I earned my medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed my psychiatry residency at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh where I served as Chief Resident for Psychotherapy Training. It was during residency that I first became aware of just how complex our human suffering is. While being trained at one of the most biologically-informed psychiatry training programs in the country, I simultaneously began intensive training in depth-oriented psychotherapy (psychoanalytic/psychodynamic psychotherapy). It was the combination of both approaches that helped to clarify, for me, that the nature of suffering is incredibly context dependent: social, historical, political, biological and personal. Without looking at these factors, no biological intervention—even the best ones available to modern science—prove satisfyingly effective over the long run.
Education in psychotherapy is a passion of mine. My own education started in residency and continued after residency through a formal training in psychoanalysis. Formal psychoanalytic training includes years of additional didactic course work, supervisory hours, personal work, and clinical writing. I completed my training in adult psychoanalysis in 2019. Psychoanalytic approaches very widely too and for those with some background in understanding the theories behind those approaches, my own theoretic orientation is Relational. I would describe my style of working as deeply informed through an interpersonal tradition (Ferenczi, Sullivan, Levenson, Mitchell, Aron, Stern) mixed with an increasing attention towards Contemporary Object-Relations approaches to thinking about the mind (Winnicott, Searles, Alvarez, Williams).
Education, by way of teaching, is something I am very committed to professionally. I have run a weekly group course for psychiatry residents since 2015 where I help psychiatrists-in-training develop into psychotherapists who can engage their work in ways that lead to deep forms of healing for their patients. In 2020, I worked to develop the nonprofit organization, the Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies, who’s mission is to help provide high quality psychoanalytic education to mental health clinicians in the Pittsburgh region. Within that organization, I design curriculum, coordinate new programming, teach individual courses, and provide consultation. I continue to provide ongoing supervision, teaching and consultation to psychiatry residents and psychotherapists in the broader Pittsburgh community.
LOREN JAY SOBEL M.D., M.S.
EMPLOYMENT:
LJS Psychiatry: Psychiatrist, Owner
APPOINTMENTS:
University of Pittsburgh Physicians, Department of Psychiatry: Volunteer Clinical Assistant Professor
Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies, Originating Faculty Member
TRAINING:
Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center: Certificate in Adult Psychoanalysis
Chief Resident for Psychotherapy Training: Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
General Adult Psychiatry Residency: Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
EDUCATION:
Medical School: University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Graduate: University of Arizona
Undergraduate: University of Arizona