S O E T H E I N, M D

I am a board certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. I earned a bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology from Emory University (2012), where I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the No Rho Psi national honors society in neuroscience.

I was then awared an Intramural Research Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (2012-2014), where I researched how brain synapses adapt to environmental stressors. I attended the University of California–Irvine School of Medicine, where I graduated with distinction in the arts and humanities (2019) and was honored for my contributions to LGBTQIA+ health.

My postgraduate training includes a general psychiatry residency (2022) and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship (2024) at the University of California, Davis Medical Center. I additionally completed a two-year psychodynamic therapy training at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (2024).

I am currently part of the clinical faculty at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, where I teach and supervise psychotherapy to the residents and fellows.

I am also the creator of the Good Enough Psychiatry channel on YouTube, where I created animations describing psychodynamic psychotherapy principals for a popular audience.

I also volunteer at Telekyanmar, a non-profit healthcare service founded by the Ministry of Health of the National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, where I provide psychodynamic therapy and consult in child and adolescent psychiatry to children and adults in my home country.

  • HONORS & AWARDS

    American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Leatherman-Drell-Ritvo Grant Award for the Advancement of Psychodynamic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2024

    American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Psychotherapy Committee Education Award, 2002

    American Psychiatric Association Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship, 2021-2023.

    UC Davis Medical Center Public Psychiatry Service Award, 2020

    UC Irvine School of Medicine David Nick Hart Fellowship Award for outstanding service to LGBTQIA health, 2019

    American Medical Student Association LGBT Health Achievement Award, 2016

    Gay and Lesbian Medical Association LGBT Health Achievement Award, 2016

    UC Irvine School of Medicine Medical Humanity Research Award, 2015

    Parkin GM, McCarthy MJ, Thein S, … Thomas E. “Saliva testing as a means to monitor therapeutic lithium levels in patients with psychiatric disorders: Identification of clinical and environmental covariates, and their incorporation into a prediction model.” Bipolar Disord. 23.7 (2021): 679-688.

    Thein S, Giroux, C. (2020). “A 72-year-old woman with recurrent manic episodes following thyroidectomy.” Journal of Psychiatry Reform 9.4 (2022).

    Ochaba J, Fote G, Kachemov M, Thein S, Yeung SY, Lau AL, … Steffan JS. “IKKß slows Huntington’s disease progression in R6/1 mice.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 166.22 (2019): 10952-1096.

    Franich N, Basso M, Andre E, Ochaba J, Kumar A, Thein S, Fote G, Lau A, Yeung S, Osmand A, Zeitlin S, Ratan R, Thompson L, Steffan J. “Striatal mutant Huntingtin protein levels decline with age in homozygous Huntington’s disease knock-in mouse models.” Journal of Huntington's Disease 7.2 (2018): 137-150.

    Thein S, Pham A, Li Y, Tao-Cheng JH. Dosemeci A. “IKK regulates CYLD at the postsynaptic density.” Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 450.1 (2014): 550–554.

    Thein S, Tao-Cheng JH, Li Y, Bayer K, Reese T, Dosemeci A. “CaMKII mediates recruitment and activation of CYLD at the postsynaptic density.” PLOS ONE 9.3 (2014): e91312.

    Tao-Cheng JH, Thein S, Yang Y, Reese T, Gallant P. “Homer is concentrated at the postsynaptic density and does not redistribute after acute synaptic stimulation.” Neuroscience 266.1 (2014): 80-90.

    Dosemeci A, Thein S, Yang Y, Tao-Cheng JH, Reese TS. “CYLD accumulates at the postsynaptic density in an activity-dependent manner.” Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 430.1 (2013): 245-249.

    BOARD CERTIFICATION

    American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, general psychiatry 2023