Siddharth Ashvin Shah
Encyclopedia
Siddharth Ashvin Shah
is an American physician, public health scientist and educator of South Asian origin. In the course of his work, Dr. Shah has blended disciplines involving preventive medicine
, behavioral medicine
, integrative medicine, humanitarian aid
, East-West health systems, group psychology, trauma recovery and stress management
research.
strategies that help in dealing with disaster
, terrorism
, human misery and psychosocial trauma on local and global levels. He advocates education and prevention for the phenomenon of vicarious traumatization (closely related to secondary traumatic stress) – which is a detrimental consequence that first responders, counselors and other caregivers experience as a result of interacting with traumatized individuals. In line with preventing these undesirable consequences, Shah encourages resilience training, coping skills, transforming strategies and post-traumatic growth.
With his writings and advocacy on ethnomedical competence, Shah is also a figure in the global health
movement to provide psychosocial treatments cross-culturally
without eroding traditional, local capacity.
, compassion fatigue
, and vicarious traumatization
, Dr. Shah speaks to a positive occupational health psychology
for relief workers, health care providers, psychotherapists, journalists, government agencies, humanitarian aid agencies, non-profits and other non-governmental organizations – anyone that works on the front lines of human distress and suffering.
Dr. Shah provided a series of workshops for relief workers in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. He conducted similar programs for humanitarian aid
workers and emergency responders after the 9/11 attacks in New York City, the 2002 Gujarat mass violence in India
, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina
and Hurricane Rita
, and the 2005 Earthquake in Kashmir
. His trauma and resiliency support firm, Greenleaf Integrative Strategies, LLC is based in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb adjacent to Washington, DC.
In addition to offering healing strategies to crisis workers, Shah is a speaker and author on integrative medicine. Shah has written about ethnomedical competence, which is a supplement to [or critique of] cultural competence. He writes:
Synthesizing ethnomedical competence with his work on trauma, Shah has also written on integrative psychosocial resilience, in which he describes how cross-cultural
, East-West therapies should be blended with standard treatments for lower side effects and greater benefits in the case of psychosocial difficulties.
Under the umbrella of teaching resilience strategies for a wide range of life’s challenges, Dr. Shah is a recognized leader on laughter yoga
, trauma-sensitive yoga and yoga nidra
. He has released a series of wellness albums with production company Inner Splendor. Dr. Shah also has developed Bodhi Tree Mind-Body, which involves practical religious studies education for Yoga
practitioners and Western Buddhists
.
Shah has been listed as one of the 15 Asian Scientists To Watch by Asian Scientist Magazine
on 15 May 2011.
in Houston, Texas in 1994. During his undergraduate studies, he spent time as a visiting scholar at Swarthmore College
in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. In addition to completing prerequisites for medical school, he studied anthropology
, ethics
, Eastern and Western philosophy, fine art
, post-modern and post-structuralist critical theory
, comparative mysticism
and world religion.
Following his college graduation, he deferred his medical school acceptance for one year to pursue his interest in public service and social change movements. He spent this time (1994–95) in India to study humanitarian organizations and social change agents. He is multilingual and speaks Hindi
, Gujarati
, Urdu
, Spanish
and Portuguese
.
He completed his medical degree at the Baylor College of Medicine
in Houston, Texas in 2000.
Dr. Shah then completed his internship in psychiatry
at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas
in June 2001. Here, he rotated through units for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Treatment, Substance Abuse
Treatment, Family Practice, Internal Medicine
, Geriatric Psychiatry
, Emergency Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry. He trained in modalities of psychopharmacology
, individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy
and medical hypnosis
.
He then served as a Resident in Preventive and Behavioral Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
in New York City. While at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, he conducted several workshops and classes and provided conceptual and technical assistance to Federal Emergency Management Agency’s
Project Liberty and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and also took public health classes specializing in Behavioral Medicine
and earned a masters degree in Public Health
in 2003. He then earned his specialty board certification in General Preventive Medicine.
Psychosocial Assistance without Borders operated as a charity, and was funded by donations from individuals. Shah gradually began doing charitable work under the auspices of other organizations. He thus discontinued building Psychosocial Assistance without Borders as a standalone non-profit, favoring to keep it as an intellectual platform.
Dr. Shah was in private practice from 2003-2006 in New York City and 2006-2007 in Washington, DC. In his practice, he implemented an integrative health model that utilized standard medical therapies, psychotherapies, behavioral medicine, medical hypnosis, meditation training, yoga and other Eastern health systems.
In 2005, on a Red Cross grant, he served as a Mind/Body Medicine Practitioner at the Olive Leaf Wholeness Center in New York City, New York. The project involved psychotherapy, mind-body
treatments and advanced relaxation techniques for uniformed personnel and first responders (New York Police and Fire Departments and paramedics) with treatment-resistant conditions traced to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.
Starting in 2008, Dr. Shah devoted his time and efforts full-time on public health training and trauma prevention education through Greenleaf Integrative Strategies. He has appeared on CNN-World and been interviewed on public radio multiple times regarding his efforts.
2001: After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Shah provided specialized psychosocial trauma services to communities (Arabs, Muslims, South Asians, Sikhs) affected by backlash and Islamophobia
(hate crimes and bigotry perpetrated by people looking for revenge against innocents).
2002-2003: Shah traveled to Gujarat, India, where religious violence led to atrocities and numerous survivors of violence. He provided psychosocial training and vicarious trauma prevention to workers in different humanitarian organizations.
2004: Shah traveled to tsunami
-affected Nagapattinam
district in South India
where he gave educational programs on vicarious trauma prevention to workers who were working with human remains, family reunion and survivor rehabilitation.
2005: After Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita
, Shah traveled to the Gulf Coast to consult to fire fighters and rescue personnel on operational stress and vicarious trauma.
2005-2006: After the devastating in Kashmir
, Shah assembled a team and traveled to Pakistan
where he conducted programs in Islamabad
, Mansehra
and Muzaffarabad
to teach relief workers there psychosocial first aid and vicarious trauma prevention.
2006: Shah traveled to South Asia
to give tsunami
relief workers a program in self-care, as referenced by Ethan Watters
in his 2010 publication.
2008: Under the auspices of Psychology Beyond Borders, Shah traveled to Addis Ababa
to give a training on trauma and psychological first aid to physicians, nurses, social workers and fistula care specialists.
2008-2009: After the paramilitary attacks in Mumbai
, Shah was invited by the Tata Institute for Social Sciences to give a program to local clinicians on psychosocial first aid and vicarious traumatizations prevention. He was also invited by the Times of India to teach journalists on trauma sensitivity and self-care. He, along with Dr. Grant Brenner of Disaster Psychiatry Outreach, was invited by the Bombay Psychiatric Society to provide a disaster psychiatry seminar to local psychiatrists.
In Washington, DC, Shah has worked with several organizations, including Doctors of the World (serving survivors of torture), Deshpande Foundation
(philanthropic projects in livelihood) and Smith Farm Center for Healing & the Arts (wellness services for sufferers of cancer). He is currently overseeing the implementation of a USAID program for Civilian Response Corps
, for which Greenleaf Integrative Strategies is primary contractor. This program, called “Operational Stress Control for Demanding Environments,” involves pre-deployment stress intervention skills, during mission resiliency coaching, and post-assignment health coaching components.
in Houston, Texas. For the first twenty-eight years of his life, he was known by his childhood name of Sunil. After medical school, he began using his legal name Siddharth. He is married to Nisha Gautam of New Delhi, India, who holds a Masters Degree in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics
.
His mother, Hema Shah, was born in Gujarat, India and grew up in the metropolis of Ahmedabad
. His father, Ashvin Shah (born in Gujarat, India) was raised in Bhavnagar
, and is a structural engineer and son of prominent Gujarat artist Somalal C. Shah (1905–1994). Shah has one sibling, Dr. Koonj Shah, who is a fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.
.
2009 “To do no harm,” Spiritual Care and Ethnomedical Competence: Four cases of Psychosocial Trauma Recovery for the 2004 Tsunami and 2005 Earthquake in South Asia. In G.H. Brenner, D.H. Bush, & J. Moses (Eds.) Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience Integrating Care In Disaster Relief Work (pp. 157-178). New York: Routledge
.
2008 “Can Group Therapists Take on Islamophobia
?” The Group Circle. Summer 2008 issue. American Group Psychotherapy Association
and National Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists.
2008 Addressing Stress in National Staff. Monday Developments: The Latest Issues and Trends in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance. Vol 26:9, September 2008, p. 21-22.
2007 Ethnomedical Best Practices for International Psychosocial Efforts in Disaster and Trauma. In E. Tang & J. Wilson (Eds.) Cross-Cultural Assessment of Psychological Trauma and PTSD (pp. 51-64). New York: Springer Verlag.
2007 Shah, S.A., Garland, E. & Katz, C. Secondary Traumatic Stress: Prevalence for
Humanitarian Aid Workers in India. Traumatology, 13, 59-70.
2006 Shah, S.A. Resistance to Cross-cultural Psychosocial Efforts in Disaster and Trauma: Recommendations for Ethnomedical Competence. The Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 2006-2.
2006 Shah, S.A., Reich J. Using Literature to Teach Behavioral Medicine. Family Medicine, 38, 159.
and Guided Meditation
2008 Stress Relief With Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah - Guided Meditation and Yoga Nidra
Relaxation
2008 Stress Relief Vol. II Experience Deep Relaxation - Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Guided Meditation Using Self-Hypnosis Techniques and Yoga Nidra
Relaxation for Weight Loss with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Experience True Rest - Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Relaxation With Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Mindful Eating Practice, Guided Meditation and Yoga Nidra
Relaxation with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Stress Management with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah - Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
for Relaxation in Demanding Environments
2009 Learning the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
: 25 Key Verses in Sanskrit
and English
2009 Rest Peacefully & Manage Sleep Disorders Through Self-Hypnosis, Guided Meditation & Yoga Nidra
2009 Quit Smoking Through Self-Hypnosis, Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Relaxation
2009 Quit Unhealthy Habits Through Self-Hypnosis, Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Relaxation
2009 Learning to Pronounce Yoga
Terms: Poses, Philosophy and Kirtan
Terms With Anatomically Correct Pronunciation Guide
is an American physician, public health scientist and educator of South Asian origin. In the course of his work, Dr. Shah has blended disciplines involving preventive medicine
Preventive medicine
Preventive medicine or preventive care refers to measures taken to prevent diseases, rather than curing them or treating their symptoms...
, behavioral medicine
Behavioral medicine
Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field of medicine concerned with the development and integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness...
, integrative medicine, humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
, East-West health systems, group psychology, trauma recovery and stress management
Stress management
Stress management is the alteration of stress and especially chronic stress often for the purpose of improving everyday functioning.Stress produces numerous symptoms which vary according to persons, situations, and severity. These can include physical health decline as well as depression. According...
research.
Career
Shah’s primary work has been implementing public healthPublic health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
strategies that help in dealing with disaster
Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...
, terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, human misery and psychosocial trauma on local and global levels. He advocates education and prevention for the phenomenon of vicarious traumatization (closely related to secondary traumatic stress) – which is a detrimental consequence that first responders, counselors and other caregivers experience as a result of interacting with traumatized individuals. In line with preventing these undesirable consequences, Shah encourages resilience training, coping skills, transforming strategies and post-traumatic growth.
With his writings and advocacy on ethnomedical competence, Shah is also a figure in the global health
Global health
Global health is the health of populations in a global context and transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual nations. Health problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact, are often emphasized...
movement to provide psychosocial treatments cross-culturally
Cross-cultural psychiatry
Cross-cultural psychiatry or transcultural psychiatry is a branch of psychiatry concerned with the cultural and ethnic context of mental disorders and psychiatric services...
without eroding traditional, local capacity.
Medical Philosophy
Vicarious traumatization, while not well known by the general public, is an empirically recognized occupational hazard for service providers. As a leader in the prevention of burnoutBurnout (psychology)
Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest. Research indicates general practitioners have the highest proportion of burnout cases; according to a recent Dutch study in Psychological Reports, no less than 40% of these experienced high levels of...
, compassion fatigue
Compassion fatigue
Compassion fatigue is a condition characterised by a gradual lessening of compassion over time. It is common among trauma victims and individuals that work directly with trauma victims. It was first diagnosed in nurses in the 1950s...
, and vicarious traumatization
Vicarious traumatization
Vicarious traumatization is a transformation in the self of a trauma worker or helper that results from empathic engagement with traumatized clients and their reports of traumatic experiences. Its hallmark is disrupted spirituality, or meaning and hope...
, Dr. Shah speaks to a positive occupational health psychology
Occupational health psychology
Occupational health psychology emerged out of two distinct applied disciplines within psychology, health psychology and industrial/organizational psychology, and occupational health. OHP is concerned with the psychosocial characteristics of workplaces that contribute to the development of...
for relief workers, health care providers, psychotherapists, journalists, government agencies, humanitarian aid agencies, non-profits and other non-governmental organizations – anyone that works on the front lines of human distress and suffering.
Dr. Shah provided a series of workshops for relief workers in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. He conducted similar programs for humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
workers and emergency responders after the 9/11 attacks in New York City, the 2002 Gujarat mass violence in India
2002 Gujarat violence
The 2002 Gujarat violence describes the Godhra train burning and resulting communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. On 27 February 2002 at Godhra City in the state of Gujarat, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked by a large Muslim mob in a conspiracy. But some authentic sources deny the claim...
, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
and Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005...
, and the 2005 Earthquake in Kashmir
2005 Kashmir earthquake
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Pakistan-administered Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir, near the city of Muzaffarabad, affecting Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time on 8 October 2005...
. His trauma and resiliency support firm, Greenleaf Integrative Strategies, LLC is based in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb adjacent to Washington, DC.
In addition to offering healing strategies to crisis workers, Shah is a speaker and author on integrative medicine. Shah has written about ethnomedical competence, which is a supplement to [or critique of] cultural competence. He writes:
- “Ethnomedical competence describes the capacity of individuals and organizations to discern, utilize, and preserve culturally embedded self-concepts and effective healing practices. Ethnomedically competent treatment modalities are pluralistic, mixing WesternWestern cultureWestern culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
and non-Western treatments synergistically into best practices.” (Shah, 2007)
Synthesizing ethnomedical competence with his work on trauma, Shah has also written on integrative psychosocial resilience, in which he describes how cross-cultural
Cross-cultural
cross-cultural may refer to*cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis*cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate...
, East-West therapies should be blended with standard treatments for lower side effects and greater benefits in the case of psychosocial difficulties.
Under the umbrella of teaching resilience strategies for a wide range of life’s challenges, Dr. Shah is a recognized leader on laughter yoga
Laughter Yoga
Laughter Yoga is a form of yoga employing self-triggered laughter. The "laughter" is physical in nature, and does not necessarily involve humor or comedy. Laughter Yoga combines unconditional laughter with pranayama...
, trauma-sensitive yoga and yoga nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
. He has released a series of wellness albums with production company Inner Splendor. Dr. Shah also has developed Bodhi Tree Mind-Body, which involves practical religious studies education for Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
practitioners and Western Buddhists
Buddhism in the West
Buddhism in the West broadly encompasses the knowledge and practice of Buddhism outside of Asia. Occasional intersections between Western civilization and the Buddhist world have been occurring for thousands of years, but it was not until the era of European colonization of Buddhist countries in...
.
Shah has been listed as one of the 15 Asian Scientists To Watch by Asian Scientist Magazine
Asian Scientist Magazine
Asian Scientist Magazine is a science & technology magazine that was launched as an MIT alumni start-up in March 2011 by the company, Asian Scientist LLP....
on 15 May 2011.
Education
Dr. Shah received his degree in Religious Studies at Rice UniversityRice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
in Houston, Texas in 1994. During his undergraduate studies, he spent time as a visiting scholar at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. In addition to completing prerequisites for medical school, he studied anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
, Eastern and Western philosophy, fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
, post-modern and post-structuralist critical theory
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
, comparative mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and world religion.
Following his college graduation, he deferred his medical school acceptance for one year to pursue his interest in public service and social change movements. He spent this time (1994–95) in India to study humanitarian organizations and social change agents. He is multilingual and speaks Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
, Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
.
He completed his medical degree at the Baylor College of Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine, located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, USA, is a highly regarded medical school and leading center for biomedical research and clinical care...
in Houston, Texas in 2000.
Dr. Shah then completed his internship in psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
in June 2001. Here, he rotated through units for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...
Treatment, Substance Abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
Treatment, Family Practice, Internal Medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...
, Geriatric Psychiatry
Geriatric psychiatry
Geriatric psychiatry, also known as geropsychiatry, psychogeriatrics or psychiatry of old age, is a subspecialty of psychiatry dealing with the study, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders in humans with old age. After a 4 year residency in psychiatry, a psychiatrist can complete a one year...
, Emergency Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry. He trained in modalities of psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology is the scientific study of the actions of drugs and their effects on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior...
, individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group...
and medical hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
.
He then served as a Resident in Preventive and Behavioral Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine is an American medical school in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, currently ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the United States. It was chartered by Mount Sinai Hospital in 1963....
in New York City. While at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, he conducted several workshops and classes and provided conceptual and technical assistance to Federal Emergency Management Agency’s
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
Project Liberty and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and also took public health classes specializing in Behavioral Medicine
Behavioral medicine
Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field of medicine concerned with the development and integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness...
and earned a masters degree in Public Health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
in 2003. He then earned his specialty board certification in General Preventive Medicine.
Professional Work
Dr. Shah founded and served as the executive director of Psychosocial Assistance Without Borders from 2001 to 2007. In this charitable and service organization, he consolidated strategies to build psychosocial capacity to aid victims of complex emergencies while simultaneously preventing vicarious trauma in the workers themselves. Through his development of ethnomedical competence principles, he also integrated locally available treatments with Western treatments. In parallel to Psychosocial Assistance without Borders, Shah also founded Greenleaf Integrative Strategies in 2002 for his training and education work.Psychosocial Assistance without Borders operated as a charity, and was funded by donations from individuals. Shah gradually began doing charitable work under the auspices of other organizations. He thus discontinued building Psychosocial Assistance without Borders as a standalone non-profit, favoring to keep it as an intellectual platform.
Dr. Shah was in private practice from 2003-2006 in New York City and 2006-2007 in Washington, DC. In his practice, he implemented an integrative health model that utilized standard medical therapies, psychotherapies, behavioral medicine, medical hypnosis, meditation training, yoga and other Eastern health systems.
In 2005, on a Red Cross grant, he served as a Mind/Body Medicine Practitioner at the Olive Leaf Wholeness Center in New York City, New York. The project involved psychotherapy, mind-body
Mind-Body Intervention
Mind–body interventions is the name of a U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine classification that covers a variety of techniques designed to enhance the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms....
treatments and advanced relaxation techniques for uniformed personnel and first responders (New York Police and Fire Departments and paramedics) with treatment-resistant conditions traced to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.
Starting in 2008, Dr. Shah devoted his time and efforts full-time on public health training and trauma prevention education through Greenleaf Integrative Strategies. He has appeared on CNN-World and been interviewed on public radio multiple times regarding his efforts.
Public Work
Dr. Shah has conducted programs in Ethiopia, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and United States.2001: After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Shah provided specialized psychosocial trauma services to communities (Arabs, Muslims, South Asians, Sikhs) affected by backlash and Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
(hate crimes and bigotry perpetrated by people looking for revenge against innocents).
2002-2003: Shah traveled to Gujarat, India, where religious violence led to atrocities and numerous survivors of violence. He provided psychosocial training and vicarious trauma prevention to workers in different humanitarian organizations.
2004: Shah traveled to tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
-affected Nagapattinam
Nagapattinam
Nagapattinam is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. It is a prominent seaport on the east coast of India and an important centre of trade and commerce.The town of Nagapattinam dates back to the Sangam period...
district in South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
where he gave educational programs on vicarious trauma prevention to workers who were working with human remains, family reunion and survivor rehabilitation.
2005: After Hurricanes Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
and Rita
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005...
, Shah traveled to the Gulf Coast to consult to fire fighters and rescue personnel on operational stress and vicarious trauma.
2005-2006: After the devastating in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, Shah assembled a team and traveled to Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
where he conducted programs in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, Mansehra
Mansehra
Mansehra city is located at in Mansehra District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is very near to Abbottabad city. It is a major stop for tourists on the Karakoram Highway which leads to China...
and Muzaffarabad
Muzaffarabad
Muzaffarabad is the capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Pakistan. It is located in Muzaffarabad District on the banks of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers...
to teach relief workers there psychosocial first aid and vicarious trauma prevention.
2006: Shah traveled to South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
to give tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
relief workers a program in self-care, as referenced by Ethan Watters
Ethan Watters
Ethan Watters is an American journalist. He is the author of articles for The New York Times Magazine, Spin, Details, Mother Jones, Glamour, GQ, Esquire, and The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine as well as books.-External links:...
in his 2010 publication.
2008: Under the auspices of Psychology Beyond Borders, Shah traveled to Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
to give a training on trauma and psychological first aid to physicians, nurses, social workers and fistula care specialists.
2008-2009: After the paramilitary attacks in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, Shah was invited by the Tata Institute for Social Sciences to give a program to local clinicians on psychosocial first aid and vicarious traumatizations prevention. He was also invited by the Times of India to teach journalists on trauma sensitivity and self-care. He, along with Dr. Grant Brenner of Disaster Psychiatry Outreach, was invited by the Bombay Psychiatric Society to provide a disaster psychiatry seminar to local psychiatrists.
In Washington, DC, Shah has worked with several organizations, including Doctors of the World (serving survivors of torture), Deshpande Foundation
Deshpande Foundation
Deshpande Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded in 1996 by Gururaj and Jaishree Deshpande. Foundation has embarked on large scale projects in the United States and India such as :...
(philanthropic projects in livelihood) and Smith Farm Center for Healing & the Arts (wellness services for sufferers of cancer). He is currently overseeing the implementation of a USAID program for Civilian Response Corps
Civilian Response Corps
The Civilian Response Corps is a program of the United States Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization...
, for which Greenleaf Integrative Strategies is primary contractor. This program, called “Operational Stress Control for Demanding Environments,” involves pre-deployment stress intervention skills, during mission resiliency coaching, and post-assignment health coaching components.
Family Life
Shah was born in Houston, Texas on July 12, 1972. He attended the DeBakey High School for Health ProfessionsDeBakey High School for Health Professions
Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions is a medical secondary school located in the Third Ward area of Houston, Texas, United States....
in Houston, Texas. For the first twenty-eight years of his life, he was known by his childhood name of Sunil. After medical school, he began using his legal name Siddharth. He is married to Nisha Gautam of New Delhi, India, who holds a Masters Degree in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics
Delhi School of Economics
Delhi School of Economics , commonly referred to as DSE or D School, is a centre of post graduate learning of the University of Delhi. The centre is situated in the university's North Campus in Maurice Nagar, and is surrounded by a host of other prestigious academic institutions of the country...
.
His mother, Hema Shah, was born in Gujarat, India and grew up in the metropolis of Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
. His father, Ashvin Shah (born in Gujarat, India) was raised in Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar
-Topography:Bhavnagar is a coastal city in the eastern coast of Saurashtra, also known as Kathiawar, located at . It has an average elevation of 24 metres . It occupies area of 53.30 km². General slope dips in the northeasterly direction at the apex of Gulf of Khambhat...
, and is a structural engineer and son of prominent Gujarat artist Somalal C. Shah (1905–1994). Shah has one sibling, Dr. Koonj Shah, who is a fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.
Articles
2010 Mental Health Emergencies and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In G.B. Kapur & J.P. Smith (Eds.) Emergency Public Health: Preparedness and Response (493-516). Boston: Jones and Bartlett PublishersJones and Bartlett Publishers
Jones & Bartlett Learning publishes text, professional, and reference books for college use. The company was founded in 1983 by Donald W. Jones, the former president of Addison-Wesley Publishers. As of 2003, they are the 7th largest college publisher in the United States.-Name:The name comes from...
.
2009 “To do no harm,” Spiritual Care and Ethnomedical Competence: Four cases of Psychosocial Trauma Recovery for the 2004 Tsunami and 2005 Earthquake in South Asia. In G.H. Brenner, D.H. Bush, & J. Moses (Eds.) Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience Integrating Care In Disaster Relief Work (pp. 157-178). New York: Routledge
Routledge
Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
.
2008 “Can Group Therapists Take on Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
?” The Group Circle. Summer 2008 issue. American Group Psychotherapy Association
American Group Psychotherapy Association
The American Group Psychotherapy Association is a not-for-profit multi-disciplinary organization dedicated to enhancing the practice, theory and research of Group Psychotherapy.-Membership:...
and National Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists.
2008 Addressing Stress in National Staff. Monday Developments: The Latest Issues and Trends in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance. Vol 26:9, September 2008, p. 21-22.
2007 Ethnomedical Best Practices for International Psychosocial Efforts in Disaster and Trauma. In E. Tang & J. Wilson (Eds.) Cross-Cultural Assessment of Psychological Trauma and PTSD (pp. 51-64). New York: Springer Verlag.
2007 Shah, S.A., Garland, E. & Katz, C. Secondary Traumatic Stress: Prevalence for
Humanitarian Aid Workers in India. Traumatology, 13, 59-70.
2006 Shah, S.A. Resistance to Cross-cultural Psychosocial Efforts in Disaster and Trauma: Recommendations for Ethnomedical Competence. The Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 2006-2.
2006 Shah, S.A., Reich J. Using Literature to Teach Behavioral Medicine. Family Medicine, 38, 159.
Audio CDs
2007 Sleep Aid With Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah - Yoga NidraYoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
and Guided Meditation
2008 Stress Relief With Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah - Guided Meditation and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
Relaxation
2008 Stress Relief Vol. II Experience Deep Relaxation - Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Guided Meditation Using Self-Hypnosis Techniques and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
Relaxation for Weight Loss with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Experience True Rest - Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
Relaxation With Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Mindful Eating Practice, Guided Meditation and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
Relaxation with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah
2008 Stress Management with Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah - Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
for Relaxation in Demanding Environments
2009 Learning the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
Patañjali
Patañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
: 25 Key Verses in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
2009 Rest Peacefully & Manage Sleep Disorders Through Self-Hypnosis, Guided Meditation & Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
2009 Quit Smoking Through Self-Hypnosis, Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
Relaxation
2009 Quit Unhealthy Habits Through Self-Hypnosis, Guided Meditations and Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra
Yoga-nidra or "yogi sleep" is a sleep-like state which yogis report to experience during their meditations.The practice of yoga relaxation has been found to reduce tension and anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness, chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal...
Relaxation
2009 Learning to Pronounce Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
Terms: Poses, Philosophy and Kirtan
Kirtan
Kirtan or Kirtana is call-and-response chanting or "responsory" performed in India's devotional traditions. A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankar. Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, tablas, the two-headed...
Terms With Anatomically Correct Pronunciation Guide