Siddhartha Shah - Medical Philosophy

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 burnout, 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 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 Western 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, 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.