Dr. katie Hirst, MD

Dr. Hirst is a native Californian, having grown up in the Bay Area and then attending Stanford University for her dual undergraduate degree. She experienced two East Coast winters while teaching high school science near Boston and then returned to attend medical school at UC San Diego, where she earned honors for leadership, academic accomplishment and patient care. After graduation she completed a dual residency in Family Medicine and Psychiatry at UCSD and founded the UCSD Maternal Mental Health Clinic during her third year of training. She quickly became a regional expert in the field of Reproductive Psychiatry, caring for women with anxiety, mood disorders and psychosis during pregnancy and the postpartum period. While on faculty in three departments at UCSD School of Medicine, Dr. Hirst gave local and international talks, wrote a teaching curriculum, published articles and chapters, supervised numerous trainees and developed the first Maternal Mental Health Intensive Outpatient Program in the Southwest US.

Dr. Hirst developed an opioid addiction following the births of her daughters by C-section in 2008 and 2011, and left academic medicine to seek treatment in November 2013. Prior to returning to work in late 2015, Dr. Hirst developed a personal mindfulness meditation practice, both taking classes and completing a teacher training. She considers her mindfulness meditation practice to be a very important part of her recovery and peace of mind, and is proud to incorporate her background knowledge in psychological theory with traditional mindfulness meditation practice for her work at BOLD.

Dr. Hirst now practices at BOLD Health through work with individual patients and by teaching a psychologically-informed mindfulness meditation class, "Mindfulness Meditation for the Human Condition." This unique class combines evidence-based mindfulness meditation practices and psychodynamic theory to teach strategies that can be helpful for anxiety, depression, recovery from substance use disorders, behavioral addictions and general satisfaction with "life on life's terms." Her work with individual patients includes medication consultation and management (when indicated), and psychotherapy. She continues to specialize in Reproductive Psychiatry, including pre-conception planning, infertility treatments, pregnancy and the postpartum; and also brings her expertise in Addiction Medicine to her individual work.

Dr. Hirst balances her work with personal time on recovery and with her family and friends. She's excited to be part of BOLD Fit whenever possible, loves her Concept 2 rowing and ski erg machines, makes amazing bread and only drinks BOLD (i.e. very strong) coffee.