Steve Sobel, M.D. graduated from Tel Aviv University Medical School in Israel. His passion for understanding human motivation, behavior and emotion led him to enter the field of psychiatry. Upon completion of his residency at Hillside-Long Island Jewish Medical Center, he stayed on for an additional year of a psychiatric research fellowship, focusing on a study of individuals experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia. Realizing he preferred to battle mental illness in the trenches, where help seemed most needed, he began working at a rural community mental health center in northwestern Vermont. He is currently a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont… and medical director at Northwestern Counseling and Support Services in St. Albans, VT. In this setting he treats patients presenting with a broad array of mental health and social issues. Patients with the most severe mental illnesses are often treated in community mental health centers, where the team approach and community support programs offer hope for recovery and a fulfilling life. Dr. Sobel believes strongly in the value of listening to his patients' life stories. He hopes to convey the poignancy of such stories through these fictional accounts and to provide others with a better understanding of the nature and experience of mental illness.