Maria Muzik

Dr. Muzik is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology at Michigan Medicine. Her work focuses on the impact of stress, trauma and mental illness in the context of childbearing on caregiving and the developing parent-child relationship, and how to support families in overcoming psychological and environmental adversity. She serves as Principal or Co-Investigator on multiple projects funded by the National Institute of Health, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services-Administration for Children and Families, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in Michigan. She holds a doctorate in Medicine and master’s degree in Public Health, and serve as the Medical Director of the Perinatal Psychiatry Program at Michigan Medicine in charge of perinatal clinical care delivery both within psychiatry as well as integrated within obstetrics, family medicine and pediatrics. Additionally, she is the medical director for MC3 Perinatal, a state-wide perinatal access program to primary care, public health nursing, community mental health and other health providers. She is the co-director of Zero To Thrive, a multidisciplinary initiative at the University of Michigan focused on promoting science, increasing public awareness, and developing and implementing programs and services to buffer risks and enhance resilience in young children under the age of 5. Within the scope of this work she has co-developed the Strong Roots Curricula, a series of interventions for parents and other caregivers to foster caregivers’ reflective capacity and enhance their sensitive caregiving, and ultimately, to benefit the wellness and health of young children. In 2018, she has co-edited the book Motherhood in the Face of Trauma: Pathways Towards Healing and Growth (Springer, 2018). Dr. Muzik is highly published with over 140 articles in peer-reviewed journals.  

Her research focuses on:

• Perinatal mood disorders
• Impact of perinatal mood disorders on family and child functioning, including intergenerational transmission of risk and resilience
• Trauma, stress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the childbearing years
• Neurobiology of stress, depression and PTSD
• Parent-infant relationships in postpartum, including dyadic and relationship-focused psychotherapy
• Implementation science- development and implementation of perinatal treatments for parents and children