Department Chair, Psychiatry
Department Chair, Psychiatry
Dr. Leahy is a Board-Certified Child/Adolescent, Adult and Forensic Psychiatrist. He earned his medical degree at the St. James School of Medicine and completed his general psychiatry training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, where he was also named Chief Resident. He received his Child/Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship training at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital where he was also appointed Co-Chief Fellow. He received additional training in psychotherapy at the Florida Psychoanalytic Institute. In 2019 he completed a Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
Dr. Leahy earned his B.A. at Marquette University and a Master’s degree in Financial Markers at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In the eight years between graduate school and medical school, Dr. Leahy worked as a Chicago Police officer. He credits his firsthand experiences on the street with acquainting him with the mental health crises faced by the victims, the perpetrators and the families of both. After a few years, he found that merely taking people to the hospital for emergency treatment was not enough. He needed a deeper understanding of the causes and treatments for people in crisis.
As a medical student, he volunteered for a year at Port Ministries Health Clinic, a Catholic-run free clinic on the south side of Chicago. Because of his police background, Dr. Leahy has gravitated to working with First Responders who have undergone critical incidents. He is a regular speaker at Post Critical Incident Seminars (PCIS) in South Carolina for law enforcement where he presents on the topic of medications for anxiety and depressive disorders and is part of the mental health team, providing EMDR therapy.