Richa Bhatia, MD

Dr. Bhatia is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a dual Board-certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist with nearly two decades of clinical experience caring for patients with various psychiatric conditions. She leads the adult anxiety clinic at Stanford. Her work has been cited in Time magazine, Scientific American, and the Atlantic, and her professional opinions have been quoted in media such as CNBC, The Guardian, U.S. News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and others. Dr. Bhatia served as President-Elect of Northern California Psychiatric Society and is Immediate Past President of the Association of Women Psychiatrists. She is the co-author of the chapter on Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders in the recent Study Guide to DSM-5 TR, a companion volume to DSM-5 TR. She is a public mental health educator and for her work in this arena, she was honored with the 2021 Jerilyn Ross Clinician Advocate Award by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. She has also been a recipient of the Marian Butterfield award. Her other roles include serving as Section Editor for Current Opinion in Psychiatry, a Wolters Kluwer journal, for the last 8 years. She also served as Associate Editor of Current Psychiatry for 6 years. She is often invited to give talks at national, regional and local conferences and organizations.

She takes a whole-person approach, utilizing active, empathic listening and aimed at understanding the biological, psychological, social, and other factors affecting an individual’s mental health. She integrates judicious medication management with psychotherapy. Her psychotherapy approach is informed by various evidence-based psychotherapies such as psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness-based, self-compassion-focused interventions. Dr. Bhatia’s other professional interests include ruling out medical conditions mimicking anxiety and other psychiatric disorders, the intersection of technology and mental health, bullying prevention, and compassion and empathy cultivation- she has also authored publications on these topics.