A Warm Welcome to Dr Sumeet Singh
A Warm Welcome
Part of an extraordinary 1% club, Dr Sumeet Singh, Psychiatrist
Published 10 November, 2026
We are pleased to welcome Dr Sumeet Singh, Psychiatrist, to the Red Health Referral Network.
Did you know at one point there were only 300 psychiatrists serving the 25 million people in Malaysia? When Dr Sumeet Singh learned that it only strengthened her resolve to support the Malaysian community and help shift the stigma around mental health.
Dr Sumeet Singh is a consultant psychiatrist in the public system and consults in private practice in Australia. Dr Singh worked across public, private and academic psychiatry services in Malaysia after completing her medical degree, and obtaining her master’s in Psychological Medicine. She self-funded advanced psychodynamic psychotherapy training from Columbia University, and was admitted as a Fellow of the RACP in 2021.
Dr Singh’s formative years in Psychiatry were during a tumultuous time in Malaysian history. Reflecting on patient presentations between her early career in rural Malaysia, and her current private and public practice in Australia, the differences were stark. Dr Singh notes the complex interaction between culture, faith, family, and socioeconomic conditions when assessing patients.
“…you could see the difference in presentation when I was rostered to work in regional areas versus urban areas. And even urban areas, very different depending on the socioeconomic catchment that you’re in.”
– Dr Sumeet Singh
Seeing these immense challenges and rising above is a common theme for psychiatrist Dr Singh. Early in her career, while consulting in a rural area of Malaysia, she developed the local psychodynamic psychotherapy service with her out-of-hours time, and her own money for advanced training. After seeing the stigma and barrier in a very orthodox Muslim area, she saw the opportunity to deliver more than simply prescribing medication and help patients dive deeper into their recovery with talk therapy techniques.
“[Psychodynamic psychotherapy] it is basically a form of talk therapy. And it’s basically understanding our past and how that actually impacts our present and future, why previous patterns of behaviour still continue to sort of repeat themselves,”
– Dr Sumeet Singh
In 2006, I was in medical training, back in Malaysia as an intern. At the time, the country had a population of 25 million people and we had 300 psychiatrists serving the entire population. That was it. That’s when I knew it would be a perfect fit for me because there was such a shortage. I think being an Asian country, there was still a fair bit of stigma, which prevented a lot of doctors from pursuing psychiatry.
Yeah. I think one of the highlights was I spent two years as a young consultant in a very rural area in Malaysia. 90% of the population there was very orthodox Muslim. There was a lot of stigma, a lot of barrier to seeking help. And I set up a psychodynamic psychotherapy service within the clinic.
I led the service, so I would see a couple of patients over and above our usual duties. And I also had four registrars who were really keen, and each one of them picked up one patient a week. We would have a peer review once a week. So it was simultaneously setting up a service, offering something to a catchment area that had never seen anything like this before, and also training these registrars just to think a little bit outside of the box and not to just be so regimented.
Think, two months of unpaid leave. And I actually did an attachment, they called it an observership in Singapore, in the Institute of Mental Health.
I am a Bollywood junkie. I grew up watching Hindi films. I loved watching them every opportunity I got. I’ve also been heavily involved in Bollywood dance for the past five years. A few performances in the Queen Street mall and a couple of other Diwali events.
With two-month unpaid leave planned and approved, she completed an observership in Singapore bringing what she could back to her rural Malaysian practice. While the budget wasn’t available to replicate the high-end dim lighting, soft chairs, and less clinical environments, the techniques and lessons she learnt contributed greatly. Her goal was to deliver holistic treatment inclusive of both medication and talk therapy, something she delivered while in her rural clinician position.
“Yeah. I think one of the highlights was I spent two years as a young consultant in a very rural area in Malaysia. 90% of the population there was very orthodox Muslim. There was a lot of stigma, a lot of barrier to seeking help. And I set up a psychodynamic psychotherapy service within the clinic.
I led the service, so I would see a couple of patients over and above our usual duties. And I also had four registrars who were really keen, and each one of them picked up one patient a week. We would have a peer review once a week. So it was simultaneously setting up a service, offering something to a catchment area that had never seen anything like this before, and also training these registrars just to think a little bit outside of the box and not to just be so regimented.
Think, two months of unpaid leave. And I actually did an attachment, they called it an observership in Singapore, in the Institute of Mental Health.”
– Dr Sumeet Singh
A Bollywood Junkie. Perhaps not the title you’d expect Dr Singh to give herself, considering her long list of accomplishments, but her resume backs it up. Growing up watching Hindi films, Bollywood dancing for the last five years (although on a small pause with the recent addition to her family), performances at numerous Diwali events, and even a performance in the heart of the Brisbane CBD at an event in the Queen Street Mall.
“So I grew up watching Hindi films, love watching them every opportunity I get. I’ve been heavily involved in Bollywood dance for the past five years. A few performances in Queen Street Mall and a couple of other Diwali events. Not the best dancer, but I love it. Love Indian music, Indian films, love it.”
– Dr Sumeet Singh
In a touching and personal moment, Dr Singh would like another chance to have dinner with her father before the stroke. Not a bit of cooking would happen either, just a relaxing meal at their favourite Malaysian restaurant while they caught up.
“We’d head out to a restaurant. No cooking, no cooking. Just head out to a Malaysian restaurant.”
– Dr Sumeet Singh
Dr Sumeet Singh knows the context matters – the people, the place, the time. She’s seen it in rural Malaysia, she’s seen it in public Australian practice, and she’s seen it matter in private Australian practice. Dr Singh brings that wide perspective to her medico-legal assessments, with particular interest in chronic fatigue, addiction medicine, PTSD, adult and geriatric psychiatry, and personality disorders in addition to all assessment areas that Adult Psychiatrists can assess (not to mention a Bollywood Junkie).
It would be dinner with my father, who is alive but is incapacitated. So, it would be dinner with him before his stroke. We’d head out to a restaurant. No cooking, no cooking. Just head out to a Malaysian restaurant.
No, no way. No way.
Dogs, hands down.
I would say spring, but forced, winter. Summer is just, it’s just too much. It’s just too much.
