Tanya Keeble, MD

I was born in Zambia, and raised in England. I lived in a small village in East Anglia, true pig and beet farming country, with land as flat as a pancake. I spent summers running wild in the fields, and winters ice skating on the endless network of drainage canals. I moved to London when I was 11, and went to medical school in the heart of the city, at University College Hospital Medical School. I started psychiatry residency training in the Royal Free psychiatry training scheme, but later moved to New Zealand and then to America to complete residency in the University of Washington Psychiatry Residency, Spokane Advanced Clinician Track. I have been drawn to psychiatry since I first read Sylvia Plath, but what sealed the deal was a truly lucky experience in medical school, where I trained in a pilot psychotherapy scheme, and was able to treat a patient for 18 months, under group supervision with a master psychodynamic therapy psychiatrist. I love psychiatry, and I’ve never seriously considered another field in medicine. My clinical passions are practicing intensive short term dynamic psychotherapy (my best teachers and ongoing mentors still teach in this program!), and collaborative care consultation in the primary care setting. I’m passionate about population based care (I do come from England after all!). I’ve been involved in psychiatry education since 2008, when I started working as the clinical interaction seminar course leader with our previous UW track program. I’ve been the program director of this program since we wrote the initial application for its creation. I actually never thought I would end up in Spokane long term when I first arrived here, but I really enjoy the quality of life I have here. I love the geology of the area, the easy access to the outdoors, and the short commute I have to work, despite living in the country (In London it can take an hour to go half a mile).