Background

Tejal Kaur was born and raised in Southern California. She pursued her undergraduate studies at USC on a full tuition Trustee Scholarship and received her Bachelors of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in American Studies and Ethnicity, with minors in Natural Science and Spanish. Upon graduation she was awarded the “Renaissance Scholar” distinction and scholarship for excellence in the depth and breadth of her time at USC. She went on to attend the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, where she continued on to complete her residency in general psychiatry and began her research and clinical work in early intervention. Dr. Kaur then went on to complete a two -year fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Columbia and Cornell hospitals. To further develop her background in developmental neuroscience, she then completed a three-year fellowship in Translational Neuroscience at Columbia under a NIMH funded T32 grant.

Neuroscience Research

Dr. Kaur began her research career in the CARES program at UCSD where she trained in clinical research focused in the early intervention of psychotic disorders.

Post-residency, she completed a postdoctoral Developmental Neuroscience Research Fellowship in the Pediatric Brain Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University. She served as a member of the faculty at Columbia University as Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, where she participated in translational research, presented her findings at national conferences, mentored trainees, and taught Columbia psychiatry residents. Her work has led to publications within numerous psychiatry textbooks as well as in leading journals, including the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Psychiatry Research, and the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.

Leader and Educator

After leaving Columbia, Dr. Kaur founded and directed graymatters medical practice, a practice dedicated to providing high-quality mental health services that are rooted in evidence-based neuroscience, the strength of human connection, and the centering of equity and inclusion. She leads and trains a multi-disciplinary team of mental health professionals, spanning the fields of nursing (nurse practitioners and psychiatric nurses), social work, mental health counseling, and occupational therapy. The practice also serves as a clinical training site for Columbia and NYU students. All staff and trainees are mentored to develop expertise in their own niches and encouraged to participate in novel programming in mental health promotion. One of her broader premises is that mental health care does not begin and end in a therapy room, but rather requires clinicians to form relationships transcending the typical session, to understand the sociocultural landscape of their patients’ lives, and to affect change that improves mental health on individual, familial, and community levels.

Creator of the graymatters model

The graymatters approach is the culmination of Dr. Kaur’s research experience and clinical practice. You may have noticed that “graymatters” is intentionally lower-cased. This speaks to the culture of “confident humility” that defines the practice. Our clinicians are confident, based on their extensive and high-quality training, that they are well-positioned to guide clients toward wellness, but they are also humble. They are comfortable admitting when they don’t know something. They are able to defer to the patient as the expert (as long as they are not professionally uncomfortable with the joint plan forward). They are able to see their own privilege and make conscious efforts to act with humility. Dr. Kaur hopes that many people will continue to benefit from our model and services, and looks forward to spreading our model by continuing to train students and staff who will go out and practice with the teachings and ideals of our practice.