Rupi Legha MD, Los Angeles, CA (2026)

01/10/2026

Crisis care doesn’t have to retraumatize people.

Some people aren’t in crisis because of “symptoms.”
They’re in crisis because of what past care did to them:
med side effects,
pathologizing labels,
being talked about instead of listened to.

My version of wraparound crisis care is different.

I show up on your terms.
I keep care relational, private, and non-coercive.
I move slowly enough to listen—and fast enough to help.
I work with your family and community.
I set clear boundaries so care stays sustainable.

When crisis care is trauma-aware, a lot of healing happens quickly.
The crisis settles.
And people aren’t afraid of needing help again.

That’s the Dr. Rupi Method. 💕

01/10/2026

Crisis care doesn’t have to retraumatize people.

Some people aren’t in crisis because of “symptoms.”
They’re in crisis because of what past care did to them:
med side effects,
pathologizing labels,
being talked about instead of listened to.

My version of wraparound crisis care is different.

I show up on your terms.
I keep care relational, private, and non-coercive.
I move slowly enough to listen—and fast enough to help.
I work with your family and community.
I set clear boundaries so care stays sustainable.

When crisis care is trauma-aware, a lot of healing happens quickly.
The crisis settles.
And people aren’t afraid of needing help again.

That’s the Dr. Rupi Method.

💗

01/08/2026

2nd Abstract accepted.
Health Humanities Consortium 2026.

Empire abroad.
Carcerality at home.

Coming April 2026.

More soon.

Images from Wikimedia Commons.

01/07/2026

Honored to share that my abstract “Clinical Activism as Ethical Practice: A Humanistic Framework for Justice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health”
has been accepted for presentation at the Health Humanities Consortium Conference (April 2026).

This work builds directly on my 2025 papers, talks, and on-the-ground clinical practice—developing clinical activism as a core pillar of my ARMD framework: a rejection of so-called “neutrality” in systems that surveil, punish, and separate families under the banner of care.

Clinical activism is not about being loud.
It’s about being ethically awake—and refusing to mistake compliance for professionalism.

The framework I present centers:
• antiracist psychoeducation
• protective documentation
• mandated supporting over reflexive reporting

I’ll be presenting this work in 2026—and I’m also bringing it into rooms now with clinicians, educators, policymakers, and institutions ready to move beyond critique and into practice.

📣 2026 is filling quickly.
If you’d like to bring this work to your organization while dates are still available:
🔗 www.rupileghamd.com/speaking

01/06/2026

✨ New ARMD logo ✨! Antiracist MD (ARMD) is now my official business name as I expand clinical care, education, advocacy, and systems-level work grounded in protection, dignity, and justice.

This logo represents integration—heart + rigor, care + strategy. It reflects how ARMD shows up: person-centered, antiracist, and actively protective.

2026 is about deepening impact:
• website + fellowship revamp
• aligned collaborations
• expanding a hospital-without-walls model for mental health care

I’m growing clinical reach—expanding in-person care in NYC, licensure in more states, and my “hospital without walls” approach intended to avoid higher levels of care (and their related trauma) during emergencies.

ARMD holds my clinical practice, fellowship, speaking, and consultation work under one integrated vision.

Not just a logo. It’s a heartfelt declaration for 2026–and in pink no less!

If you’ve been considering working together—now is a good time. My calendar is beginning to fill as ARMD expands. 💕💕💕

Huge thanks to Kim Hanna Hall from KH2 Design!

01/03/2026

As I gaze off into the distance imagining what 2026 holds in store, I look back at 2025 with so much gratitude for all the things. I wrote some papers, gave some talks, expanded my clinical practice and its one-of-a-kind offerings. I we**ied (all day everyday!). I couture’d in Paris, Tokyo, and beyond. I got connected to a broader community of friends who are as obsessed with justice and reimagining as I am (Ty .) And the deepened my courage, vision, tenacity, and fortitude—and my ability to stand on my own.

01/01/2026

Paradigm shifts are not a group sport.
There’s a particular solitude that comes with refusing inherited frameworks.
This is what reimagining mental health requires.

12/31/2025

How do you measure a year of we**ie life and love? You don’t—because it’s immeasurable and because you’re having TWO much fun. This year was full of we**ie antics, facials, trips down Rodeo Drive to check out their namesakes (get it, Yves Saint Laurent and Versace!), Lion King style pillow fights, wagon rides, nonstop play sessions with our favorite nibling, way too many licks and hugs, and hiding in my warm laundry and bed sheets—or hopping into a backpack to avoid our morning walk (SAINT!). I love you, Saint and Sachi. Thank you for bringing so much joy and humor to a year when the world continued to fall apart and your momma continued to fight for what’s just. And a huge thank you to for bringing them into this world!

12/31/2025

I’ve realized something I wish I’d known sooner: my work is heavy, and I don’t have to carry it all at once. 💖

I don’t need to be exhausted to be effective. In fact, I can’t be. I need rest. I need space. I need to honor my limits, to nourish myself, to refill my reserves, so that when I show up, I show up fully.

That’s why at the end of the year, I sign off and sign out completely (thank you, scheduling abilities and hello from the past!) for about two weeks so I can rest and revitalize. This lets me bring the same spirit of love and abundance to myself that I bring to the work I am so passionate about.

Because only when I care for myself can I care for the work, the people, and the we**ies 🐶 that need me. Rest isn’t optional—it’s part of doing the work well.

Here’s to entering 2026 reenergized, grounded, and ready to show up fully for what matters.🥂

ClinicalActivism MentalHealth InformedConsent

12/30/2025

I had the honor of giving my talk, “There Are No Bad Kids: Antiracist Strategies for Supporting Students & Disrupting Harmful Diagnoses” at the NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF BLACK SCHOOL EDUCATORS (NABSE) Annual Conference in Chicago earlier this month.

Misdiagnoses and mislabels for young people too often obscure their humanity and potential, particularly in school settings. Often, I see Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) overapplied in deeply biased ways - targeting students whose behaviors are filtered through racist, transphobic, and ableist lenses.

I identify 5 domains of harm that exist at the intersection of school and child mental health:
👉🏾Diagnostic Bias: Labels reflect clinician bias, not objective truth. Race, gender, and class shape who gets diagnosed.

👉🏾Gender Nonconformity: Trans and nonbinary students are punished for existing outside rigid expectations. Their authenticity is seen as defiance.

👉🏾Behavioral Control: ODD centers adult comfort over student well-being. Compliance becomes the goal, not connection.

👉🏾School Pushout: The label justifies removing students from classrooms, schools, and opportunities

👉🏾Trauma Misdiagnosis:
Trauma responses( hypervigilance,
distrust, emotional dysregulation) are
mislabeled as “oppositionality.”

We can shift the narrative to PROTECT kids instead of dismissing them.

This is why it’s so important to remember...
There are no bad kids, only systems that fail them.

ClinicalActivism MentalHealth InformedConsent

12/30/2025

From the soothing sounds of water in rivers, canals, and fountains to the sound of silence at a temple to the preparation of matcha with Japanese hip-hop in the background, listening to Kyoto is as magnificent as seeing it. Nervous system reset underway!

12/29/2025

Earlier this month, I attended the Building Family Power Retreat in Durham, NC with Movement for Family Power, just steps from my alma mater, Duke.

Guided by Interrupting Criminalization’s Block & Build But Make It Abolitionist framework, we dug into what it truly takes to dismantle the systems that criminalize, surveil, and separate families.

One moment hit especially hard: standing in solidarity at the courthouse for organizer Amanda Wallace (Operation Stop CPS), arrested for protesting Durham CPS after the death of a Black child in their custody. It was a reminder that family policing is far from theoretical. It’s deadly.

Of Block & Build’s 4Bs, the one I’m carrying home is BREAK: break the alliances that let family policing expand.

For me, that means naming and ending the harmful partnership between child psychiatry and the family policing system.

When our field performs CPS-driven evaluations, lends clinical language to justify removals, or embeds itself in foster care and juvenile systems, we’re we’re legitimizing state violence when we should be healing children.

We must withdraw from roles that fortify surveillance and punishment, and instead align with those fighting to keep families safe and together.

Breaking this alliance isn’t radical.
It’s ethical.
It’s necessary.

And it’s the only way child mental health can move toward true care instead of coercion.

ClinicalActivism MentalHealth InformedConsent

Rupi Legha MD

01/10/2026

01/10/2026

01/08/2026

01/07/2026

01/06/2026

01/03/2026

01/01/2026

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