Our guest today is Dr. Walker Ladd. 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 practiced 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).

Since her doctorate in 2014, Dr. Ladd has taught research methods and mentored doctoral students through the dissertation process while conducting her own research on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders across the lifespan. 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 nature of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and subsequent post-traumatic growth for 25 women. In addition to her grounded theory study of the stigma of mental illness for new mothers with a bi-polar disorder (Ladd, 2018), Walker recently completed a study of the meaning of postpartum depression for women in later life (Ladd, 2021, in press). She is currently working on a study regarding the experience of postpartum anxiety for new mothers during COVID-19.

Walker is a full member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (SQIP), the Society of Humanistic Psychology (Division 32), the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IATA), and the Marce International Society for Perinatal Mental Health. She has been a faculty member of Saybrook University since 2018 and is currently full-time faculty in the Department of Research.

Walker is a 17-year breast cancer survivor. Her son, Ziggy, is a sophomore at the Berklee School of Music. Her daughter, Miles, is the funniest person Walker has ever known and will be a freshman at CalArts majoring in theater design in the Fall, 2021.