Psychiatrist and Harvard Medical School Faculty Member Suzanne Bender Bridges Clinical Practice With Academic Teaching
Dr. Suzanne Bender combines private psychiatry practice with faculty roles at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, specializing in child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry alongside research in pediatric gastrointestinal-psychiatric care.
Suzanne Bender, M.D., is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating a private practice while holding faculty status at Massachusetts General Hospital. She serves as an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School on a part-time basis.
Bender's clinical focus spans both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. At MGH, she co-directs the Pediatric GI Psychiatry program, a specialty addressing the intersection of gastrointestinal disorders and mental health in younger patients. She has been recognized as an award-winning teacher of psychotherapy.
Her published work includes "Becoming a Therapist: What Do I Say and Why?," co-authored with others, which serves as a teaching text in training programs. The book reached a second edition in 2022, indicating sustained use in psychiatric and therapeutic education.
Bender contributes regularly to Psychology Today as a featured contributor, publishing articles on clinical topics including regret, mind-body treatment approaches for medically unexplained symptoms, parenting in adolescence, and law enforcement interactions with individuals who have invisible disabilities. Recent pieces address antidepressant myths, youth sports psychology, and effective parental communication strategies with teenagers.
Her writing reflects a clinical perspective grounded in decades of patient care, particularly regarding psychosomatic presentations and the integration of psychiatric treatment with medical symptom management.
