About

Dr. Pearlstein became interested in mental health and psychological science while completing undergraduate degrees in psychology and cognitive science at Truman State University. After college, she worked at Stanford University, contributing to research on early interventions for childhood depression and bipolar disorders. During graduate training at the University of California, Berkeley, her work spanned basic emotional and cognitive mechanisms of psychopathology, clinical intervention development, and the ways stress, identity, and context shape mental health outcomes. Her postdoctoral fellowship focused on improving mental health outcomes and access to care for people with diverse forms of disability.

Across her clinical, research, and public-facing work, Dr. Pearlstein is motivated by a desire to improve mental healthcare and expand how we think about well-being, functioning, and participation. She provides psychological services grounded in evidence-based practice and works to help individuals build lives that feel meaningful, sustainable, and aligned with their values. Her approach emphasizes collaboration, strengths, and respect for the complexity of people’s lived experiences.

As a person with a disability, Dr. Pearlstein is also engaged in advocacy and public scholarship focused on disability, healthcare access, and equity. She has served in leadership roles advancing disability advocacy within psychology, including as Health Service Psychology subgroup leader of the Disability Advocacy Research Network.

She is also the author of Hard Joy, a Substack newsletter that blends personal narrative, psychology, and social analysis to explore disability, parenting, grief, caregiving, healthcare, and the emotional paradoxes of ordinary life. Through this work, she writes about disability not only as a medical or personal experience, but as a lens for understanding relationships, interdependence, identity, and the systems that shape daily life. She also contributes writing to academic and public-facing outlets related to disability and mental health.

Outside of work, Dr. Pearlstein enjoys spending time with family and friends, being outdoors, traveling, good food, and listening to books and podcasts.