A Welcome Message from Our Program Directors

Ana Ozdoba, MD

Program Director, Residency Training

Lisa H. Weiss, MD

Associate Program Director, Residency Training

Joseph M. Kim, MD

Associate Program Director, Residency Training

Congratulations on your decision to begin a career in psychiatry. Your journey is promised to be intellectually exciting, personally rewarding and emotionally transformative. Indeed, this is a remarkable time to enter the field. The explosion of knowledge in the neurosciences and the integration of this knowledge with sophisticated psychological understanding of the individual patient makes the practice of modern psychiatry complex, challenging and engrossing.

Our residency program prepares trainees for this changing world by enabling them to become excellent clinicians that integrate biological, psychodynamic, phenomenological and sociocultural models in the effective treatment of patients.

We believe that residency training is first and foremost a postgraduate education. Resident education encompasses a vast depth and breadth of patient care experiences in our program, and is not compromised by service delivery. While psychotherapy training is often overlooked or short-changed in training programs, we believe that becoming a competent psychotherapist is crucial and central to the professional identity and function of a psychiatrist. A developmental perspective on training is also key to our philosophy, reflecting a belief in the maturational aspects of becoming a psychiatrist.

In addition, we strongly believe individual supervision is a cornerstone in the development of clinical excellence. Our extensive and diverse faculty of psychoanalysts, generalists, service directors and specialists provides one-on-one and small group supervision in an array of areas, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, cognitive behavioral therapy, group, family, addiction psychiatry, etc. An extensive didactic curriculum further cultivates professional development. Finally, residents become part of our family, wherein their well-being and clinical and intellectual development are paramount. Through regular meetings with senior faculty, residents in our program are actively engaged in reviewing and revising the overall program. The training program belongs to the residents.

We also believe that the personal psychological growth of the resident and the development of increased emotional awareness are crucial to becoming an excellent clinician, as the psychology of both patient and clinician are centrally involved in all psychiatric treatments. In order to facilitate personal psychological growth and awareness, residents have a weekly experiential group with other residents, preceptors are available to each resident, and personal psychotherapy, if desired, is readily facilitated.

Finally, this Department views the four-year psychiatric residency as a powerful developmental experience that possesses specific stages during which the resident evolves in terms of clinical identity, personal emotional growth and psychological awareness. It is a demanding but incredibly fulfilling journey. We appreciate and welcome your interest in our program.