About Dr. Barnes

Diana Lynn Barnes Psy.D

Diana Lynn Barnes Psy.D is a psychotherapist who has been specializing in women’s reproductive mental health for over 25 years. Frequently interviewed by the media, Dr. Barnes is widely published on all facets of women’s mental health around the child-bearing years. She wrote the guidelines for the assessment and treatment of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders for the Perinatal Advisory Council of Los Angeles. She is the editor and contributing author of the definitive reference text, Women’s reproductive mental health across the lifespan, published by Springer in 2014. She also authored a chapter on altruistic filicide and a chapter on pregnancy denial for Filicide and infanticide: Foundations in maternal mental health forensics (American Psychiatric Publishing, 2020). She is a past president of Postpartum Support International and currently sits on their Advisory council. In 2015, Dr. Barnes was appointed as the mental health consultant to the California Commission on the Status of Maternal Mental Health and in 2016 to the California Maternal Mortality Review Panel. She currently Chairs the Special Interest Group on Forensics and Maternal Mental Health for the International Marcé Society.

In addition to private practice devoted to women’s mental health, Dr. Barnes is a forensic expert on issues pertaining to maternal mental health and the criminal justice system and is frequently retained by counsel on cases of pregnancy denial and neonaticide, postpartum psychosis and infanticide as well as child abuse and neglect where a child/children may have been harmed. She is on the editorial advisory board for Forensic Scholars and is a contributing author to that publication. She is featured in 3 documentaries about perinatal disorders.

In 2009, Dr. Barnes received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Eli Lilly Foundation for her extraordinary contributions to the field of maternal mental health and child-bearing-related mood disorders. She maintains a private practice in the greater Los Angeles area.