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Chantal Forfota, MD

(she/her/hers)

General Adult Psychiatrist, Director

San Francisco and San Rafael

I am a General Adult Psychiatrist with specialized training in psychoanalytic and mindfulness-based psychotherapy, and Medical Co-Director of the Baywell Psychiatry Group. I offer in-depth psychotherapy and medication management as appropriate. I have always been interested in questions of human experience – what generates a sense of meaning, aliveness, connection, and joy. I have explored these questions from the perspectives of literature, psychology, medicine, and neuroscience and feel fortunate to continue to live the questions in my work with patients.

I am experienced in treating anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, complex grief, psychosis, and trauma. I have a particular interest in helping people navigate life transitions, such as early adulthood, identity concerns, parenthood, medical illness, loss and grief, and climate crisis anxiety.

My psychotherapeutic approach is individualized, and includes interest in early attachment relationships, deep attention to emotional life, and how coping patterns both serve and hinder us. I draw on my training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, mindfulness, DBT, EMDR, somatic psychotherapies, and literature and poetry! Psychological growth is challenging and enlivening and I feel privileged to be part of this intimate and individualized process. My experience is that emotional healing is fostered in the context of a trusted relationship, involves an expansion of what we can feel, think, and experience, and leads to a more fully lived life.

I am a first-generation American, my parents having immigrated to this country from Hungary by way of India, and Morocco by way of Spain. I find this to be an important part of my perspective and contributes to a special interest in the social and cultural forces that shape us and intersectional identities of all kinds.

Board Certification
Board Certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Education and Training
BA, Yale University, Cum Laude
MA, UCLA, Comparative Literature
MD, Stanford Medical School
Adult Psychiatry Residency, San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services

Additional Training
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis
Essential Mindfulness Training
EMDR International Association Certification

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