Not a diagnosis.A person.That distinction matters to me.
Board-Certified Psychiatrist • Yale & Mount Sinai Faculty • Author, Oxford University Press • Psychopharmacology Fellowship • Practicing Since 2013 • Currently Accepting New Patients
Who I Am
I am Dr. Swapnil Gupta, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist licensed in New York. I have been in clinical practice since 2013, and I run Beacon Psychiatry PLLC, a telehealth practice serving patients throughout New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
My training spans two continents and two of the most respected academic medical centers in the United States. I completed my psychiatric residency over three years in India, followed by four additional years at SUNY Downstate and Yale School of Medicine.
After residency, I completed a dedicated one-year psychopharmacology fellowship, deepening my expertise in how psychiatric medications interact with the brain and body, including psychotomimetic substances such as ketamine, THC, amphetamines, and salvia.
I identify as queer. That is not a credential I list to check a box.
It is part of who I am, how I move through the world, and how I show up for patients.
Finding a queer psychiatrist who combines lived experience with serious clinical training is not easy. Most LGBTQ+ affirming mental health directories are full of therapists. Psychiatrists who are themselves queer, who understand the specific mental health pressures of navigating identity in a world that is not always safe, and who also have the pharmacology training to prescribe thoughtfully are much rarer. That intersection is where I sit.
I understand what it means to look for a provider and wonder whether you will have to spend your first three sessions explaining your identity before you can get to the actual work. You will not have to do that here.
I work with LGBTQ+ adults across a wide range of presentations, including depression and anxiety made heavier by discrimination or family rejection, the grief of queer divorce, the mental health dimensions of gender-affirming care, and the chronic stress of navigating systems that were not built for you.
I also work with patients navigating the intersection of queerness and other marginalized identities, including queer people of color, bi and pansexual patients whose identity has been minimized, and trans and nonbinary adults looking for a psychiatrist who does not require them to justify their experience.
I have served on departmental diversity committees throughout my career, not as a formality, but because equity in psychiatric care is something I have worked toward actively. That work shows up in how I practice.
-
Gender-Affirming Care
I address the psychiatric and medication dimensions of gender-affirming care without pathologizing identity.
-
Trans & Nonbinary Patients
You will not be asked to justify or prove your experience here. -
Minority Stress & Identity
Chronic stress from discrimination and concealment accumulates. I treat its mental health impact seriously. -
Queer People of Color
The intersection of multiple marginalized identities carries a specific and compounding toll. I see it and I address it. -
Bi & Pansexual Identity
Identity erasure is a real clinical issue. I do not minimize it.
Slow psychiatry. The unhurried kind.
I do not rush through appointments, treat you as a diagnosis, or reach for a prescription pad before I understand your history.
Your first appointment is 60 to 75 minutes because that is the minimum amount of time it actually takes to begin knowing someone.
Medication with intention
I take a cautious, evidence-based approach to prescribing. When medication is right for you, I explain exactly what it does and why. When it is not, I say so.
Therapy and medication, integrated
I prefer to integrate medication with therapy rather than treat them as separate tracks. I provide therapy myself and coordinate with outside therapists when needed.
Deprescribing when it is right
I wrote the book on reducing psychiatric medications safely and collaboratively. If you have questions about what you are on and why, that expertise is available to you.
The depth behind the care.
-
Medical Training and Licensure
Seven total years of psychiatric residency training, including three years in India and four years at SUNY Downstate and Yale School of Medicine. Board-certified in psychiatry. Licensed in New York, NJ and CT.
-
Psychopharmacology Fellowship
A dedicated one-year fellowship focused on how psychiatric medications work at a neurobiological level and what happens when they are reduced or stopped. This training distinguishes my prescribing practice from providers who did not receive this level of specialized pharmacology study. -
Yale and Mount Sinai Faculty
Faculty at Yale School of Medicine and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, I led the outpatient psychiatric service for five years, supervised residents, and served as a research clinician on clinical trials for investigational drugs for schizophrenia. -
Author: Deprescribing in Psychiatry: Oxford University Press
I co-wrote the first clinical textbook on deprescribing in psychiatry, published by Oxford University Press. I have followed it with more than fifteen peer-reviewed papers in The Lancet Psychiatry, BJPsych Advances, and Psychiatric Services. -
Media and Scholarship
Quoted in The New Yorker. Interviewed by Carlat Psychiatry, Mad in America, and SMI Advisor. My research focuses on deprescribing, psychopharmacology, and patient-centered prescribing practice. -
Psychotherapy Certifications
Certifications in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for psychosis, AEDP, and a two-year psychodynamic psychotherapy program. This combination of pharmacology and formal therapy training is uncommon and shapes how I work with every patient.
Adults who deserve more than a 15-minute appointment.
I treat adults ages 18 and older. My clinical focus includes:
-
Depression
Including cases where current medication is not working, or where patients want to explore whether they still need it at all. -
Anxiety Disorders
Generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and social anxiety. -
Trauma and PTSD
Including complex trauma and trauma tied to discrimination or identity-based harm. -
ADHD in Adults
First-time evaluations and cases where patients want to revisit a longstanding diagnosis. -
Psychosis and Schizophrenia Spectrum
Reflecting years of research and academic clinical work. -
Bipolar Disorder
Both bipolar I and bipolar II. -
Grief
A clinical focus, not a passing phase. Including grief tied to queer loss and chosen family loss. -
Overmedication and Complex Medication Histories
Patients who want someone to actually look at the whole picture.
Telehealth Psychiatry Across
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut
Grounded here. Invested in this.
I was born and raised in South India and speak Hindi and Tamil in addition to English. I identify as queer (she/her) and moved to the Hudson Valley in 2023, which was one of the better decisions I have made. I live with my two dogs, Shashi and Roohi.
I have been part of diversity committees and equity-focused work throughout my career, not as a formality but because representation in psychiatric care matters. I have seen firsthand what it costs patients when it is absent, and I try to run a practice that reflects that understanding.
I also write a weekly blog for mental health professionals and interested readers, covering topics at the intersection of psychopharmacology, deprescribing, evidence-based practice, and clinical decision-making.
I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation for new patients. It is a chance for both of us to ask questions and figure out whether working together makes sense.
-
13+
Years in clinical practice -
15+
Peer-reviewed publications -
5
Years leading the Mount Sinai
outpatient service