Mihoko Maru, PhD, LCSW, MA

Bio

Mihoko Maru, PhD, LCSW, MA is dedicated to promoting mental health equity in both domestic and international contexts and enhancing trauma-informed mental healthcare in under-resourced communities. She has over 10 years of experience in intervention research and program evaluations of community-based mental health and parenting programs.  

Domestically, Dr. Maru’s work has focused on examining the impact of trauma and immigration-related factors on youth suicidality, caregiver mental health, and caregiver-child relationships of Asian and Latine Americans. Internationally, she collaborates with the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Nelson R Mandela School of Clinical Medicine in Durban, South Africa to improve treatments for young people with early psychosis. She is interested in developing a trauma-informed family intervention program to reduce the risk for mental illness among children, adolescents, and young adults in low-and-middle-income countries.   

Dr. Maru holds an MA in psychology, MSW and PhD in social work from Boston University. She completed a fellowship with the Boston University Medical Campus-Massachusetts General Hospital Global Psychiatry Clinical Research Training program (2022-2024). Additionally, she is a licensed clinical social worker with expertise in family interventions for serious mental illness and child and adolescent trauma.