Kavin Fatehchand MD
LGBTQ+ Psychiatry in Manhattan

Queer Psychiatrist in New York City

  • Therapy
  • Medication
  • One Relationship

Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD, PhD

they / them

I'm an openly queer, South Asian psychiatrist practicing from inside the LGBTQ+ community.

I navigated many of the difficulties you are facing today, and I can help you find a new path forward.

Or Call (917) 300-8998
Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD-PhD, leaning against a New York brownstone stoop.
LGBTQ+ Psychiatry in Manhattan

Queer Psychiatrist in New York City

  • Therapy
  • Medication
  • One Relationship

Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD, PhD

they / them

I'm an openly queer, South Asian psychiatrist practicing from inside the LGBTQ+ community.

I navigated many of the difficulties you are facing today, and I can help you find a new path forward.

Or Call (917) 300-8998
LGBTQ+ Psychiatry in Manhattan

Queer Psychiatrist in New York City

  • Therapy
  • Medication
  • One Relationship

Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD, PhD

they / them

I'm an openly queer, South Asian psychiatrist practicing from inside the LGBTQ+ community.

I navigated many of the difficulties you are facing today, and I can help you find a new path forward.

Or Call (917) 300-8998
LGBTQ+ Psychiatry in Manhattan

Queer Psychiatrist in New York City

  • Therapy
  • Medication
  • One Relationship

Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD, PhD

they / them

I'm an openly queer, South Asian psychiatrist practicing from inside the LGBTQ+ community.

I navigated many of the difficulties you are facing today, and I can help you find a new path forward.

Or Call (917) 300-8998
LGBTQ+ Psychiatry in Manhattan

Queer Psychiatrist in New York City

  • Therapy
  • Medication
  • One Relationship

I'm an openly queer, South Asian psychiatrist practicing from inside the LGBTQ+ community.

I navigated many of the difficulties you are facing today, and I can help you find a new path forward.

Or Call (917) 300-8998
Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD-PhD, leaning against a New York brownstone stoop.

Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD, PhD

they / them

LGBTQ+ Psychiatry in Manhattan, New York

Less Translating Yourself, More of the Actual Work

Plenty of good clinicians will respect your pronouns. That's the floor, and you should expect it everywhere.

What's harder to find is a psychiatrist who's queer, themselves.

I take your identity as settled, and stay curious about everything around it.

At my practice, you’ll be asked: ‘What's changed lately?’ and ‘What's driving those changes?’

We look at your biology, family history, and the social and cultural systems you move through.

We may share some parts of our stories, but I never take it for granted. Each patient who walks into my clinic is special and unique in their own way.

Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD-PhD, on a New York City street.

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LGBTQ Psychiatrist in New York City

What Feels Different with a Queer Provider

I offer care from within your community.

Queer patients know the drill: The first 20 minutes of their doctor appointments are practiced in reverse. They have to educate the doctor before they can be understood as a patient. That’s exhausting.

I'm queer myself, and I've been on a version of this path. At my clinic, you can start where the problems lie.

I understand my patients as whole people, not a disjointed set of medical, emotional, cultural and social facts. Holistic psychiatry, when practiced properly, can be a life-changing modality for folks across the LGBTQ spectrum.

The insurance-based system runs on fifteen-minute appointments. Doctors are expected to tick a checklist, add a pill, and send the patient on their way. At my clinic, you get real time to tell your story before we decide on anything. I formulate out loud, so you always know what I'm thinking and why.

A Queer Psychiatrist in NYC

Queer folks aren't here for a teachable moment

So many of my patients tell me the same thing: 'I was exhausted every time I left my last psychiatrists office.' At my clinic, you get to set that down. We start with your story, not your explanations.

A south asian man in union square

What is Gender-Affirming Mental Health Care?

I am a psychiatrist who will fully understand and support your gender identity.

Gender dysphoria and gender identity

Depression and anxiety shaped by minority stress

Readiness letters and assessment for gender-affirming care

Medication alongside hormone therapy

Higher-risk stretches

Coming out and family strain

Being closeted at work

Switching after an invalidating experience

Coordinating with your care team

Affirming Care, as a Clinical Stance

What Affirming Care Means, Clinically

South Asian Man headshot

Affirming care starts from one clinical premise — your identity isn't the problem to solve. Being queer isn't a diagnosis, and I won't practice as if it were.

What I do take seriously is the elevated stress levels that any member of a minority community can hold.

IH Meyer's 2003 research shows LGBTQ patients experience excess anxiety and depression compared to hetnorm peers. This, the researchers suggest, comes from a lifetime of vigilance, rejection, and hiding.

Together, we can look at the version of yourself you bring to my office and ask: Who are you, really, without all of that vigilance and fear of rejection? How much of your presentation simply reflects the weight of the world around you?

Two things can be true at once. Your identity is settled, and you can still have depression, ADHD, OCD, or an anxiety disorder that deserves assessment on its own merits. Affirming care doesn't mean waving those off as stress, and it doesn't mean blaming them on who you are. Each one gets looked at honestly, then understood in the context of your actual life.

On the steps of gender-affirming care, clinicians genuinely disagree. There's no one settled standard between the newer consent-based approach and the older, more gatekept one, and I won't pretend there is. I'll tell you plainly where I stand and why, and when a letter is appropriate and within my scope, I'll write an honest one. And because psychiatric medication and hormones can interact, I coordinate with whoever manages your hormone therapy, so monitoring is real, not assumed.

Questions Before We Begin

Reach Out To Learn More

Maybe you're switching because "my last psychiatrist kept deadnaming me," or because you're tired of doing your doctor's education for them — "I need a doctor who won't make me explain what being nonbinary means." Switching after a past that got you wrong is exhausting, and you shouldn't have to fight to be met. I see patients in person here in New York City, and the first step is simply telling me a little of your story. If you're curious, let's talk.

Prefer to talk? Call 917-300-8998

This is not an emergency practice. If you are experiencing an emergency, call 911, or call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

About the Doctor

About Dr. Kavin Fatehchand

I'm Dr. Kavin Fatehchand — an MD-PhD psychiatrist in New York. I’m queer, and South Asian.

My doctoral research was in cancer immunology. Psychiatry wasn’t always on my mind. But that work taught me to trace and uncover systems of reward, communication, and disease. In my New York clinic I look for similar patterns, but there are no microscopes involved.

I am in private practice because it allows me to track and understand the whole patient sitting across from me. I’m not a checklist that resets each visit. We make sense of your struggles over time, creating a deep relationship.

My prescribing philosophy is less-is-more — I'd rather understand the drivers and peel back than keep adding.

This page was medically reviewed by Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD-PhD — psychiatrist, New York City. Last reviewed September 2026.

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Dr. Kavin Fatehchand, MD-PhD, outdoors in New York.

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