Rupi Legha MD

Rupi Legha MD Serving adults, children, and families; providing a strengths-based approach to mental health throug

✨ I’m less white coat, more crop top + heels 🤷🏽‍♀️.Healing happens when we show up real. I can think of no better profes...
09/22/2025

✨ I’m less white coat, more crop top + heels 🤷🏽‍♀️.

Healing happens when we show up real. I can think of no better professional code for a doctor. But honestly? Staying true to who I am while moving through medical training and professionalization was harder than any exam or certification.

This summer, I got to participate in the Dear World body tattoo exercise. My words? NO WHITE COAT.

Because who I am as Rupi means more to being Dr. Legha than anything else.

This landed in my mailbox last week ✨ and took me straight back to 2021, when we taught this antiracism module at UCSF.W...
09/21/2025

This landed in my mailbox last week ✨ and took me straight back to 2021, when we taught this antiracism module at UCSF.

We dared to imagine a medical school galaxy where:
🌌 The MCAT isn’t the gatekeeper
🚪 The loss of a minoritized student is treated as a sentinel event
🛡️ Patient violence (like racial slurs) has consequences

Back then, it felt visionary. Now it feels urgent — because this kind of work is being attacked, deleted, erased.

But roots run deep. The seeds we planted are still growing. 🌱

📖 Medical Students Answering the Call to Action
in Changing Care: Advancing Social Justice in the Health Professions

Huge thanks to Russyan Mabeza for leading this chapter and to and Jennifer Brady for editing this important book!

My first NY Fashion Week ✨ and I had the honor of attending the .us Survivor Fashion Show, opened so powerfully by .I go...
09/18/2025

My first NY Fashion Week ✨ and I had the honor of attending the .us Survivor Fashion Show, opened so powerfully by .

I got glammed up for myself — because beauty and care aren’t frivolous, they’re joy and restoration. Wearing my shift dress, heels, trench/bodysuit and earrings (from 2012!) reminded me that style is timeless when it’s rooted in meaning.

The very next day, one of my most courageous papers — critiquing mandated reporting and advancing mandated supporting — was finally accepted by a top journal, after five drafts, four submissions, a year of rejections, and some scathing critiques. That piece was inspired by what I learned from Rise Justice Labs: how shifting policy can change the world.

My favorite line from the show still stays with me: “When your existence is an act of resistance, live.”

Grateful for the chance to restore, couture, and carry on with my social justice slay 👠❤️

My first NY Fashion Week ✨ and I had the honor of attending the .us Survivor Fashion Show, opened so powerfully by .I go...
09/18/2025

My first NY Fashion Week ✨ and I had the honor of attending the .us Survivor Fashion Show, opened so powerfully by .

I got glammed up for myself — because beauty and care aren’t frivolous, they’re joy and restoration. Wearing my shift dress, heels, and earrings (from 2012!) reminded me that style is timeless when it’s rooted in meaning.

The very next day, one of my most courageous papers — critiquing mandated reporting and advancing mandated supporting — was finally accepted by a top journal, after five drafts, four submissions, a year of rejections, and some scathing critiques. That piece was inspired by what I learned from Rise Justice Labs: how shifting policy can change the world.

My favorite line from the show: “When your existence is an act of resistance, live.”

Grateful for the chance to restore, couture, and carry on with my social justice slay 👠❤️

Yes, both things can be true!I can snuggle my hilarious wiener dogs and stay deeply committed to decolonizing medical tr...
09/04/2025

Yes, both things can be true!

I can snuggle my hilarious wiener dogs and stay deeply committed to decolonizing medical training.

I can laugh at their antics and keep working to transform systems, not just symptoms.

This is what my practice is about: remembering we are still human beings who need connection, play, and rest.
The work is serious, but joy is what sustains us. 🐾✨

💗Learn more at RupiLeghaMD.com

             

If people don’t feel mentally and emotionally safe at work, the whole place is unsafe.That’s what I’ll be talking about ...
08/19/2025

If people don’t feel mentally and emotionally safe at work, the whole place is unsafe.

That’s what I’ll be talking about at the Safety, Health, & Environmental Conference in Chicagoland next month — how psychological safety is structural safety. 🦺

Racism, ableism, and unfair rules about who is “good enough” to be a doctor or mental health provider can hurt people and make workplaces feel unsafe.

💓Join me in Chicagoland & let’s talk strategies leaders can use to create fairer, more welcoming spaces where every voice is respected and supported.

             

What if your psychiatrist really knew you?Not just your symptoms, but your story.That’s the kind of care I offer.It’s sl...
08/14/2025

What if your psychiatrist really knew you?
Not just your symptoms, but your story.

That’s the kind of care I offer.
It’s slow. It’s steady. It’s personal.
We build trust. We make space for truth.
And when things get hard, you don’t go through it alone.

This is the Dr. Rupi Method.
It’s not perfect, and it’s not magic.
But it’s care that actually cares.

💓If that sounds like what you’ve been needing, I’d love to hear from you. Visit RupiLeghaMD.com

             

Hi, I’m Dr. Rupi 👋🏽Psychiatrist by trade, systems thinker by heart, weiner dog lover (because obviously).I help people u...
08/12/2025

Hi, I’m Dr. Rupi 👋🏽

Psychiatrist by trade, systems thinker by heart, weiner dog lover (because obviously).

I help people unlearn what hurts and dream up new ways to heal.

→ Hope you’ll follow along! Find more at RupiLeghaMD.com

             

Want to put funds directly into the hands of systems-impacted families and grassroots organizers? Join me in donating to...
08/07/2025

Want to put funds directly into the hands of systems-impacted families and grassroots organizers? Join me in donating to ’s THRIVE Fund: bit.ly/MFP-THRIVE 💫

In just 5 months, the THRIVE Fund has moved $70,000 to cover legal fees, basic needs, grassroots capacity, and wellness support! 98% of recipients are impacted by family policing and/or other carceral systems like incarceration and deportation. 87% are BIPOC.

This is what solidarity looks like. MFP needs our support to raise $15K or more in 30 days! Give today!

“Please don’t give me a shot. I promise to be good.” A 16-year-old Black, nonbinary foster youth said this to me—strappe...
07/17/2025

“Please don’t give me a shot. I promise to be good.” A 16-year-old Black, nonbinary foster youth said this to me—strapped to a gurney, labeled with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and brought in by police.
Not a danger. Not defiant. Just afraid.

🆕 My new piece in Academic Pediatrics (the official journal of ) asks us to rethink ODD and confront the practice of diagnostic condemnation—where trauma is pathologized, and survival is mistaken for disorder.

📌 In this article I explore:
🔹 How ODD is disproportionately assigned to Black, Latine, and Indigenous youth
🔹 The role of racism, bias, and systemic trauma in child mental health
🔹 The power of protective care: reframing, rewriting, and resisting harmful narratives
🔹 Why documentation is activism—and how clinical decisions can create or disrupt harm

This isn’t just a story. It’s a mirror to the system. Stop punishing pain. Build care that protects.

Link in bio. Holler at your girl if you’re having a hard time accessing it.

06/22/2025

Unmasking Racism in Psychiatry: A Call to Action

We explore the historical silence around racial injustice in mental health and the systemic racism in psychiatry. Discover the impact of these legacies and how they shape public health today, advocating for reparative actions in our healthcare systems. See the full-length version of this grand rounds I gave about Antiracist Supervision in Mental Healthcare at the University of Maryland here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3d8TO7ozDQ

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