The UAB Medical West Hoover Health Center is proud to welcome Dr. Harveen Sodhi, MD! Dr. Sodhi will be joining the family medicine team at the Hoover Health Center.
Dr. Sodhi began her undergraduate career in medicine at the Government Medical College (GMC) & Rajindra Hospital in Patiala, India, where she received her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 2012.
After returning stateside in 2012, Dr. Sodhi began preparing for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) boards and applied for residency with the Montgomery Family Medicine Residency Program, which started in 2015.
From 2015-2018, Dr. Sodhi completed a residency in the Montgomery Family Medicine Residency program in Montgomery, Alabama. Sodhi, who was raised in Alabama, moved back to her hometown of Hoover to be closer to family after graduating from GMC in Patiala.
“Being at the Hoover Health Center allowed me to practice medicine and also be close to my family,” she said.
Beginnings
Originally, Dr. Sodhi was drawn to psychiatry. “I’m fascinated by the mind and how it works,” she says. However, after shadowing different psychiatric wards, she was missing the relationship-aspect of family medicine. Oftentimes, she says, she would miss the long-term connection she’d build with families and the “back-and-forth” connection she’d receive from patients that felt comfortable and open with her.
She learned that she could assist with mental health on a micro-level in family medicine. Dr. Sodhi preaches a strong mind-body connection and aims to increase mental health awareness for her patients and the surrounding community. “Mental health affects everyone, and I want to see my patients as complex, whole ‘people,’” she says.
Instead of a “pill to solve everything,” Dr. Sodhi works with her patients to understand their lifestyle and goals. Although each patient is unique, Dr. Sodhi often recommends at-home solutions to common problems, including exercise and mindfulness — slowing down and taking time to reflect and be calm (which can promote decreased anxiety and stress).
Career Goals
Mental health is very important to Dr. Sodhi, and with time, she’d like to increase awareness and create initiatives around strengthened mind/body connections for her community. Dr. Sodhi, during challenging times in residency, became aware of the necessity of providing mental health and wellness initiatives that encourage patients to feel and perform their best outside of the waiting room.
Particularly, she aims to debunk the idea of “millennial wellness,” an often misconstrued idea of taking care of yourself through self-care practices. She says the message often gets lost, and people don’t understand the importance of taking time to focus on personal development — instead, using the term “self-care” to shirk responsibilities and obligations.
Overall, she says, she’d like to incorporate mental and women’s health into her traditional family medical practice. She enjoys the variety that family medicine provides and aims to keep traditional family medicine core in her practice.
Outside the Office
Dr. Sodhi enjoys baking and practicing yoga, specifically yin yoga and vinyasa flows. With yoga, she’s able to feel centered and calm — a facet of “slowing down” she promotes to her patients.
After graduation, she received a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy, named “Stennie,” after bacteria Dr. Sodhi says she, along with fellow classmates, had difficulty pronouncing while in residency. “He takes up a lot of my time,” she says with a laugh.
Welcome, Dr. Sodhi! Learn about our experienced doctors at the UAB Medical West Hoover Health Center, or make an appointment and visit us! Call us at 205-820-8440 today to get started!