Christopher F. Pirok, M.D., is a former clinical instructor in psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior of UCLA and a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Originally from Chicago, he graduated with a B.S. in economics with high distinction and high honors from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He worked for Nielsen for three years where he performed statistical modeling in market research before completing his medical education at Rush Medical College. He began his training in psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he was responsible for psychiatric consultations in the Emergency Department and the Medical Center while providing inpatient psychiatric care at the adjacent Thalians Hospital. He completed his third and forth years of residency at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior of UCLA, formerly known as the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI). During these years, his passion for integrating medication interventions drawn from the latest in neuroscience with psychotherapy grew. He obtained specific training in interpersonal therapy (IPT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and attachment-based intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (AB-ISTDP), all evidence-based practices for mood and anxiety disorders. During his final year of training, Dr. Pirok served as the chief resident of the IPT clinic, where he was responsible for supervising psychiatry residents in IPT through direct observation, group supervision, and formal didactic lectures. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Resident award for his work in the IPT clinic during his final year of training. http://www.semel.ucla.edu/psychiatry/2013-2014-teaching-awards  

Dr. Pirok has served on the UCLA Medical Health Committee. In this role, he contributed to the evaluation, management, and fitness-for-duty decisions involving UCLA physicians who were impaired by mental health-related difficulties.

Dr. Pirok joined the volunteer clinical faculty of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences within the David Geffen School of Medicine in 2014 and supervised psychiatry residents in the integration of psychiatric medication with CBT until the Spring of 2016 when he relocated to Chicago, his hometown.