Women's Psychiatry and Well-Being

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Women's Psychiatry And Well-Being

My Professional Calling, Overview and Psychotherapy Approach

Teresa Lanza di Scalea, MD, PhD
Psychiatrist | Clinician-Educator | Founder, Women’s Psychiatry and Well-Being, PLLC

My Professional Calling

From the beginning, my path has been shaped by a commitment to harmonize the dimensions of being a woman in medicine, navigating across cultural and geographical contexts.

My calling grew from my roots in Italy, where I began my medical and psychiatric training, to the United States, where I have practiced psychiatry since 2015.

Throughout, I have remained deeply drawn to the intersection of women’s health and psychiatry, grounded in principles of good medicine and meaning-centered approaches to mental health.

Highlights

  • Origin: Rome, Italy – where I completed medical school, psychiatric residency, and a PhD in neuroscience
  • Cross-cultural journey: relocated to the U.S. in 2008 with my husband, establishing roots both personally and professionally
  • Passion: women’s mental health
  • Calling: weaving good psychiatric medicine and meaning-centered interventions into an integrated practice of care

My Professional Training

My academic and clinical training reflects a blend of international experience, neuroscience research, and psychiatric practice.

After medical school, psychiatry residency and a research doctorate in Italy focused on women’s mental health in the menopausal transition, I continued my professional journey in the U.S., where I completed a second psychiatry residency and established myself as a clinician-educator in academic medicine before founding my own private practice.

U.S. and International Education & Training

  • 2002 – MD, summa cum laude, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
    • Dissertation: Baling Group in preventing burnout in oncology
  • 2002–2006– Adult Psychiatry Residency, Università Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
    • 2005–2006 – Visiting Research Scholar, Women’s Behavioral HealthCARE Program and Depression and Manic Depression Program, University of Pittsburgh, (awarded a year-long elective during final year of residency)
  • 2006–2009– PhD in Neuroscience, Università Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
    • Dissertation: Psychosocial stress biomarkers in women with mood disorders during the menopausal transition
  • 2011–2015 – General Psychiatry Residency (US): Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh PA (first two years) → Brown University (final two years, graduation)

Licensure and Certifications

  • Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, board specified in psychiatry  (2015 – current)
  • Texas Medical Board, Licensed Physician (2017-current)
  • Certified Perinatal Mental Health Professional (PMH-C), Psychopharmacology Track. Postpartum Support International (2018-current)
  • Academic Associate, Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy (2025)

U.S. Clinical Experience

  • 2015–2017– Attending Psychiatrist, Brown University-affiliated medical centers
    • Women’s Medicine Collaborative: helped launch Rhode Island’s first menopause consultation program
    • Lifespan Cancer Institute: psychiatric and psychological care for women with breast cancer
    • Promoted to Clinical Assistant Professor, Brown University, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (2017)
  • 2017–2021– Assistant Professor, Dell Medical School (Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences & Women’s Health)
    • Collaborative care consulting psychiatrist in Women’s Health, UT Health Austin
    • Attending psychiatrist in the Women’s Reproductive Mental Health of Texas, UT Health Austin
  • 2022–present – Founder, Women’s Psychiatry and Well-Being, PLLC

U.S. Educational Leadership

  • Clinical preceptor and lecturer for medical students and psychiatry residents. Brown University (2015-2017); Dell Medical School (2017-2021)
  • Curriculum development:
    • Perinatal mental health training. Level IV of Maternal Care Designation, Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin (2019, 2021)
    • Women’s mental health training. Vitae Clinic & St. John Paul II Life Center (2024-2025)
    • Workshop for psychiatry residents on meaning tied to the medical profession. Dell Medical School (2022-present)

My Psychotherapy Approach

My psychotherapy orientation reflects both analytic self-exploration and a growing commitment to evidence-based and evidence-informed meaning-centered interventions.

Psychotherapy Training

  • 2004–2005; 2006-2008: Personal training psychoanalysis, Italian Psychoanalytic Society. Passed the selection to access the next steps of formal training
  • 2009–2011: Transferred training to Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center (courses in psychoanalysis) and completed 2-year James T. McLaughlin Training Program in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
  • When I entered U.S. residency in 2011, I decided to put on hold psychoanalytic training and, upon graduation, I chose a meaning-centered approach inspired by Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy. 
  • 2011–2015: psychotherapy training as part of U.S. psychiatry residency: supportive, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psychodynamic, family therapy.
  • 2016–present: Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy (meaning therapy), trainee towards Clinician Diplomate in Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (expected to complete in 2026)
  • 2023: Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy Training Certificate. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • 2024: ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) Immersion, Praxis Training presented by Steven Hayes, PhD
  • 2025: National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI), Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.)