Azin Elizabeth Bekhrad, MD

Azin Bekhrad is a physician who specializes in child, adolescent and general adult psychiatry. She has expertise in the comprehensive assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and adults suffering from mood disorders, including major depression and bipolar disorder, ADHD, behavioral challenges, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, trauma (PTSD), women’s health and reproductive psychiatry needs, and neurodevelopmental disabilities. She blends best practices from evidence-based medicine with an integrative, holistic approach.

She is skilled in cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, family systems therapy, culturally sensitive approaches to treatment, as well as the use of exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, meditation, Eastern medicine and creative endeavors to support symptom relief, stress reduction and wellness in mind, body and spirit. With expertise in the pharmacological management of patients, including complex and treatment-refractory patients, Dr. Bekhrad helps patients navigate the benefits, risk and alternatives to medications in a way that respects each individual’s unique needs and life circumstance. She is proficient in functional medicine, integrative psychiatry and precision psychiatry, and uses these approaches when indicated to identify and treat root causes of illness.

Dr. Bekhrad graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in physiology, health and humanities from Michigan State University, obtained her medical degree at Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed one year of residency in obstetrics-gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed her general adult psychiatry residency and child/adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and stayed on as a faculty instructor, serving in various roles, which included clinical supervisor to child/adolescent psychiatry fellows, instructor in the community psychiatry clinic, faculty clinician in the pediatric anxiety disorders consultation clinic, and team leader for in-home, mobile treatment at Baltimore Child & Adolescent Crisis Response.

From 2007–2020, Dr. Bekhrad worked in private practice at The Ross Center in Washington, D.C. In addition, she served as medical director for the Episcopal Center for Children, a therapeutic school in Washington. In 2020, Dr. Bekhrad opened a solo private practice in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Over the years, through her busy practice, she has had the privilege of working with a diverse and complex group of children, families and adults of all ages throughout the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area, Maryland and Virginia. She additionally provides telehealth services to patients throughout the United States and internationally, when appropriate. She builds trusting and long-lasting relationships with patients and families via a team approach that involves actively collaborating with other medical providers, therapists or schools toward an individualized treatment plan that fosters relief from illness. In addition to her role in personalized care at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Bekhrad works at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

She has been awarded the Castle Connolly Top Doctors Award and has been twice named one of America’s Top Psychiatrists by Consumer’s Research Council of America. Dr. Bekhrad is fluent in English and Farsi.