Today we’d like to introduce you to Bayan Jalalizadeh.
Hi Bayan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Long before I became a physician, I was drawn to the creative spark and emotional depth of young people.
I’ve always found joy in creative projects—from composing music to building board games, writing children’s fiction, and contributing to a national youth ‘zine. When I published my first novel at age 17, what drove me wasn’t ambition or monetary reward: it was an inner sense of fulfilment and deep-seated joy that stemmed from sharing ideas with others.
A sense of service has also been a major driver in my life. While earning my bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and later while studying medicine, I spent my weekends and off-hours spearheading and co-leading community-building programs and youth empowerment spaces—and still do to this day. While the work has been equal parts inspiring and intensive, the decades I’ve now spent in these spaces have shown me how much can shift when kids feel seen, safe, and supported.
I see my professional journey in much the same way: with a passion for building and creating, and with a mission of giving. I studied medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and pursued my psychiatry training at University of Texas Southwestern and Stanford School of Medicine, all with the aim of becoming an expert psychiatrist for children, youth, and young adults. My passions led me to launch Inspire Youth Psychiatry and Wellness, a new kind of psychiatry practice where I not only provide gold-standard medical care but also help young people rediscover the imagination, insight, and resilience that’s already within them—because I’ve seen how transformative that spark can be.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Some entrepreneurs start from a place of wealth or legacy. In contrast, as the child of an immigrant who worked tirelessly to provide for his family—and then went on to reshape his industry and become a leader within the community—I witnessed from a front-row seat the incredible value of living with perseverance, ingenuity, and especially integrity. In addition, my middle-class, public-school childhood didn’t afford me advantages on my professional path, but at the same time I gained rich perspectives from my friendships with and service alongside people from all walks of life.
As I’ve put these priceless, lifelong qualities into action, I’ve seen that they can be more valuable than any tangible resource. I worked diligently to earn scholarships for my training and research at top institutions, overcoming existing barriers and showing that passion and dedication can help us achieve more than we thought possible. And, of course, my medical training years were an intense gauntlet of challenging but rewarding work. This long professional road has led me to a place of clarity and commitment to service and healing.
Now, having launched a private practice, I’m encountering a new set of challenges, such as navigating legal requirements for establishing a mental health business and earning trust in the community by providing strong, consistent service to local families.
It’s both a challenging time and an incredible time to be a private practice owner: in this rapidly-changing landscape, many small mental health practices have dissolved or been acquired by larger health systems that don’t provide the same quality of care—yet those of us leading the way are excited to prove that we can sustain a thriving practice while providing mental health care that is evidence-informed, personalized, and compassionate.
As you know, we’re big fans of Inspire Youth Psychiatry and Wellness. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Inspire Youth Psychiatry and Wellness is a specialty psychiatry practice serving children, teens, young adults, and their families in the Nashville area and Middle Tennessee. The practice offers diagnosis and support for anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, and autism support among other issues—but our most unique offer is our emphasis on helping young people find meaning, purpose, resilience, and connection through combining gold-standard psychiatry with a values-based therapeutic approach and creative exploration.
With a vision of igniting the spark and potential in each young person, we see the incredible creativity and capacity of even the most reserved and disempowered youth. In fact, many of the young people we work with who are struggling with their emotional health are actually strikingly imaginative, talented, and skilled. I founded Inspire to create a new kind of space for young people to not only overcome their challenges but to discover their strengths and passions, build their resilience, and thrive with purpose.
We also are proud of providing more than just the standard psychiatric care. As a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and with training from leading medical institutions, I believe in providing the strongest possible care: evidence-informed, values-based, personalized, and most of all, compassionate. I combine my deep knowledge of current research in the field with a tailored approach to each person’s individual circumstances, environment, and aspirations. As a medical provider who believes in treating the whole person–not just a set of symptoms–I learn about and counsel on nutrition, sleep, daily habits, and other factors that contribute to a person’s mental and emotional health.
With a blend of modern telehealth accessibility and soon opening a welcoming in-person office, Inspire Youth Psychiatry and Wellness provides flexibility and privacy to meet the needs of today’s families.
Services include:
– FREE phone consultation, with self-booking directly from our practice website
– Psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment
– Medication prescription and management
– 30-minute and 50-minute psychiatry appointments—much different than the 15-minute follow-ups
– Optional evidence-informed, values-based psychotherapy for select clients
– Family and parent support
– Nutritional and lifestyle recommendations and coaching
How do you think about luck?
I believe that every hardship is a test for us to learn and grow, and to become a better person than who we were yesterday. I’ve had a few challenges come up throughout the journey, but each one has provided me the opportunity to gain a skill, a perspective, or the ability to detach from the chances of life and focus on my mission.
I’ve been especially fortunate to have strong community support throughout my life and professional journey. Despite moving multiple times for medical training, I’ve been lucky to find diverse groups of people who would encourage me, inspire me, and keep me accountable and grounded. A wonderful example of this is from my community-building work over the past few decades: learning how to create vibrant, strong, and resilient communities side-by-side with people of all generations and backgrounds has enriched me with a sense of deep respect and care for every person and reminds me of what life and my work are all about. When good things happen within the practice, I see it as a confirmation of the efforts made, and of my mission.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://inspireyouthpsychiatry.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bayan-jalalizadeh-728baa2b/
- Other: https://doctor.webmd.com/doctor/bayan-jalalizadeh-3c76ca75-2d02-4259-a4c6-c5dd08e04d3b-overview
