Dr Farhana Mann

Dr. Farhana Mann is a Consultant General Adult Psychiatrist with many years of experience in the NHS and more recently in private practice. She is an accomplished, approachable doctor who works collaboratively with clients to explore what evidence-based options might best suit them to achieve a better quality of life and optimise their mental health. She has experience supporting people with depression and mood disorders, anxiety disorders, OCD, ADHD, psychosis and other mental health difficulties.

She has won numerous awards throughout her career in medicine so far, including for outstanding academic achievement, research and innovation. Farhana has a strong background in scientific research, including having held a highly competitive and prestigious Wellcome Clinical Research Fellowship (based at UCL), and she is a national expert on social relationships and mental health. Her earliest research was in neuroimmunology, and her more recent work is psychiatric epidemiology looking at loneliness, and outcomes in people using psychiatric crisis services. She has numerous highly cited publications in peer-reviewed journals, on outcomes in people with severe mental health problems and the impact of loneliness on mental health. She has e.g. contributed to the forthcoming textbook of loneliness and health, teaches health professionals and students, and supervises research projects. Her work has directly influenced national (UK) and international guidelines on interventions for depression and loneliness and was e.g. recently referenced in the US Surgeon General’s Public Health Advisory on Social Connections and Health. She studied medicine at UCL, where she won awards including for the highest overall academic achievement. She also has degrees in Immunology (First Class) and an MSc in Psychiatric Research (Distinction) and is a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. 

Farhana is skilled at communicating science to a wide range of audiences (clinical, academic, corporate, community, schools or otherwise) and is an experienced speaker/presenter/panellist. She has appeared as a mental health expert in the media including on BBC Television, MTV, BBC radio or featured as an expert print including Women’s Health, The Guardian, The New Scientist, BBC Focus and various others. She has featured on several podcasts as an expert in mental health. She was awarded the Morris Markowe Prize for Public Engagement by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Though her clinical work is with adults, Dr Mann is also passionate about developing ways to support children and parents’ well-being because so many of the foundations of good mental health are built early in life. She is co-founder of an early stage mental health app designed to improve social and emotional wellbeing in children and parents, using storytelling. In the past, she has presented children’s television and enjoys playing the piano and occasional songwriting