About the Doctor

Dr. Roybal is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist focusing on the treatment of mental health issues and enhancement of mental skill in sports and performance activities. She has treated athletes and performers at all levels throughout her career, from children to D1 level.

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She has been featured on 60 Minutes Overtime, San Antonio Express News, local ABC and CBS channels, and named Best Pediatric Specialist for Child Psychiatry by San Antonio Magazine. ​

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She takes a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on optimizing mental skills and mental preparation to address whatever is impeding performance and then will also evaluate for any psychiatric symptoms that may require further treatment such as medication or psychotherapy. She works with the athlete to identify and resolve the issues at hand that prevent peak performance.  ​

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In addition to her work in sports and performance psychiatry, Dr. Roybal is also an expert in mood disorders and anxiety in youth, having been an Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UT Health San Antonio where she was funded by the National Institutes of Health to study complex mood disorders in youth and the role of anxiety in these disorders. She has been published in numerous journals for her work examining the effects of mental health on the brain. She was also the former Director of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for Traumatic Injury at University Hospital in San Antonio, where she evaluated and treated the effects of concussion and other traumatic brain injury in children. She has worked on eating disorder units treating both the medical and mental health aspects of this illness in athletes. She utilizes various therapeutic approaches (CBT, DBT, ACT, ITP, FFT) along with sports lifestyle management, and medication management, if needed.

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Dr. Roybal is also part of the International Olympic Committee’s Diploma in Mental Health in Elite Sport program.  ​

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She is a former competitive dancer, ice skater, and Professional Ski Instructor of America for Disabled Sports USA. She is the mother to two boys, one of whom was on the USA Swimming National Championship Circuit. Her other son participates in AAU basketball and is the current National Champion in ITF Taekwondo and is a member of ITFU Taekwondo Team USA. In her spare time, she works on shuttling him to practices and preparing for the upcoming ITFU Taekwondo World Championships.​ 

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Dr. Roybal is bilingual in English/Spanish.