Gabriela Cherascu, MD
(She, Her)
Dr. Cherascu is a double-boarded diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Adult Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry. She has been in practice for more than 20 years.
She has training in Family Medicine, and then completed a residency in Adult Psychiatry at Upstate New York University (Syracuse) and University of Iowa, followed by a geriatric fellowship at University of Iowa.
Dr. Cherascu worked for 5 years at Northern Maine Medical Center. On returning to Iowa City in 2008, she established the Palliative Care services at VA Medical Center. In 2010, she helped establish the inpatient and consultation-liaison Psychiatry Service Unit at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City and became Medical Director of Behavioral Health, where she remained until 2020.
Dr. Cherascu has extensive experience working with adult patients in multiple settings: rural and urban, community and academic, inpatient and outpatient, emergent and chronic care. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and is an active teacher, mentor, and community activist. She was pleased to be part of the steering committees of Cross Park and GuideLink, two new facilities in Iowa City that broadened the local psychiatric services and approaches to how the services are provided.
Dr. Cherascu’s practice philosophy is practical and no-nonsense, looking for simple and efficient ways of solving patient’s problems, making treatment plans, and working with families. Her prescribing medication practice is conservative, trying to minimize medications and unwanted side effects, while optimizing outcomes. She draws from a variety of psychotherapy techniques to improve results. She is a thorough and active listener to patient problems and stories.
New appointments are 90 minutes and follow-up appointments are a minimum of 30 minutes. In-person sessions are preferred over telemedicine. Her clinic welcomes patients between 18 and 150 years old.