Biography
Dr. Venus Mahmoodi is an Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center in the Women’s and Reproductive Mental Health Program. Her program of research focuses on both Islamic psychology and Muslim women’s mental health. Her Islamic psychology projects explore the Islamic conceptualizations of motherhood and how that affects Muslim women. And her work on Muslim perinatal mental health identifies sociodemographic characteristics and risk/protective factors that influence wellbeing. She is also a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Supervisor at the Khalil Center-New York City office. She cares for individuals and couples to alleviate distress from a wide range of mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, trauma and post-traumatic stress, and emotional dysregulation. In her clinical practice, Dr. Mahmoodi utilizes a range of interventions to manage symptoms depending on the needs of the patient, from insight-oriented techniques to effective coping strategies. She has specialized training in reproductive mental health, including perinatal loss and infertility, and childhood trauma. Furthermore, she provides clinical supervision to new clinicians and those specializing in perinatal mental health. At Teachers College, Columbia University, she teaches graduate-level courses in perinatal mental health and psychotherapy, and she mentors students completing their capstone research projects.
Dr. Mahmoodi completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at Palo Alto University in California, with an emphasis in women’s neuroscience and reproductive health through a collaboration with Stanford University. She completed an APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City, where she focused on trauma treatment in children and adults, psychiatric inpatient care, and research in child trauma. Her postdoctoral training focused on providing mental health services to women and families experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, infertility, and perinatal loss.
Clinical Focus
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Perinatal Loss
Infertility
Grief/Loss
Depression
Anxiety
Trauma/Childhood Trauma
Life Transitions (job, marriage, divorce)
Modalities
Individuals – Adults
Individuals – Adolescents
Couples
Premarital
Languages Spoken
English
Dari/Farsi