Walker Ladd, Ph.D. has been a thought leader in the field of perinatal mental health for nearly two decades. She currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Research at Saybrook University.
Her writing and research challenge paradigms of motherhood and mental illness, using lived narratives to reveal the hidden truths and extraordinary dimensions of the lived experience of motherhood.
Previously a professional modern dancer with both a BA and MFA in dance from UCLA, Walker returned to school to receive an MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University Seattle and practicing as a Couples and Family Therapist. Following the traumatic childbirth and subsequent postpartum depression of her son in 2000, Walker dedicated herself to maternal mental health advocacy and research literacy, working as a certified birth doula (CD, DONA), and serving as the perinatal mental health editor for Lamaze International's Science and Sensibility, before returning to school to receive her Ph.D. in psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (Sofia University).
Working across multiple qualitative methodologies, Walker seeks a deeper understanding of the subjective experience of mood and anxiety disorders during the perinatal period. Her book, Transformed by postpartum depression: Women’s stories of trauma and growth(Praeclarus, 2020), was based on her grounded theory study of the traumatic and nature of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and subsequent posttraumatic growth for 25 women. In addition to her grounded theory study of the stigma of mental illness for new mothers with a bipolar disorder (Ladd, 2018), Walker recently completed a qualitative study of the meaning of postpartum depression for women in later life (Ladd, 2021), and co-authored a study regarding the lived experience of postpartum anxiety during Covid-19 (Ladd & DeDecker, 2022).
Dr. Ladd is the Chair of the Department of Research at Saybrook University.
