Katherine Ponte
LawyerAdvocate
Canada
Katherine Ponte is a Canadian lawyer, mental-health advocate and nonprofit founder. She founded ForLikeMinds, a peer-support community focused on mental-illness recovery, and is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. [1]
Career and work
Ponte earned a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1994 and worked as a lawyer for approximately five years, including legal work in Canada and Brazil. She later earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and subsequently worked in business, finance and entrepreneurship. [8][1]
Beginning in 2018, Ponte shifted much of her work toward mental-health recovery and peer support. She founded ForLikeMinds, an online community for people living with mental illness and those supporting them, and later developed additional initiatives including BipolarThriving and Psych Ward Greeting Cards. [1]
Ponte joined the Yale School of Medicine faculty in 2021 and is now an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. Her work at Yale has included research on peer-support interventions and services affecting people living with mental illness. She has also written several books and workbooks focused on mental-health recovery. [1]
What has been publicly discussed
Sources and other resourcesExpand to view the sources used in this profile and resources to learn more.
Sources used for this profile
The following sources contain information that supports the claims made on this page.
Yale School of MedicineKatherine Ponte Provides Ponte’s professional background, faculty role, lived experience with bipolar I disorder, peer-support work, ForLikeMinds and Psych Ward Greeting Cards.
profile or biographyDecera Clinical EducationPatient Perspective – Bipolar Disorder A detailed first-person account of Ponte’s diagnosis, initial rejection of bipolar disorder, later hospitalization, acceptance of a bipolar I diagnosis and experiences with treatment and recovery.
article or webpageNAMIMy Reality During a Psychotic Episode Ponte’s first-person description of psychosis during a manic episode, including how delusional beliefs developed and felt convincing at the time.
article or webpage
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NAMIBipolar Depression: The Lows We Don’t Talk About Enough Discusses Ponte’s experiences with bipolar depression, medication, treatment goals and the importance of addressing functioning as well as acute symptoms.
profile or biographyNAMIThe Stages of My Mental Illness A first-person account of Ponte’s illness and recovery, including her view that recovery requires continued management rather than representing a cure.
article or webpageWebMDHow Bipolar Treatment Helped Me Get My Life Back Covers Ponte’s treatment history, recovery and stability.
article or webpageThe Stability NetworkKatherine Ponte A first-person profile addressing diagnosis, treatment, the role of her spouse and care team, and her understanding of recovery as building a meaningful life.
profile or biographyYale News, 2021For those battling mental illness, cards deliver hope during holidays Covers Ponte’s education and legal background and the development of Psych Ward Greeting Cards as a response to the isolation she experienced during hospitalization.
article or webpageSchizophrenia BulletinStigma, Meet Hope A first-person article by Ponte about severe mental illness, hospitalization, recovery, peer support and the importance of hope. It provides the quotation used in the profile.
profile or biographyNAMIarticle or webpage
Learn more
Recommended books and other resources about Katherine Ponte and their experiences.
- ForLikeMinds: Mental Illness Recovery InsightsBook · Katherine Ponte, 2020
Ponte’s book combines her own experience of severe bipolar disorder with practical material on accepting a diagnosis, stigma, treatment, relationships, triggers, peer support and building a meaningful life in recovery.
- Your Mental Health Recovery Workbook: A Workbook to Share HopeBook · Katherine Ponte, 2023
A structured workbook covering numerous aspects of serious-mental-illness recovery, drawing on lived experience and recovery-oriented tools.
- Loving Someone with a Serious Mental IllnessBook · Katherine Ponte and Izzy Goncalves, 2025
Written with Ponte’s husband, this book examines serious mental illness from both the person experiencing it and the caregiver’s perspectives.
- A Recovery JourneyVideo · Katherine Ponte
A first-person video in which Ponte tells her mental-health and recovery story.