Rebecca Lawrence
Doctor
Rebecca Lawrence is a Scottish consultant psychiatrist who has worked at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, including in addiction and pain management. She is also the author of the 2024 memoir An Improbable Psychiatrist, which reflects on her path from experiencing severe mental illness as a patient to later training and working as a psychiatrist. [4]
Last updated
Career and work
Lawrence studied medicine in Edinburgh and initially trained in general practice before later entering psychiatry. She completed specialist psychiatric training in Edinburgh and passed the membership examinations of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. [1]
She went on to train in addiction psychiatry and became a consultant psychiatrist, first in the Scottish Borders and later at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Her clinical work has included addiction and pain management. [4]
In 2024, Cambridge University Press published her memoir, An Improbable Psychiatrist, about her experiences both as a doctor and as someone who has received psychiatric care herself. [1]
What has been publicly discussed
“I was 26, training to be a GP, and I didn’t think I would ever work as a doctor again.”
— Rebecca Lawrence [2]
