Sydney Siegel, LCSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Responsibilities
My role at Simms/Mann is to provide psychosocial services to patients and families facing the many unique stressors that accompany a cancer diagnosis. This includes counseling, direct patient care in UCLA oncology clinics, psychoeducation, advocacy, and coordinating referrals to community-based programs. In addition, I have created and facilitated multiple evidence-based programs utilizing the expressive arts and guided imagery to better assist patients struggling with questions of legacy and meaning. Some of these programs include Rippling Reflections, Tree of Life Fulfillment Workshop, and From the Chemo Chair: From My Heart to Yours.
Training & Professional Work
Before my career in social work, I received my bachelor’s degree in Cinematic Arts and Business from the University of Southern California. I volunteered with various non-profits and hospitals on a mission to bring filmmaking and other creative coping strategies to vulnerable populations. These experiences ultimately inspired me to return to USC to pursue a master’s degree in Social Work. While in graduate school, I founded Art Rx, a partnership with USC’s medical and social work schools to educate and strategize innovative ways in which medical professionals could utilize the arts to help relieve patients’ emotional and physical pain. I received full merit-based scholarships for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, and was honored with the USC Dean’s Award for Excellence and Innovation for my service to the community in bridging the gap between the creative and health disciplines.
In my first year of clinical training with the Jewish Family Services, I provided mental health counseling and case management to older adults and designed a trauma-informed mindfulness and expressive arts group for Holocaust survivors. With a special interest in the psycho-oncology field, I was privileged to spend my last year of graduate school training with the Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology, and was honored with the opportunity to stay on as a full-time clinician. I am so grateful to be part of such a creative and compassionate multidisciplinary team, and consider it an immense privilege to work individually with each of my patients.
Personal Interests and Perspectives
When not working, you can find me crafting, bike riding, watching old films/documentaries, befriending dogs in a park, and getting lost in nature. I am grateful for the meaningful encounters I have had in this profession thus far and look forward to many more at Simms/Mann.