Peer Facilitators are Year Four students who completed the Extreme Psychiatry course the previous year.

They are trained to coordinate group work and feedback, and are supported by the doctors to develop their own teaching and communication skills as the year progresses.

 

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Red Team

Anand Krishna

Hey! I’m Anand and this year I decided to take a hiatus from med school and enter the intercalated world. That’s not to say you won’t see me around Guy’s and St Thomas’, probably complete with my enormous squash bag. Extreme Psych is a great opportunity for me to stay in touch with my clinical side, and I’m really looking forward to passing on what I’ve learnt. In my spare time, I love playing squash, watching squash and running the university squash club. Did I mention I like squash?

Bethan Tyler

Welcome to Extreme Psychiatry! I am super excited to be involved this year (back on team red!) after loving being a student in the process so much last year – Tuesday evenings have not been the same without weekly doses of Extreme Psych. I fell in love with Psychiatry on my NOP rotation last year, and quickly began to see the real importance of it in every speciality throughout the other rotations.

In my spare time I love to bake (and generally feed people) and can always be found with a cup of tea! I come from a family of musicians so love all things musical as well. In my BSc year I discovered the wonderful Karate club, and have been training there for the last 2 years (limbs are all still intact so far).

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Green Team

Catherine Cook

Hi I’m Catherine! Ethnically I’m half Korean and half English but I’m from Bournemouth (home to the best beach in England). I’m in my 5th year at King’s having done an intercalated degree in Anatomy. Outside of Medicine, I love keeping active, especially dancing and I used to compete for King’s on the Dance Society’s competition team: Fusion in jazz and contemporary. I tried lacrosse out for a year (grammar school girl re-emerging) and I sucked, so now I just stick to what I know. Extreme Psychiatry helped me so much last year and was the best teaching I received during my NOP rotation – I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. Go team green!!

Mao Lim

Depending on the company I’m with, I clarify the spelling of my name with either “like Chairman Mao but a different Mao” or “monoamine oxidase”. I am an artist, a cat lover and an aspiring psychiatrist – the combination of the three resulting in a penchant for Louis Wain’s art (particularly Ginger Cat and Kaleidoscope Cats II & III), as well as meowing at and trying to pet innocent passer-by cats. I am also an obsessive pun maker (I don’t think I have Witzelsucht). Apologies in advance to the entire Extreme Psych team for the pun-filled year ahead (MAO-Inhibitors might be useful).

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Blue Team

Sagana Thayaparan

Hi hello! I am spending this year intercalating in Psychology (cos psych is life) and taking a much-needed break from medicine. I spend most of my life drifting in and out of some daydream, making being a medical student very difficult! I am somehow at the same time a complete cynic and absolute romantic. I was born in Paris and my favourite pastime is finding cutesy coffee shops and writing whilst curled up in the corner or reading a new book. I have an innate need to debate politics and social justice with literally anyone who will talk to me; the anger just spills out and I have no control over it, I am sorry if you end up being victim to my rants. I am most definitely a night owl and find it difficult to concentrate before 6pm (I don’t know how I’ve managed medical school this far, either). Extreme Psych was one of my absolute favourite things about third year and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Ronan Lyne

I’m from Dublin and I moved to London in 2015 to join the graduate medicine course and work part-time, because I apparently got bored of having free time. I love Spanish, yoga, cycling, and pathological oversharing. Somewhat controversially, I don’t really get The Great British Bakeoff, but I see it as an exercise in transcultural psychiatry. My previous degree was neuroscience, and I loved my psychiatry rotation, which was made even better by Extreme Psych, so I’m excited to be back as a PF! My favourite bit is where we (lovingly) throw sweets at people when they give really good feedback.

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Yellow Team

Faraz Bukhari

My name is Faraz and I struggle extremely hard to find interesting things about myself; I have exalted nearly as much effort in writing this as I have in searching for my empathy face! I am incredibly excited to be a part of the Extreme Psychiatry team, giving back to a group that gave so much to me (and I am not just talking about the copious biscuits and Pringles). I love to dab(ble) in spoken word and poetry, and love to write; I did plan on writing a short novel over summer but, as with most summer plans, it went unfulfilled in lieu of sleep (my most cherished hobby). I love to eat (no that was not a part of my decision to be a peer facilitator *insert eyes emoji*) yet have to often contain myself because, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, it only takes minutes before I become unstoppable.

Extreme Psychiatry truly allows students to flourish and make the most out of such an important specialty, and it is an honour to be a part of the team helping these caterpillars develop into the butterflies they have the ability to be. I am excited to be helping out this year, and hope I can learn as much from the students as (hopefully) they can from me!

Cathy Zhang

Cathy is back as a PF for the Yellow Team following the footsteps of her fantastic PFs, Juanita and Abbas, with the mission of helping incoming students love Extreme Psychiatry as much as she did last year! People frequently comment on the “I-cannot-pinpoint-where-you-are-from-ness” of her accent: she has finally come to accept this, after realising it is probably just a reflection of her very normal but somewhat migratory life. Cathy loves open spaces, L&P (Lemon and Paeroa), and reading fiction books concealed in a bean bag (or two).

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Roll of Honour (PFs of Yore)

PFs 2016 – 2017:

Juanita Ravindran (Red Team)

When i’m not laughing (rare) I’m smiling and when I’m not smiling (rarer still) I’m thinking about cake…. especially Nando’s Choc-a-lot cake. It’s what Nandos does best (the chicken is good too I guess). I LOVE animals and yes- I’m that person that will move seats just to sit nearer to the dog on the tube, whilst others are squished into the corner furthest away… I wish I was Dr Dolittle. I love the outdoors and autumn! Oh and I love trees. Sounds weird, but I know if you thought about them for a second longer you’d see what I mean. When I‘m not studying medicine you will find me curled up and cosy with an Agatha Christie book (HUGE FAN!!) and a big mug of hazelnut hot chocolate! I have a degree in Biomedical Sciences from KCL, so this is my 7th year here at King’s…. I guess I’m also part of the furniture- I’m the bookshelf next to the grandfather clock (Abbas). I thoroughly enjoyed psychiatry in year 3 because of its truly holistic approach and because it gives you the opportunity to simply listen to your patient and their story- one of the main reasons why I would like to be a doctor. The wonderful extreme psych family helped me build my confidence and I’m so happy to be returning as a peer facilitator to help other students in the same areas I struggled with. I’m super excited to add extreme psych Tuesday evenings to my calendar once again and I’m looking forward to peer facilitating with one of my closest friends Abbas- WOOOO GO TEAM RED!!!

Abbas Sardar (Red Team)

I am Half Iraqi, half Pakistani. I’ve lived in Windsor since I was 4 years old (that doesn’t automatically make me posh – but I do appreciate a good afternoon tea); it’s definitely the best place in the world (Windsor Castle and Legoland – what more could you want!) I have a degree in Anatomy, developmental and human biology from King’s.

This is my 7th year at King’s – you could say I’m pretty much part of the furniture (All my friends consider to me a grandpa already: I already can’t wait to retire so I can sit in front of the fire place with a crossword and a nice cup of early grey tea). I unexpectedly fell in love with psychiatry during my psychiatry rotation at KCH and the Maudsley last year – Extreme Psychiatry played a huge part in making sure I got the most out of the rotation. I now want to help other students realise their full potential in psychiatry as a peer facilitator.

I spent my summer at the institute of psychiatry working on a summer research fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry. Being PF will allow me to continue to immerse myself in the field of psychiatry.

When not studying medicine, stationary is my other passion, and my dream would be to open up my own stationary shop. I’m super excited to be on the extreme psychiatry team as a PF, and what makes it even more special is that I will be peer facilitating team red with Juanita, a very dear friend of mine!

Lu Guimaraes (Green Team)

I am extremely psyched to be part of the green team this year! I am from Brazil and then lived in South Africa for 6 years before coming to London. I love the British sense of humour the most but I do miss the weather and the food from back home. I love hockey, cheesy music, fancy dress parties, travelling, glitter and my little sister. I don’t like coriander and I am not a good dancer. I aspire to be like my extreme psychiatrist doctor (Michael) one day as he is the perfect human. Extreme Psych was my favourite thing about third year and I hope it will be yours too!

Claire Lloyd (Green Team)

Originally from the Emerald Isle, Claire is super excited to be joining the very fitting green team this year. She has a big love for psychiatry and is particularly passionate in reducing the stigma of mental health problems. When not being a medical student, one of her favourite things to do is going for long, windy walks on the beach. Other things Claire enjoys doing include going to the gym, baking and drinking crazy amounts of tea!

Alex McWhirter (Blue Team)

On her first day at university, Alex’s flatmate told her she looked like Lindsay Lohan. She has been dining out on this compliment ever since, while also making sure to be extremely clean living, just in case he meant post-2007 Lindsay Lohan.

Her dedication to peanut butter runs so deep that her mother makes sure to order in kilogram tubs of it when she goes home for the weekend. She has a similar level of dedication to helping a new wave of students become less terrified of (and actually quite good at) talking about mental health. One day, she dreams of doing her entire grocery shop in Waitrose. For now, she is content with going in to get the free coffee.

Nina Tanna (Blue Team)

Hello! I’m Nina and I’m extremely psyched (lol) to get started with the blue team! Most people describe me as tiny (luckily ‘Teeny Tanna’ never caught on), which i’ve learnt to accept, and don’t care about at all. Nope. Tall people are silly anyway. I love Beyonce (Queen Bey for president!), food (always the way to my heart) and some good ol’ Netflix and chill (has anyone else been watching Jane the virgin?!) My petronus would have to be a pug and i’ve been told several times I sound like them when I laugh… not sure if it’s a compliment or not. Anywayyy, I’m really passionate about making sure you feel confident in both your skills and knowledge for dealing with patients in OSCE’s and real life! I hope you enjoy extreme psych as much as I did and any questions, please don’t be afraid to come and have a chat!

Basma Ikram (Yellow Team)

Having participated in Extreme Psychiatry as a student in 2015, I have returned in order to pass on its secrets to a new batch of medical students. Despite watching many, many hours of the Great British Bake-Off, I still can’t bake to save my life so those in Yellow Team can look forward to me bringing store-bought goodies and passing them off as homemade. Although I may not be talented in the culinary arts, I am amazing at taking Instagram worthy photos of other people’s food.

Omar Risk (Yellow Team)

Hi, I’m Omar! I’ve left GKT for a year (boo) to complete a Masters at LSHTM. My dedication to building skills in psychiatry stems from observing just how many patients in hospital medicine have psychological or psychiatric co-morbidity. The open environment and reflective critique provided by Extreme Psychiatry really helped hone my clinical skills, and I look forward to helping others do the same. This Autumn I’m volunteering at a clinic at a camp for displaced persons in Greece, and apart from being interested in academic medicine and humanitarian medicine, I also play bass in two bands.

PFs 2015 – 2016:

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Jerome Condry (Yellow Team)

Taller than before, wearing even more woolly jumpers, and so close to being a fully qualified medic, he can almost taste it – Jerome is blessing us with his presence for a further year of PF-ing! We love this guy.

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Jason Daoud (Green Team)

NOP is just “NO” without psychiatry, and after almost 10 gruelling ExtremePsych-deprived months, Jason can’t wait to be back as a PF for the awesome Green Team! Jason’s hobbies include listening to 90s Green Day, drinking green tea, tending to greenery wherever he sees it, and wondering aimlessly around Green Park. And his favourite colour? Celestial blue, obviously.

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Kate Herring (Blue Team)

I’m Kate, a fourth year medic who loves psychiatry. I grew up in the countryside next to a zoo and occasionally go back to escape city life and visit the animals. I like swing dancing, global health policy, Medsin, long jump, maths, table tennis and chocolate oranges (not all at the same time). My favourite sport is rounders and my favourite game is A Question of Scruples. A day which included all of the above would be the best day ever.

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Steph Hollis-Smith (Red Team)

Steph never did provide us with a biography, so… Steph holds the world record for artistic miniature dog grooming: on the 1st of May 2013, she successfully washed, brushed and glued 2,986 dachshunds into place, creating a 75.2m tall statue of a woman she called, “Virginia Woof.” This is officially the largest art installation made entirely from dogs.

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Nida Kalyal (Green Team)

No four words scare me more than “tell me about yourself” so I’ll keep it short & sweet – I’m really excited to get back to Extreme Psychiatry, as a peer facilitator this time! I love teaching and I really benefitted from the feedback I got last year so I hope I’m able to do the same for Green Team this year!

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Sabyha Khan (Yellow Team)

I am really excited to be a part of the Extreme Psychiatry team this year, as a member of the awesome Yellow Team. Attending the course last year has been invaluable, and I am looking forward to helping to deliver an experience which will prove to be useful for many years to come. When I’m not being a medical student, I like baking because it is one of the easiest ways to facilitate my sugar addiction; although I’m always open to accepting “gifts”.

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Kate Reed (Blue Team)

Last year, Kate ventured on a 5-hour round trip from the green fields of Kent and Canterbury to the bright lights of the Franklin- Wilkins building every Tuesday of summer term for the highly acclaimed Extreme Psychiatry course. Does she regret it? Not one bit, in fact she’s doing it again. Except this time it’s only an hour and sadly there aren’t as many green fields in Woolwich. Kate very much enjoys academic medicine and in particular teaching. She is looking forward to continuing Extreme Psychiatry as a Peer Facilitator and hopes to help year 3 students gain as much from it as she did.

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Will Wilson (Red Team)

Will is a fourth year and lifelong Londoner who took a meandering route into medicine by way of a degree in anthropology. Will briefly sold his soul to a consulting firm in 2010 and has been buying it back through a life of sacrifice and virtue ever since. Having been schooled in the dark arts of Extreme Psychiatry last summer, Will is dedicated to helping others fight off their own OSCE demons. A keen cyclist, cook and baker, Will is also looking forward to supplying Red Team with the finest banana cake known to humanity. When life throws a googly at you – remember what you learned on Tuesday nights at Waterloo.

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PFs 2014 – 2015:

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Johan Bastianpillai

Not nearly as moody as he looks (or his friends may claim), Johan has a hard, dark exterior but a warm, soft centre, much like a Dairy Milk Caramel bar. Incidentally he hates the taste of caramel. Do not offer him caramel. When Johan isn’t roaming South London spreading the joy as a Fourth year medical student, he can be found flinging a red leather ball at people, who occasionally hit it back. Besides that he likes long walks on the beach but hates clichés. Go figure.

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Jerome Condry

My name is Jerome, and the first thing people tend to notice about me is that I am quite tall. I enjoy music, food, walking, cycling and warm jumpers. I am really looking forward to spending my Tuesday evenings firmly ensconced in the bowels of Waterloo Campus learning about psychiatry in as extreme a fashion as possible.

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Conor Flaherty

Conor has not provided us with a bio, so we have to make his up. He taught Michael Flatley how to dance, and until recently, Michael’s face was projected onto Conor’s body throughout Riverdance performances. Now that Michael has learned how to do the steps himself, Conor has been freed up to study medicine. He is delighted to join the Extreme Psych team, and promises to leap, tap, and shimmy his way through sessions.

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James Larkworthy

Answering to Jimmy, Larkers, and even Lark-unworthy, James is currently a 4th year King’s student. Becoming a PF seemed the perfect way to treat his very particular addiction to watching people talk to each other on a Tuesday evening. His other addictions include puns, colourful socks, and huge mugs of tea.

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Grace Lavelli

After realising just how much she loved psychiatry in third year, Grace couldn’t get enough and was thrilled to find out she could fill her Tuesday evenings with even more psychiatry-goodness. After spending a term as a student she was eager for more, so signed up to PF straight away and can’t wait for the fun to start again. In between all the studying and exams Grace has managed to try her hand at a number of weirdly bendy hobbies including dancing, Pilates, yoga and even cheerleading. These days though she’s more likely to be found running or, even more likely, eating cake.

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Lydia O’Sullivan

Lydia has not provided a bio. Sigh. We did warn her this might happen… Lydia is a child prodigy. At the age of 2, she gained her first degree in Sports Science; at 3 she captained the Great Britain women’s basketball team to a gold in the 2012 Olympics. After sustaining a life-threatening injury while wrestling a crocodile in Florida (aged 5), she turned her attention to Medicine. Aged only 6, she is the youngest medic in King’s, and hopes to become a surgeon specialising in Wildlife Disaster Medicine by her 10th birthday.

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Andrew Seggie

Andrew is currently aiming to break the world record for staying at King’s for the greatest number of years of study. He’s a keen walker (and not just because TfL travelcards are expensive!). He has an exceedingly big ego, although you wouldn’t know it because he’s the most humble person that ever existed. Andrew has an identical twin brother and gets confused sometimes himself, so good luck to you!

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Mohsin Shah

Mohsin (or Mos) is a new PF this year, drawn in by the sheer magnetism that is Extreme Psychiatry. Like many before him, Extreme Psych found a little nest in his heart, and he now hopes to pass on the joys he experienced as a student of the course. Please stop him from talking too much. When not enjoying his Tuesday evenings, Mohsin can be found making gourmet toast, pretending to study and being an overall giant nerd.

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Lee Tan

I’m a transfer student from a small but humble country, Brunei. Having travelled all the way from there was quite hard at first, and everything seemed very different in the UK. Extreme Psych helped in a lot of ways, filling Tuesday nights with friends and fun – so I’ve decided to come back as a PF. I hope to be able to make more friends and help students in doing so too.

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Eda Yardimici

I wanted to be a PF for Extreme Psych so I could be as awesome as my own previous PF’s from last year (Lucy and Preetz!). I’m obsessed with travelling and spend 90% of my time trying to figure out ways to travel for the majority of the year without getting kicked out of med school…unfortunately I haven’t found the answer yet. Apart from travelling I am obsessed with music and quite enjoy photography.

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PFs 2013 – 2014:

Chloe Saunders

Chloe is currently repaying a debt of gratitude to her own experience as a Student of Extreme Psych (Winter 2013). At that time making the daily trek to Lewisham’s Ladywell Unit, through discoloured South London snow sludge and limitless train delays at London Bridge, Extreme Psych was the bright comforting star lighting up her Psych Rotation. Chloe was even quoted as saying ‘I like Tuesdays.’ (True Story)

Chloe enjoys daydreaming (and night-dreaming), but other than this her Hobbies and Interests change regularly. A process Chloe calls ‘Development’, and her friends call ‘being capricious’.

Chloe is in awe of creative/flamboyant people, so will often be found vexing the Extreme Psych actors. Besides them she quite likes balsamic vinegar and violin concertos.

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Katie Allan

Bio coming shortly…

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Larry Caines

Larry grew up in a tiny village ‘oop north’, but fed up of all the fresh air and lovely views he moved to South London where he is currently intercalating in Physiology between years 3 and 4 of Medicine. As a lover of good adjectives he signed straight up for peer facilitating at Extreme Psych, just about fitting it into his busy schedule of Ultimate Frisbee.

When not hanging around in lectures and buried in books about cells, Larry can be found either throwing a Frisbee around, or playing ukulele. Mahalo.

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Lucy Guile

Lucy dreams of being a jungle doctor. However, London’s disappointing lack of tropical forests has led her to seek out the next most Extreme environment – Tuesday nights at Waterloo!

In her third year, Extreme Psychiatry quickly became the highlight of Lucy’s term. Now in the fourth year, she hopes to pass on some of her hard-earned survival skills, including catching monkeys and fielding manic Googlies.

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Preetz Mosali

Preethika, a.k.a. Preetz, once decided to pack her bags and move from India to the UK and has now found herself as a 4th year medical student at King’s. Ever cheerful, her immature sense of humour and wit managed to charm even a serpent. An insanely good cook, she can make plain rice like it’s nobody’s business.

Known for her intense sweet tooth, Preetz’s love for chocolate seems trivial against her love for Extreme Psychiatry! In her little spare time she can be found twirling away to classical Indian tunes.

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Qian Chen

Bio coming shortly…

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Ruth Strommen

Ruth is a Phase 4 medical student who loved Ex Psych. She grew up all around the world and when not on an airplane or jet lagged you’ll find her in the library.

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Susan Mathew

From Susan: “Welcome to an amazing course of Extreme fun in Psychiatry! This is one of the best courses (not biased at all!) and I am so pleased to be part of the team running it for you this year. I’m one of the PFs for YELLOW team (best team ever….again not biased!) and I hope that after the course you all feel a lot more comfortable with your psych history taking as well as general history taking!

“So I’ve been asked to say something about myself so without turning into an essay. I’m very enthusiastic and motivated to teach you guys and hopefully give you feedback that you will find useful! I’m also approachable and lots of fun! I hope that you all gain a very valuable learning experience from Extreme Psych and I look forward to seeing you all!”

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PFs 2012 – 2013:

Labbeka Begum

Labbeka is currently taking a year off Medicine to do her intercalated BSc in Physiology.

She absolutely loved her NOP rotation last summer and most surprisingly, psychiatry! Extreme Psych taught her how enjoyable psychiatry can be and so she became part of the team. She says, ‘the time and effort put in by the doctors and actors made Extreme Psychiatry very enjoyable, but most importantly it provided a great environment to practice psychiatry history taking skills.’

Special skills bizarrely include: running into glass doors and leaving her shoes on the escalator. Aside from committing social suicide on a daily basis, she’s busy baking afternoon treats and watching period dramas!

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Zack Ferguson

After 18 months in the ex-Ex Psych wilderness, Zack is thrilled to be returning to the fold as a PF. To be honest, anything beats spending Tuesday evenings crying uncontrollably and wishing you could have just one more googly…

A maverick who plays by no one’s rules but his own, he is currently avoiding graduation by intercalating in Medical Education at Barts. When he grows up he wants to be Batman or – failing this – some sort of doctor.

In his spare time, he enjoys reading the BNF aloud and thinking up new ways to be more like Liam Neeson.

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Jae Lee

What more can we say, other than Jae was just awesome. ‘Nuff said.

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Johan Lindskog

Johan is a failed Swedish musician, who instead of a record deal ended up getting an offer from King’s and, well, what was the worst that could happen?

So, leaving the forests and fields of the North behind, he headed South, deep into the urban wilderness. Amongst the wonders he there found was a group of urban jungle-dwellers that called themselves the Extreme-Psychers. They agreed to take him under their wing and show him the ways of Extreme.

Now, given the chance to help pass this wisdom on, Johan wants nothing more than to do his predecessors proud and hopes that one day his name may still be remembered in a brit-pop song by the campfire.

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Faisal Osmani

Faisal started his Psychiatry rotation not having a clue what he was doing until Extreme Psychiatry showed him the path. Since then, what he has learnt at Ex Psych has helped in all areas of his life, including other rotations. He has grown to like psychiatry a lot and thinks Extreme Psychiatry is a lot of fun!

Faisal’s hidden talent is his dancing eyebrows: ask him and they will dance for you. Faisal’s other hidden talent is he can sing very badly, so maybe don’t ask him to. He has no other hidden talents.

Faisal was once bitten by a spider in a science lab – interpret as you will…

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Kim Plummer

Kim grew up in Callington, a vibrant Cornish town known more for the tendency of its residents’ back gardens to collapse into forgotten mines than for its vibrancy. Once she’d grown tired of the scent of Ginsters pasties wafting relentlessly over hill and vale, she shed her West Country accent and relocated to the capital.

When not flexing her peer facilitation muscles, Kim can be found making her deliciously calorific honeycomb cheesecake, knitting miniature life-like dogs and marvelling at the sheer brilliance of Psychiatry PRN.

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Celia Shiles

Celia grew up on a dairy farm in the West Country but moved to London 4 years ago to study medicine. She did an intercalated degree in Neuroscience, where she discovered that she didn’t enjoy pipetting mouse brain into test tubes but loved the Psychiatry side of Neuroscience.

She found Extreme Psychiatry incredibly helpful for learning to take histories, as well as a warm, friendly place to go on a Tuesday night. She can often be seen cycling around London on a very battered bicycle. And in her holidays, she likes to work on snail farms, bee farms and look after children in France.

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Nathanael Yong

Nathanael comes from the sunny shores of Borneo. Having been blessed with a sun-stained abode for 15 years, he is now on a mission to experience how people live in the showery cold terrain called Britain.

One of his proudest achievements is being able to count from 1-20 in 5 different languages; another is becoming an Extreme Psychiatry PF!

Some say he is the smartest person you’ll ever meet. However being the modest medical student that he is, he prefers to play dumb in most circumstances.

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PFs 2011 – 2012:

Mo Atif

Mo dreaded psychiatry at the beginning of Year 3, but found true love right from the start of his Year 3 rotation. Extreme Psychiatry was the highlight of his busy week!

He feels Extreme Psychiatry gave him the confidence to personalise his communication skills with each patient. This ability came in EXTREMEly handy during his subsequent rotations.

He is friendly when well-fed but moody otherwise. Approach with caution!

Katie Evans

Katie is a fourth year medical student who previously completed an intercalated Bsc in Neuroscience (mutilating frog embryos).

She enjoys travelling to far-flung places, watching films which involve minimal brain power and reading trashy romance novels. She is also a firm believer in the medical student philosophy of working hard and playing harder!

She says, “I found Extreme Psychiatry a revelation last year, having continually struggled with history taking, and am really looking forward to sharing my enthusiasm with this year’s students!”

Meriki Hill

Meriki blessed our shores 8 years ago, determined to follow a career in pint-pulling. Despite the bright lights and decidedly, brighter personalities of the West End, she was left bored and sleepy with the late nights and drunken punters. Thinking medicine might provide earlier sleeping hours and slightly more sober people she gave this a go.

Still unfulfilled however, her salvation came in the form of regular Tuesday evening sessions with a sensational team of Extreme Psych-ers to provide her with excitement, education and scarily real actors. Other than Extreme Psych she gets her kicks from playing water polo and eating. Constantly.

Hannah Keen

Hannah is currently taking a break from the exciting (but slightly stressful!) world of clinical Medicine to do an intercalated BSc in Psychology.

She loved her Psychiatry placement last year and found Extreme Psych extremely helpful for clinical situations as well as exams.

Her hobbies include reading, cycling, watching films and annoying her flatmates by consistently leaving the toaster on its highest possible setting…

Adam Monsell

Adam is a fourth year originally from Cambridge. His desultory route to medicine included an undergraduate degree in history, working in local government, political lobbying, and peddling cheese. Lots of really good cheese. Honestly, don’t get him started.

He enjoys reading, cooking, travelling and triathlons, and is the club captain for the KCL team for the latter (quick plug – training on Mondays and Wednesdays come one come all!).

He lives in Oval and his greatest fear is the possibility of one day being unable to swim, bike or run, whilst becoming simultaneously lactose intolerant.

Kiran Patel

Kiran is a fourth year medical student and studied for an intercalated BSc in Physiology. Having completed the ExtremePsych course in the summer of 2011, he has since decided to plug the resultant void in his life, specifically, that of Tuesday evening, by becoming a Peer Facilitator.

He hopes that this will be one of the crowning glories of this time as an undergraduate at King’s, and to instil a sense of “ExtremePsych confidence” in this year’s cohort of students.

It may seem by-the-by, but Kiran has the most sensational manners of any student that the team has ever taught. If manners were a car, Kiran would drive a Lamborghini Miura.

Anita Phung

The name’s Anita, Neats, Neets, Aneetz, Ani or whatever you want to call her.

She’s intercalated in Clinical Endocrinology and Molecular last year. People told her it was a hard BSc but that was OK because being an Extreme Psych PF could keep her sane. Fearing loss of sanity on no longer being a PF, Anita has now rejoined the team as an actor!

When she’s off duty as a medical student, she enjoys learning languages, watching films, going on holiday and planning her next adventure.

The craziest thing she’s ever done was probably enter a wasabi eating competition – that did not end well at all. She loves eating and sleeping.

Liv Stredder

Liv Stredder has wanted to be a crane driver since the age of three, but is now considering Psychiatry as an alternative career after spectacularly failing her driving test and realising she can’t even walk in a straight line, let alone drive a crane in one.

Gingerness defines her, in fact she is part of the death squad known as the ginger ninjas.

Special skills include making animals out of sand, writing limericks, singing 80s karaoke and making really crispy roast potatoes. She dislikes all fruit unless it’s in a pie, but likes most pies very much.

PFs 2010 – 2011:

Dr Elf Elmahdi

Yes, The Elf worked for EP.

During the summer months, our elfin friends are a little at a loss, up North. No toys to make. No sleigh-bells to shine. No reindeer to feed. Everything is in a shoebox in the cupboard under the stairs. Or at Butlins. During his down-time, Elf trekked over for PF interviews, and gained a place on the team.

Santa missed him in 2010, but recognised that Lapland’s loss was London’s gain. Elf enjoyed it all so much, he faked his own death in Lapland and has now joined EP as an Actor for 2011-12.

Special skills: whistling a merry tune, Group 1 metal chemistry experiments and “Chopsticks” (played on giant keyboards).

Shawki El Ghazali

Shawki is a secret agent, often abroad on missions for Her Majesty’s Government. In 2010, he took a break, due to a combination of his love for Extreme Psych and a broken ankle.

Unknown to most of his enemies, Shawki collects all films featuring Jennifer Aniston with animals. Which is most of her films.

Special skills: cranial nerve exams, taming vicious animals with a wink of his eye, and incredibly convincing impressions of Cartman from South Park.

Dr Roxanne Keynejad

“I am a fourth year on the GPEP Medicine course, having done a first degree in Psychology with Philosophy after a highly relevant Art foundation course. I love psychiatry for being the only area of medicine in which we take the mind as seriously as the body.

Extreme Psychiatry is the most creative and dedicated teaching programme I have experienced at King’s and I think it has powerful potential to change the way medical students think about the discipline. On the side, travelling, book clubs, Bollywood and afternoon tea are my areas of specialism.”

Thomas Mathen

Thomas invented Sat Nav.

Although we all know that it’s a bit of lie, we like to tell people anyway, because they are gullible and will believe most things.

Special skills: hurdles and painting false eyeballs.

PS: Thomas is wise. It’s hard not to notice, though in teaching sessions, we try not to make a big deal out of it (so don’t say anything, when you meet him).

Dr Brin Rabindra

Brin is from Albania, and thus a huge fan of Norman Wisdom. She joins Roxanne at Norman Wisdom conferences, and they sometimes get into fights.

In her spare time, she likes to wear wetsuits, so has taken up scuba diving and marine biology. These interests do not sit easily with her love of hang-gliding.

Special skills: wearing wetsuits, scuba diving, marine biology and hang-gliding. And falling up stairs faster than Roxanne, in Norman Wisdom re-enactment competitions.

Dr Ghazal Saadat

“Hello! My name is Ghazal (but everyone calls me Gazelle to make it a bit easier!). I got involved with Extreme Psychiatry as a 3^rd year medical student because although I found psychiatry loads of fun and fascinating, there were some bits which I found quite tricky such as how to speak to a patient who was experiencing auditory hallucinations at the same time! Extreme psychiatry provided me with very memorable frameworks to aid my history-taking and the doctors and PFs gave amazing tips to boost my confidence and improve my techniques…I still use all those tips today when speaking to patients from different specialties!”

When not Extreme-Psyching, Ghazal likes to learn more about genetics, bake (& cook), travel and watch films.

Dr Sophie Touzin

“I joined Extreme Psych in my third year because it is an amazing learning opportunity and helped me overcome so many of my fears associated with psychiatry! I joined as a Peer Facilitator to give something back and because I enjoy psychiatry as I find the mind fascinating and it features heavily in all other medical specialties.

I am a final year graduate medical student. My first degree was in Sociology and Management, after which I worked for a couple of years before finding my true calling to medicine. I am originally from Sweden and France, but I sound American having grown up all over the world and been to international schools. I am a very happy person who loves to travel, cook, run, ski, be outdoors and be surrounded by friends.”

Dr Michael Utterson

Michael was born without gravity and his family had to hold him down with bricks throughout his childhood, which worried Social Services.

He did not grow up on an estate. No. He grew up on the moon, and can give Neil Armstrong a slow-mo’ run for his money. Michael’s favourite word is “anthracite”; favourite food is grilled octopus and his favourite river is The Exe.

Special Skills: moonwalking, moonrunning, moon-mowing (Sunday afternoons).

Sabrina Vitello

Sabrina has appeared in numerous “Compare The Meerkat / Market” adverts and was (controversially) cast as BA Barakus in the last A Team movie.

Sabrina looks rather smug in this picture. That is not her usual expression at all. In fact, this may be the only time she has ever looked smug, so we are glad to have caught it on camera.

Special Skills: looking worried in different directions, while standing upright; shouting, “I piddee da foo!” while stomping over things; looking modest.

PFs 2009 – 2010:

Dr Kate Adlington

“Extreme Psych saved me from my third year struggles with psychiatry history-taking and OSCE fears!

The doctors and PFs were Extremely nice and Extremely knowledgable and massively improved my confidence doing role-plays in a supportive environment.

Thanks to this positive experience I decided to give something back and have thoroughly enjoyed being a PF myself this year. The students have been great and it really improved my communication and feedback skills. It has cemented my desire to pursue a career in psychiatry.”

Dr Liz Charles-Edwards

“I was a scientist before becoming a medical student and whilst I found this a useful background for physiology and pharmacy, psychiatry was a very different challenge and within a few weeks of my 3rd year rotation I was all at sea. The science of psychiatry lies in exploring and defining specific aspects of a person’s mental health problem. Achieving this coherently whilst maintaining a conversation in an approachable and open manner is a real art. It’s extremely difficult to do in ‘real-life’ and practically impossible within the time constraints of the OSCE. Unless you get involved with Extreme Psyche that is.”

Liz took a year out to sprog in 2011. When she’s conquered motherhood, she’ll return to whip medicine back into shape. For now, she is a delicious yummy mummy, and can make her way from Chelsea to Islington via babyccinos.

Dr Sam Chudleigh-Warren

“Extreme Psychiatry let me experiment with both clinical knowledge and communication skills. It is exceedingly useful to get immediate feedback, on not only one’s academic OSCE performance, but also the ability to create that bond of trust with and convey compassion to the actor-patient.

As a Peer Facilitator I had the good fortune to remain within an environment where the observation and critique of others’ performances continued to inform my own medical practice. As a result, I am constantly adjusting my own clinical routine to make my patients feel safe, empowered and most importantly, listened to.”

Sam plans to become a psychiatrist. However, it must fit around her passions for fashion, pets and gardening. She lives with her cat, rabbits and husband at an RAF base in Wiltshire where she rents an aircraft hanger in lieu of a suitably sized wardrobe.

Dr James Dove

“Hello! I was involved with Extreme Psych for 18 months, as pupil and peer facilitator and it has been an incredible learning journey.

The Doctors are keen and friendly and the job of Peer Facilitator really honed my skills of constructive criticism as well as multi-tasking. I encourage everyone to get involved! I enjoy all elements of medicine but psychiatry has always stood out as a particularly interesting specialty.”

Dr Whui Lim

Whui undertook an SSC in Extreme Psychiatry, as well as working as a Peer Facilitator for a year. She helped write role plays and developed her teaching skills, but was scarred for life by the entire process, and now empathises unintentionally with random strangers.

Though seemingly quiet and unassuming, she has set up a vuvuzela orchestra and can often be found roaming the streets of London on a unicycle.

Dr Lucy McCall-Smith

Lucy’s smile has healing powers. Touch the screen and you may well gain benefit, even over the internet (DISCLAIMER: clearly not true, but feel free to try it anyway).

She’s a thoughtful, empathic lass, with a lovely manner – just some of the reasons why she was chosen to be a Peer Facilitator in 2010. She’s thoroughly lovely.

In her spare time, she enjoys weight-lifting and is skilled in carving tiny little models of elephants, balancing on stilts, as an homage to Dali.

Dr Maryam Rafique

One of the most overtly enthusiastic members of the team, Maryam’s joyful Peer Facilitation triggered episodes of running and jumping in her students, due to the adrenalin she oozed.

She completed her SSC in Extreme Psychiatry, and lectured on the course as part of her assessment.

Maryam’s sweet and vibrant presence has been missed since she left, but are anything but forgotten: members of the Ex Psych team line up to wail inconsolably in front of her chair for at least 10 minutes each week. She has left her mark indelibly.

Dr Faraz Siddiqui

Faraz, Faraz, Faraz. What can be said? He runs marathons and still turns up for teaching the next day, using the stairs when the rest of us took the lift.

Look into his eyes. Not around his eyes. Into his eyes. Those are the eyes of a man who knows his psychiatry and knows how to peer facilitate. He also knows all the causes of renal failure and has single-handedly wiped out nits in the under fives.

Having taken a year out to gain a first in his intercalated degree, he returns to the path of the Common Medic this year.

PFs Pre-2009…

Dr Dominic Craver (2007 – 08)

Dom was always rather sceptical about psychiatry until, that is, he walked into his first Extreme Psych session down in the Ladywell Unit (circa 2006). He got so enthused that at one point he even considered becoming a psychiatrist. Even his job in psychiatry at the Maudsley didn’t put him off. He thought maybe he was going crazy. So, rather than applying for any jobs at all, he left the country and headed for South Africa. Now he’s the in-house psychiatrist as well as the paediatrician and surgeon, amongst other things. Or maybe that’s just his grandiose thinking.

Our Dom has just moved out to South Africa to heal people and stuff. He’s keeping a blog, here and would love random strangers to read about his adventures.