Introduction

Lusha Liu, Doctor of Medicine, is currently working for the largest teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School (HMS), the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Cross-cultural Student Emotional Wellness.

Borned and raised in China, she completed her psychiatry residency at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She then finished the psychoanalysis training program co-held by the Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute and HMS.

As a psychiatrist and counselor, she has been working as an advisor for students’ emotional wellness for over 20 years. She dedicates herself in helping Asian-American adolescents with their mental-health problems and advising high school and college international students from mainland China on issues such as anxiety and depression caused by mood disorders due to culture shock and generational conflict.

Such cases have rapidly increased over the past decade, and suicidal tendencies among teenagers have rocketed.

Because of which, Doctor Liu gave many public lectures for schools and social organizations. In 2014, with the support of MGH, she established the MGH Center for Cross-Cultural Student Emotional Wellness.

As the co-founder of the Center, she has devoted herself to navigating Asian-American adolescents and Chinese students overseas on topics such as emotional wellness at school, early career planning after graduation, and successful interpersonal communication at work under the impact of cultural diversity worldwide.

Dr. Liu also focuses on intergenerational communication between parents and children, helping parents understand the mental confusions and struggles their children face along their ways in this multicultural world.

From 2014 to 2018, she served as the Chief Consultant of Cross-Cultural Psychiatry at the Obama federal government’s medical base, providing services to immigrant communities from various regions around the world.

Dr. Liu’s primary expertise lies in clinical psychiatric practice, including inpatient care, psychiatric outpatient services, psychological counseling for normal mental development, and psychotherapy. She has also held long-term clinical and teaching roles in the Inpatient Departments at the hospital affiliated to Harvard Medical School (Cambridge Hospital), hospitals affiliated to Tufts Medical School (Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Melrose Wakefield Hospital), and the psychiatric hospital of the Medical School of Boston University (Arbour Hospital).

Based on her years of practice, she developed the “SWEET Life Model” and “SWEET Dialogue Model” in her private clinic, aiming at providing mental care for Asian youth and multicultural communities. These models guide students on how to engage in harmonious and healthy conversations with their parents, schools, and workplaces to express the resources and support they need for personal growth and success.

Dr. Liu, together with the Harvard team, raised awareness of anxiety and depression caused by global cultural influences and made it into American textbooks. She has also provided related case studies and educational materials for American journals on children and adolescents. 

Dr. Liu is a mother of two children. Her daughter graduated from Columbia University in New York, and her son graduated from MIT. She enjoys hiking, running, yoga, reading, and classical music.

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