Welcome

We are the Psychiatry Student Interest Group (PsychSIG) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, organized by and for medical students to facilitate exploration, mentorship, and leadership in psychiatry. We hope this website will serve as a useful resource for all students interested in the field.

Our Mission Statement

Exploration: We are dedicated to exploring the practice of psychiatry and its subspecialties. We have accomplished this through faculty lectures on psychiatry, group outings to events in the community, and by providing access to information about psychiatry to our members.

Mentorship: We want our members to have people they can turn to with questions. For this reason, we have developed a mentoring program where students can approach residents and practicing physicians to dialogue about the training process, lifestyle, and practice of psychiatry.

Leadership: This group provides leadership opportunities for all members. Along with the traditional leadership roles for an interest group, we will also provide opportunities for event and mentorship coordinators to help students develop their leadership potential.

PsychSIG at UCLA is also a part of the Psychiatry Student Interest Group Network (PsychSIGN), a nationwide network of medical students interested in psychiatry, from those with a rough interest in the brain and mind to those already in the application and match process. PsychSIGN connects students across the country to their peers, to psychiatry residents, and to practicing psychiatrists from a broad range of subspecialties.

UCLA Mindfulness Selective

UCLA DGSOM is offering a selective entitled “Learning and Teaching Mindfulness Meditation for Mental Health.” A brief course description:

Mindfulness can help alleviate symptoms in a broad range of psychiatric conditions including addiction, PTSD, psychotic illness, depression and anxiety. In this selective students will learn “insight” or Vipassana meditation practices for developing the three main skills of concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity. As psychiatric illness is a major contributor to homelessness, students will be given the training and opportunity to teach these skills at the Student-Run Homeless Clinic and in other mental health contexts.

Interested students can contact Brandon Susselman in the SAO for details about current scheduling.