PoojaLakshminMD

Summary

• Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist and freelancer writer, specializing in women's mental health and perinatal psychiatry. She maintains a private practice in Washington, DC and is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University School of Medicine, where she is a clinical supervisor in the Five Trimesters perinatal psychiatry clinic. She applies an integrative approach to taking care of women suffering from maternal mental health conditions, and is active in maternal mental health advocacy work and community building. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, and the Clinical Psychiatry News Editorial Advisory Board. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, Medscape, and Doximity, and her advice has been featured in Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, Bustle, among others. She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Women's Studies and the Biological Basis of Behavior, and an MD from Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. Lakshmin received the 2016 Diane K. Shrier award for research in Women's Mental Health, and the 2018 Polinger Perinatal Mental Health grant from Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Health in Washington DC. Her research has focused on various aspects of women’s mental health including testimonial psychotherapy for survivors of intimate partner violence, ethnographic study of women in India suffering from depression, and the neural basis of sexual response in women. Dr. Lakshmin is most passionate about empowering women and sees her clinical work as a perinatal psychiatrist as an extension of this mission. She can be found on Twitter @PoojaLakshmin and Instagram @womensmentalhealthdoc.

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