine, typically covered by health insurance), NAD+ IV therapy and medication management.

"By incorporating these therapies into personalized care plans, often in collaboration with a patient's therapist or other health care providers, The Mood Center helps patients find meaningful relief, regain emotional stability and participate more fully in everyday life," Masters said.

The Mood Center works with adults at different stages of life, including veterans, who are experiencing depression or other complex mood disorders.

"Many have not found adequate relief through traditional treatments, such as antidepressants or psychotherapy. Patients may be living with treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, OCD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, suicidal ideation or certain chronic pain conditions," Masters told Patch.

"The newly expanded transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) program in Columbia provides an option that targets areas of the brain involved in mood regulation," he said.

Each patient is evaluated individually to determine whether TMS or another therapy is clinically appropriate, Masters noted.

"TMS can be a strong fit for veterans with treatment-resistant depression, including those also living with PTSD, because it's a non-invasive and drug-free treatment that does not cause many of the systemic side effects associated with medications," he said.

Masters explained that he's "passionate" about treatments like TMS, Spravato and ketamine because they give additional options for people who may have struggled for years and are dealing with suicidal ideation, that work quickly. TMS has become an important noninvasive treatment option, often covered by insurance, he added.

"Spravato and ketamine are exciting, because they can begin reducing severe symptoms much more rapidly than traditional antidepressants for some patients, sometimes after just one dose. Spravato is specifically FDA-approved for depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder experiencing acute suicidal ideation or behavior, and research on IV ketamine has also demonstrated rapid reductions in suicidal thinking," Masters told Patch.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 988 by phone or text.