Women's Reproductive Mental Health Program

Program Directors

Jessica Kingston, M.D.
Professor
Division of General OB/GYN

Alison Reminick, M.D.
Professor
Division of Psychiatry

Amber Rukaj, LMFT
Marriage and Family Therapist
Division of Psychiatry

Our Specialists

Psychiatrists

Dr. Ashley Clark
Dr. Stephanie Martinez
Dr. Simi Brar

Therapists

Betsy Muirhead, LMFT
Cara Pozun, LMFT
Carolyn Suttle, LMFT
Evelyn Robarts, LMFT
Jamie Deluca, PhD

About the Program

The Women's Reproductive Mental Health Program (WRMH) addresses the mental health issues that arise within the range of reproductive experiences including pregnancy, breastfeeding, perinatal loss, and infertility. Our multidisciplinary teams include clinical resident training, cross-specialty collaboration, and focused patient care. WRMH serves to actively assess social determinants to provide preventative treatment for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) for patients who are at risk. We deliver compassionate care to our patients during the life-changing events that encompass pregnancy, childbirth, fertility journeys, pregnancy loss, prenatal development stages and beyond.

WRMH Training

The WRMH program functions as a training site for both therapists from the University of San Diego's MFT program working towards licensure and for UC San Diego psychiatry residents to refine skills in reproductive psychiatric care and perinatal pscyhopharmacology. The programs aims to train psychiatry residents and therapists to work collaboratively on patient care. This pragmatic strategy fosters close interprofessional relationships to make a meaningful difference in improved maternal health status and quality-of-life. Education is at the forefront of WRMH through training the next generation of MFTs and medical residents to become transformative leaders in collaborative care and reproductive mental health.

Given the high patient need and demand and shortage of maternal mental health professionals, educating more physicians and therapists is a priority for the San Diego community. Each year psychiatry residents and MFT therapists are expertly trained in clinical excellence at UC San Diego Health and seeded into the community to build a stronger foudation for treating the spectrum of reproductive mental health disorders. A unique aspect of the WRMH program is its co-location within and collaboration of our Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry departments.