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How We Learn

Pathways, Belonging & Diversity, Public & Community Track, Research Track, Triple Board Program, Fellowships

At Stanford, we strongly emphasize self-directed and independent learning, coupled with strong mentorship to allow you to reach your goals. One of the ways in which we implement this philosophy is through our well-received scholarly concentration (elective) time in our curriculum. PGY-2 residents receive 8 weeks to explore their interests, whether clinical, educational, or research-related; PGY-3 residents receive 200 hours spread out throughout the year, and PGY-4 residents receive 500 hours spread out over 6-12 months (or 6 months of 50% time). This is time to pursue our interests (and residents often expand their projects to more than just the time allotted to them). Here are some of the ways in which residents are currently (or in the recent past) using their concentration time:

Clinical Examples

Specialized Clinical Experience:

  •  Women's mental health
  • La Clinica de la Raza
  • LGBTQIA+ mental health
  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
  • ECT
  • Neuropsychiatry
  • Integrative Mental Health
  • Forensic Psychiatry
  • Geriatric Psychiatry
  • Trauma Recovery Program
  • Addiction Psychiatry
  • Eating Disorders
  • Refugee Mental Health
  • Development of community partnership with Roots Community Health Center in Oakland
     

Additional Training in Psychotherapy:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia
  • Couples Therapy including LGBTQIA+ couples
  • Advanced Topics in CBT
  • DBT for Adult Eating Disorders
  • Black CAPS (African and African-American Stanford students)
  • Advanced Topics in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
  • Cognitive Processing Therapy
  • Mindfulness-based substance use reduction therapy
  • Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy  

Educational Examples

  • Development of lunchtime talks on mental health portrayals in the public media
  • Resident-led medical student reflection groups
  • Gender & Sexuality, Culture & Spirituality curriculum development
  • Guiding Asian parents towards more effective communication with their teens (www.stanfordchipao.com)
  • Creating educational materials for early psychosis patients
  • Inpatient curriculum development for residents to teach medical students
  • Completing an MPH or MBA
  • Minority Stress and Outreach Workshops
  • Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Fellowship
  • Development of a Stanford University course: Leadership in Mental Health
  • Assisting psychiatry faculty in the teaching of Stanford undergraduate humanities courses: Culture & Madness, and Psych & Art & Literature
  • Co-leading underclassmen in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy supervision
  • Development of simulation- and interdisciplinary-based didactic on management of psychiatric behavioral emergencies
  • Development of neuroscience curriculum
  • Development of online cultural psychiatry curriculum
  • Development of didactics on privilege and allyship
  • Development of didactic on mental health and the criminal justice system

Global Mental Health Examples

  • Jujuy, Argentina
  • Chennai, India
  • Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala
  • Petra, Jordan
  • Kathmandu, Nepal (post-earthquake)
  • Houston, TX (post-hurricane)
  • Sweden

Exploratory & QI Examples

  • Writing columns on mental health in popular media outlets (i.e. Washington Post, Scientific American)
  • Literature of Psychosis - studying psychosis through artistic expressions and literary works
  • Studying cultural influences on body image perceptions
  • Understanding health technology
  • Interviewing teens at juvenile hall to better understand risk and protective factors
  • Development of a Spiritual Psychiatric Integrative Residential Intensive Treatment Program (SPIRIT)
  • Effective interventions for the prevention of PTSD in post-disaster settings
  • Designing ICUs to reduce delirium potential (in collaboration with the Stanford Design School)
  • Archetypal and Existential Psychotherapy
  • Creating medical documentation orientation for interns
  • QI: Improving process for managing crisis calls
  • QI: Improving discharge summary templates
  • QI: Creation of more streamlined signout process for on-call residents
  • Asian American mental health
  • Transgender and non-binary mental health

Research Examples

  • Influential factors in high-functioning psychosis
  • Development of interdisciplinary simulation modules
  • Metabolic Disorder in patients with schizophrenia in Argentina
  • Biomarkers using EEG for the Amelioration of Mood disorders (BEAM) study
  • Benzodiazepine Review manuscript
  • Factors driving educational inequality
  • Geriatric psychiatry inpatient interventions for reducing readmission
  • Studying effects of various therapy models for functional neurological disorder
  • Neuroimaging in children with autism
  • Understanding the impact of the environment on health-behaviors (nutrition, healthy eating, community food systems, food security)
  • Needs assessment in access to mental health care in underserved community of East San Jose
  • Functional connectivity of adolescents at risk for depression
  • Eating disorder assessments and treatments
  • Reviewing literature on stigma and mental health utilization by Korean immigrants and Korean-Americans
  • Outcomes for ECT non-remitters
  • Imaging studies in substance use disorders and PTSD
  • Cultural factors in caretaking of chronically mentally ill patients in the Chinese community
  • Refugee Mental Health, Human Rights, and Gender-Based Violence
  • Obesity and Weight Management Disorders
  • Qualitative research regarding attitudes of athletes and cultural aspects of athletics that influence participation in mental health interventions