Psychiatric care that considers your mental and physical health together
I work with people experiencing a combination of mental and physical health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, ADHD and challenges around weight and eating. I have a particular interest in supporting women whose mental health may be interacting with physical changes and wider health concerns, including during perimenopause.
Alongside my work as a general psychiatrist, I have extensive specialist experience in bariatrics and weight management. For the past 15 years, I have provided psychiatric care within the multidisciplinary team at the Imperial Weight Centre at St Mary’s Hospital. This experience shapes a broader approach: looking beyond a diagnosis or individual symptom to understand what you want help with, what has and hasn’t worked before, and how treatment can support the outcomes that matter to you.
- 27 years’ professional experience
- Consultant Psychiatrist | GMC 4677802
- 15 years’ specialist experience at the Imperial Weight Centre
Could we be a good fit?
You may find my approach useful if:
You’re experiencing depression or anxiety and want to understand your treatment options with an experienced psychiatrist.
Your mental and physical health seem to be interacting, and you want your care to consider both rather than treating them as entirely separate problems.
You’re struggling with your weight or are receiving weight-management or bariatric care and would benefit from specialist psychiatric input alongside it.
You’re taking psychiatric medication and want to review how well it is working, particularly where side effects are affecting your quality of life.
You’re a woman experiencing low mood, ADHD alongside other health concerns, or changes around perimenopause, and want to consider the wider picture.
Previous approaches haven’t helped enough and you want an experienced psychiatrist who is willing to look at the problem from a different angle.
What working together can look like
When we first meet, I’ll want to understand what you would like help with and what you hope treatment will change.
We’ll look at your goals, the outcomes that matter to you and what you have tried previously — including what has helped and what hasn’t.
My style is warm and compassionate, but also direct. I want us to be able to talk clearly about what is happening and what might help, while making sure that your priorities remain central to the conversation.
Looking at the problem from more than one angle
Psychiatric difficulties don’t always have one simple explanation or one route forward.
When a problem keeps returning or previous treatment hasn’t produced the change we hoped for, I’m willing to reconsider it. That can mean looking at the difficulty from a different perspective, thinking alongside your therapist or other professionals involved in your care, and considering whether another approach could be more useful.
My background in multidisciplinary weight-management care has particularly reinforced the importance of looking at mental and physical health together.
Medication as part of the wider picture
Medication management is an important part of my psychiatric practice, including considering how medication is helping and whether side effects are creating additional difficulties.
The aim is not simply to prescribe medication, but to consider it in the context of what you want treatment to achieve and your wider mental and physical health.
Psychological perspectives
My psychiatric work is also informed by several psychological approaches.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help us think about difficult thoughts and feelings differently while considering what matters to you and how you want to live.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) provides a way of considering relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviour and identifying patterns that may be contributing to current difficulties.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) can help us consider recurring patterns in how you relate to yourself and other people.
I also draw on psychodynamic understanding, including considering how previous experiences and relationships may influence what is happening in the present.
These perspectives give us different ways of understanding a difficulty rather than assuming every person needs the same approach.
Areas of experience
My work has included supporting people with a range of emotional, relational and behavioural difficulties, including:
Psychiatric assessment and treatment for depression, anxiety and related emotional difficulties.
Psychiatric care within weight-management pathways, including extensive experience working with people living with obesity and people undergoing bariatric treatment.
Reviewing psychiatric medication as part of a wider treatment plan, with particular attention to effectiveness and reducing problematic side effects where possible.
Working with people whose psychiatric and physical health concerns overlap, including women experiencing perimenopause alongside ADHD, low mood or other mental health difficulties.
About Samantha
Dr Samantha Scholtz brings together 27 years of psychiatric experience with a longstanding specialist interest in obesity, bariatrics and the relationship between mental and physical health.
She completed her medical degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1999 before undertaking higher specialist training at St George’s University of London. Her career has also included three years working within a national eating disorders unit.
For the past 15 years, Samantha has worked as part of the multidisciplinary team at the Imperial Weight Centre at St Mary’s Hospital, providing psychiatric care for people receiving weight-management treatment.
Her interest in this field extends into research.
Samantha holds a PhD from Imperial College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust, which examined changes in appetite and food reward in people who had undergone bariatric surgery using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
She continues to publish in the psychological management of people living with obesity and related conditions, with more recent work focusing on lived experience, and presents within her area of expertise at national and international conferences.
Alongside her clinical work, Samantha has spent the past 10 years at West London NHS Trust and for the last five years has also held the corporate role of Research and Development Director.
This combination of clinical psychiatry, specialist bariatric experience and research means she is accustomed to considering problems from several perspectives — particularly where physical health, mental health, medication, eating and weight intersect.
Qualifications & Professional Credentials
Medical Degree
University of Stellenbosch – 1999
PhD
Imperial College London – Research examining appetite and food reward following bariatric surgery
Professional registrations & memberships
General Medical Council (GMC)
GMC number: 4677802
Specialist professional experience
View selected specialist professional experience
- Imperial Weight Centre, St Mary’s Hospital – 15 years providing psychiatric care within a multidisciplinary weight-management service
- West London NHS Trust – 10 years
- Research and Development Director, West London NHS Trust – Last five years
- National Eating Disorders Unit – Three years
Professional roles & memberships
- Chair — West London Clinical Ethics Group – March 2020–present
- Co-Chair — North West London Data Access Group for DiscoverNOW dataset – September 2021–present
- Member — North West London Sector Clinical Ethics Committee – January 2021–present
- Faculty Member — Faculty of Eating Disorders, Royal College of Psychiatrists – April 2020–present
- Member — Advisory Group on Nutrition, Weight and Health, Royal College of Physicians – March 2017–present
What happens when you get in touch?
Start with a conversation
Your free 20-minute discovery call is an opportunity to tell us what has brought you to therapy, what you are looking for and ask any questions you may have.
Find the right fit
We’ll consider your needs, preferences and what you would like from therapy, then recommend the practitioner we believe is best placed to support you.
Agree the next step
If you feel comfortable with the recommendation, our team will talk you through availability, fees and how to arrange your first session.
Fees
Samantha’s session length and current fees were not included in the questionnaire response and should be confirmed before publication.
We’ll confirm current availability and answer any practical questions during your discovery call.
Session (90-minutes)
You don’t need to know exactly what kind of help you need
You may have a clear idea of what you want to address, or you may be trying to understand how different aspects of your mental and physical health fit together.
A free 20-minute discovery call is a chance to tell us what has been happening, ask questions and understand whether Samantha — or another member of the team — is the right person to support you.
Confidential – No pressure – Clear next steps