Ramani Durvasula

Ramani Suryakantham Durvasula (born December 30, 1965) is a licensed clinical psychologist, media expert, and author. She has been sought out in various media outlets for her expertise on personality and mood disorders, including Bravo, the Lifetime Movie Network, National Geographic, and the History Channel, as well programs such as the TODAY show and Good Morning America.

Early life
Durvasula was born in Englewood, New Jersey on December 30, 1965. Her mother is Sai Durvasula. She also has a sister, Padma Salisbury.

Education
In 1989, Durvasula obtained a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Connecticut. She has also received a Master of Arts in Psychology and a Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1997.

Career

She has a private practice in Santa Monica and another in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles.  She is also Professor of Psychology at California State University, and a Visiting Professor of Psychology at the University of Johannesburg. Books she has authored include Should I Stay or Should I Go: Surviving a Relationship With a Narcissist and You Are WHY You Eat: Change Your Food Attitude, Change Your Life, as well as peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers.  She will release a book addressing "the intersecting zeitgeists of societal and individual narcissism and their deleterious impact on our health and well-being" in 2019.

Durvasula first appeared on television on an episode of Remote Control. She was the co-host of the show My Shopping Addiction on the Oxygen network, and has provided expert commentary on the TODAY show and Good Morning America. Channels such as Bravo, the Lifetime Movie Network, National Geographic, the History Channel, Discovery Science, and Investigation Discovery have also featured her. In the Fall of 2010, she starred in the Bravo series “Thintervention,” where she led group therapy sessions to help six participants find out the source of their overeating. She is co-host of the podcast Sexual Disorientation. She has been interviewed on internet media platforms as well, notably MedCircle and TONE Network. She has spoken at TEDx Sedona and South by Southwest. At the American Psychological Association, she was on the Committee on Socioeconomic Status from 2014–2017 (serving as president in 2016), and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Minority Fellowship Program.  The National Institutes of Health has funded her research on personality disorders; they approved a $1.5 million grant for her to study the link between HIV and mental illness. The four-year study, that included 288 patients, determined that 92-percent of participants had experienced depression, substance use disorder or another Axis-I disorder, and that nearly half met criteria for at least one Axis-II disorder (e.g. antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, or narcissistic personality disorder).

Accolades
In 2003, Durvasula received the “Emerging Scholar” Award from the American Association of University Women and the “Distinguished Woman” Award from the CSULA. California State University was named Outstanding Professor of the year in 2012.

Personal life
Durvasula resides in Los Angeles, having lived there since 1991. On August 31, 1996 she married Charles Hinkin, and they have two daughters, Maya and Shanti. The couple separated in 2008 and divorced the following year.

In an interview with Prevention magazine, Durvasula recounted beginning to struggle with her weight in her mid 20s. After having children, however, stress from balancing her career and personal life caused her to seek "solace" in food. The fellow mothers at her daughter's school, who she says were generally svelte, were unkind to her. In preparation for a wedding, she tried on several saris her mother had brought her from India, but none of them fit. Tearful, she committed to losing weight, and began a regimen of daily walking, smaller portions, and produce at every meal. She lost 65 pounds after a little over a year.

Filmography
Thintervention (2010) – starred
Red Table Talk (2019) – "The Narcissism Epidemic" (Guest)

Podcasts
GluckRadio (2013) – Episode 44
Sexual Disorientation with Dr. Ramani (2017–present) – Host
 Being Well with Dr. Rick Hanson – S3:EP44: "How to Deal with a Narcissist with Ramani Durvasula" (2019)

Bibliography

Papers

Books
You Are WHY You Eat: Change Your Food Attitude, Change Your Life (January 1, 2013)
Should I Stay or Should I Go: Surviving A Relationship with a Narcissist (October 24, 2017)
Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves as We Are (October 31, 2017) – with Hillary L. McBride
Don’t You Know Who I Am: Staying Sane in an Era of Narcissism, Entitlement and Incivility (2019)

References

Works cited

External links

Doctor-Ramani.com, official website
Sexual Disorientation, weekly podcast with Durvasula and Silvia Saige

A Guide to Better Relationships, her essays for Psychology Today

Category:1965 births
Category:Living people
Category:Clinical psychologists
Category:People from Englewood, New Jersey