Suzanne Watson MD, MDiv, MEd

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Dr. Watson came to medicine as a second career after 10+ years of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church where she served in congregations in California, New Zealand and Connecticut, as well as on the staff of the Presiding Bishop in New York. She was also a candidate for Bishop of Alaska.

She attended medical school in her 20's, but left to devote time to raising her family. However, her dream of practicing medicine never died, and at the age of 50 she embarked on this vocational change. Part of her motivation was the loss of her physician husband to suicide. She is strongly committed to mental health advocacy, the reduction of stigma, and suicide prevention.

She completed her undergraduate degree at UCSD, and has Master's degrees from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Church Divinity School of the Pacific at Berkeley. She spent two years of her residency at the University of Cincinnati in a combined Family Medicine-Psychiatry program and completed her training in Psychiatry at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is returned to her hometown of Del Mar, California in August, 2021 to work at the VA hospital in La Jolla as a staff psychiatrist. She is currently working remotely part time as a staff psychiatrist for the San Francisco VA, and as a psychiatrist in her own practice, Del Mar Psychiatry, in Del Mar, California. 

Additionally, Dr. Watson is a Captain in the United States Army Reserves Medical Corp where she serves as a psychiatrist.

Particular areas of interest include depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, complicated grief (especially following suicide), PTSD (including trauma from military service and NEXUS letters), integration of mental/physical/spiritual health, and LGBTQ+/gender affirming care.