The short version
I'm a board-certified psychiatrist and diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, fellowship-trained in addiction psychiatry and integrative-medicine focused. I practice integrative psychiatry — which means I treat the whole person rather than a single symptom, combining the rigor of Western medicine with the depth of Eastern healing traditions.
Most psychiatrists do one thing well. I've spent my career deliberately collecting the full toolkit: evidence-based psychotherapy and pharmacology, metabolic and nutritional psychiatry, neuromodulation, addiction medicine, and psychedelic-assisted work. The point isn't to do everything — it's to be able to meet you wherever the real problem lives.
The long way here
My path runs through two cultures. I was raised between an Eastern inheritance — where mind, body, and spirit were never considered separate — and a Western scientific training that demanded evidence for everything. For a long time those felt like competing loyalties. Now they're the whole point.
That tension led me to study healing far outside the conventional clinic: contemplative traditions, the frontiers of psychedelic science, global mental health, and the metabolic roots of mood. I've worked in academic medicine, in the field, and at the policy table — always asking the same question: what does it actually take for a human being to be well, not just less symptomatic?
Training & credentials
Academic appointments- UCSF, Department of Psychiatry — Volunteer Clinical Instructor
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai — Assistant Clinical Professor, Psychiatry
- Board-Certified Psychiatrist — Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN)
- Fellowship — Addiction Psychiatry, UCSF
- Residency — Psychiatry, LAC+USC Medical Center / Keck School of Medicine of USC
- Medical training — University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Integrative-medicine focused — metabolic, nutritional, and contemplative care
- Psychedelic medicine — training and research lineage with MAPS
- Undergraduate — Wesleyan University
- Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine
- American College of Lifestyle Medicine
- American Psychiatric Association
- American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
- American Society of Addiction Medicine
- California Society of Addiction Medicine
- Psychedelic Medicine Association
- Northern California Psychiatric Society
- LongevityDocs
- Nexus Global
- Near Future
- Southern California Psychiatric Society PER Excellence in Psychiatric Education Award (2022)
- University of Southern California Resident Research Award (2022)
- MAPS Health Equity Scholar (2021)
- Della Martin Foundation Research Award (2019)
- Arnold P. Gold Foundation Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award (2018)
Dr. Appasani is an active scientist and editor, with 35+ peer-reviewed articles and five edited books spanning neuroscience, genomics, and single-molecule science. Earlier in his research career, he trained in the laboratories of Nobel laureate Dr. Eric Kandel, Dr. Eric Nestler, and Dr. Michael Greenberg.
- Single-Molecule Science: From Super-Resolution Microscopy to DNA Mapping & Diagnostics — Co-editor, Cambridge University Press
- Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine — Co-editor, Humana Press
- Epigenomics: From Chromatin Biology to Therapeutics — Contributor, Cambridge University Press
- A Manual for Panic Attacks: For Caregivers & the Community — Author
View publications on Google Scholar → · Ongoing essays appear in Media.
- Ginko Labs, Inc. — Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer
- The MINDS Foundation — Founder & CEO, global mental health nonprofit
- PYM Health — Chief Medical Officer & Founding Team
- Beneficial Plant Research Association (BPRA) — Scientific Board
- TMW Longevity, Outro Health, MUD\WTR — Advisor
- Of Substance — Board Member
- Family Office Growth Partners — Medical Consultant
- Family Office Mastermind Group — Domain Expert
How to human
I believe mental health is not the absence of a diagnosis — it's the presence of a coherent, well-lived life. My work sits at the intersection of four dimensions: mind (the story and the psyche), body (metabolism, sleep, biology), brain (precise pharmacology and neuromodulation), and spirit (meaning, connection, and purpose).
Care should be unhurried, deeply personal, and honest. That's the practice I've built in the Presidio — and it's the only way I know how to do this work well.
The Presidio practice
I am located in one of the most magical places in San Francisco — a national park on the edge of the city, where forest and coastline replace the fluorescent waiting room. The setting isn't decoration. Nature is part of the treatment, and discretion is built into the geography.
