Eric Rafla-Yuan, MD
Psychiatrist
Eric Rafla-Yuan, M.D. is a board-certified physician, researcher, educator, and policy expert. He is a voluntary assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, where he founded and led the psychiatry residency diversity committee. In this role he teaches other physicians and medical students, as well as social workers, nurses, and other professional students. He graduated medical school and completed additional training in bioethics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed residency training at the UC San Diego Community Psychiatry Program.
As a board certified psychiatrist, Dr. Rafla-Yuan works with patients of all ages and specializes in trauma and development. For many individuals, the often-resulting challenges of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) get in the way of performing their best, feeling their best, or having the relationships they seek. Sometimes, and not uncommonly, it can even get in the way of individuals getting the medical or dental care they need. Dr. Rafla-Yuan utilizes a mentalization-based treatment (MBT) approach and believes that being patient-centered and trauma-informed is the most effective way to meet patients wherever they are. Dr. Rafla-Yuan has worked with a wide range of patients of all ages and backgrounds, in a wide range of settings, including academic medical center hospitals and clinics, residential treatment programs, public sector services, assertive community treatment teams, and the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital system.
In addition to working one on one with patients, Dr. Rafla-Yuan is dedicated to improving the health of communities across California and the nation and has previously served as senior policy advisor for the County of San Diego and held leadership roles with the San Diego Psychiatric Society and the California State Association of Psychiatrists. He is on the board of the Miles Hall Foundation as well as the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Council of Advocacy and Government Relations. His research focuses on policy and structural drivers of health outcomes and his work on 988 and clinical crisis services has been published in popular media as well as the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs. He is the vice president of the Association of LGBTQ+ Psychiatrists, chair of the APA Caucus on the Social Determinants of Health, a delegate in the American Medical Association House of Delegates, and formerly served as Health Counsel in the United States House of Representatives during the 117th session of Congress.