MEET THE TEAM

Christophe Gimmler, MD, LMFT

Christophe is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford’s School of Medicine, practicing and teaching as a former chief hospitalist and current outpatient general internist at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System. Christophe is Associated Psychology Faculty at Palo Alto University’s Clinical Psychology Program and concurrently practices as a licensed psychotherapist in the community with over 8 years experience with individuals, couples, and group work: he specializes in health care provider and trainee clientele. 

From Christophe’s experience at the intersection of medicine and psychology, he has developed the central resiliency curriculum for Stanford Medical School clinical medical students as well as the Stanford Internal Medicine Residency. Christophe leads Balint groups and teaches intrapersonal and interpersonal resiliency skills with attending physicians, trainees, nursing, and social work staff in academic and private health care organizations around the Bay Area and the country.

Teja Patil, MD, MPH

Teja is a hospitalist at the Palo Alto VA HCS, Director of the Nocturnist Program, and an Associate Program Director for Stanford’s Internal Medicine Residency Program. She co-teaches the resiliency curriculum for Stanford Internal Medicine residents and medical students and is a certified Physician Coach.

Teja first encountered the RIH curriculum as a participant in a VA Palo Alto Balint group. In this Balint, hospitalists gathered to share and learn from each others’ challenging patient encounters and to reflect on their own emotional reactions. She was instantly drawn in because she felt acutely that the most stressful aspects of her work were not the cognitive/academic parts but the psychosocial issues. She recognized that most providers glean psychosocial skills (i.e. how to manage stress and conflict, how to work with a “difficult” patient, how to process grief, how to self-reflect) through a hidden curriculum largely based on role modeling from individual instructors. Although these complex skills are foundational to a providers’ long term success and wellbeing, these skills are often not taught explicitly in the traditional educational system.

Because she feels there is a major gap in today’s training landscape, Teja is passionate about teaching topics related to interpersonal and intrapersonal psychological capacities that are relevant to clinical medicine. Teja has become a Certified Physician Development Coach and, through this work, has discovered a renewed sense of passion and interest in the infinite nuance and variety which patient care and, now physician care, brings!

Matt Cordova, PhD

Matt Cordova, PhD is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, the Mental Health Training Program Manager at VA Northern California Health Care System, and a Professor at Palo Alto University. He has worked as a psychologist in medical settings and with health care teams for more than 20 years.

Matt’s interests in behavioral medicine, early intervention for traumatic stress, and positive psychology converge in his work with healthcare provider resilience and well-being across internal medicine and clinical psychology.