She was wearing an indigo jumpsuit and sandals. “I have a go-to blazer by Nili Lotan that makes me feel strong,” she said. “I can throw it on with a T-shirt and Proenza flat sandals that I stand tall in.
“I’ve learned that clothes can actually help lift you out of yourself, to be a different version of yourself, to feel strong.”
Strong enough, apparently, to manage a blog, “Positive Prescription,” treat patients, publish in scientific journals and, in spare hours, teach at Weill Cornell, where she is a clinical instructor in psychiatry and assistant attending psychiatrist.
“Her great strength is that she can dive into the literature and find something that scientists can understand but also a general reader,” said George Makari, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and historian at Weill Cornell, who has known Dr. Boardman since her student days there. “She finds fresh ways of looking at things,” he said. “There is always a bit of ‘Wow, I didn’t know that.’”
Now she is about to add “pop shrink” to her roster of credentials. Her book, “Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength,” out on Aug. 10, articulates the precepts of positive psychiatry, its central premise, as she writes, that “we flourish more when we turn away from the mirror and look out the window.”
Her arguments are fresh and credible, Dr. Makari said. “She synthesizes information very quickly, reads all of the scientific journals, and pulls together nuggets that come from the data and allow the reader to find something actionable.”
