Professional Work. For nearly a decade, her career as a psychologist has been at UCLA, working in numerous outpatient pediatric multidisciplinary medical clinics (such as cardiology, nephrology, heart and kidney transplant), where she provided consultations and treatment for medically fragile youth, young adults, and their families. She enjoyed working alongside the medical team members, including cardiologists, nephrologists, nurse practitioners, social workers, and dietitians to provide comprehensive care. She was the former Outpatient Director of Clinical Psychology at the UCLA Children’s Heart Center where she continued to work with youth and young adults with complex cardiac issues, conducted heart transplant evaluations to provide pre-surgical psychological clearance for patients and provided input/recommendations to the transplant selection committee, delivered resilience skills training for cardiomyopathy and transplant youth and families, and trained pre-doctoral psychology trainees. She has presented at international conferences, such as the International Pediatric Transplant Association (IPTA) and The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT).

Concurrently, Dr. Kanchi also held a position with the UCLA Behavioral Wellness Center, where she focused on boosting the wellness and resilience of highly ambitious and hard working medical students, medical residents, and fellows. Working with frontline healthcare workers was particularly meaningful during the unprecedented circumstances involving the COVID-19 pandemic as she had the opportunity to help young physicians navigate an array of significant stressors — including long and rigorous work hours, PPE shortages, patient and family deaths, isolation — as well as provide treatment for symptoms of burnout, anxiety, depression, and trauma. While having her roles at UCLA, Dr. Kanchi also established her private practice about 8 years ago; she has continued to enjoy working with both youth and adults of various backgrounds, professions, and diagnostic profiles. She is thrilled to expand her practice at this time!

Glimpse into the Personal Life. Dr. Kanchi is a fun-loving #girlmom to her 2 beautiful daughters! She cherishes her time with family and friends, loves attending her daughter’s soccer games and cheering from the sidelines, dancing with the daughters, going on road trips, and collaborating with her husband to facilitate charity work back home in Sri Lanka. The recent project involved providing essential newborn care packages for pregnant mothers living in poverty conditions in the remote village of Ambilipitiya, Sri Lanka. Dr. Kanchi aspires to create a non-profit foundation in the near future to expand this charity work, where she hopes to continue serving vulnerable local communities and those in Sri Lanka.