Women's Psychiatry and Well-Being

Women's Psychiatry And Well-Being

About Women's Psychiatry and Well-Being

Depending on what clinically indicated throughout the evaluation process and your preference, the service offered include a balanced and thoughtful evidence-based use of medications and psychotherapy, through the lens of a meaning-centered framework drawing from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and meaning-centered psychotherapy (MCP), tailored to your specific goals.

To learn more about meaning-centered approach visit this article.

About the Founder

Teresa Lanza di Scalea, M.D., Ph.D., is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, board certified in psychiatry. 

She specializes in the care of women across the adult lifespan experiencing psychiatric disorders and emotional challenges, with a special focus on the menstrual cycle, pre-pregnancy planning, all stages of motherhood, the menopausal transition, gynecological and breast cancer across all phases of care. 

Her expertise extends to strategies promoting humanities and human flourishing in medical education. 

Dr. Lanza di Scalea is an affiliate faculty member of the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, in the Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Women’s Health.

Biosketch:

Dr. Lanza di Scalea received her MD degree summa cum laude from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Rome, Italy, in 2002 and completed adult psychiatry residency at the Università Tor Vergata of Rome, Italy in 2006. As a fourth-year psychiatry resident at the Università Tor Vergata, she was awarded a year-long Visiting Research Scholarship at the Women’s Behavioral HealthCARE Program of the University of Pittsburgh, introducing her to cutting-edge integration of psychiatry into women’s health, which has become her clinical, educational and scholarly focus since. 

In 2009, she earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the Università Tor Vergata of Rome, Italy, focusing on the role of psychosocial factors and metabolic profile in clinical depression during the menopausal transition. She subsequently completed a second residency in adult psychiatry in the U.S., graduating from Brown University in 2015. 

During her service at Brown, she took part in the launching of the Menopause Consultation Clinic of the Women’s Medicine Collaborative – the first of its kind in the state of Rhode Island – and served as staff psychiatrist in the Breast Cancer Center of the Lifespan Cancer Institute. 

When she moved to Austin in 2017, Dr. Lanza joined the Dell Medical School faculty in the Departments of Psychiatry and Women’s Health serving as a collaborative care model consulting psychiatrist in the Women’s Health Integrated Practice Unit and as staff psychiatrist in the Women’s Reproductive Mental Health of Texas. 

In 2019 and 2021 she led the development and initiation of a maternal mental health training curricula for women’s health specialists as part of the Maternal Levels of Care Level IV requirement for the Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin.

In September 2022, Dr. Lanza founded Women’s Psychiatry and Well-Being PLLC where she continues to prioritize service to women who face psychiatric conditions or emotional challenges. 

Dr. Lanza continues to be passionately involved in scholarly projects, medical and inter-professional education. She currently directs the Professional and Personal Growth in Residency Training Course in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Dell Medical School, a humanities-informed approach to foster well-being and human flourishing in medicine.

Professional Organizations Membership:

  • American Psychiatric Association
  • Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians
  • Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy
  • Association for Contextual Behavioral Science
  • National Network of Depression Centers, Women & Mood Disorders Task Group
  • North American Menopause Society
  • Postpartum Support International (perinatal mental health certification, PMH-C)
  • Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Alliance of Texas