Dr. Siddharth Ashvin Shah is a physician and public health scientist. He supports people and programs to become trauma-responsive through expertise in group dynamics, cross-cultural thinking, mind-body science, and preventive medicine. He believes that an appreciation for trauma’s impacts on ourselves provides insight for trauma’s impacts on the people we work with, and vice versa.
Through workshops and retreats, Siddharth has provided customized consultation to diverse organizations, which include: sexual assault and incest victim advocates (India), nurses (Ethiopia, USA), mental health practitioners (USA), and disaster relief workers (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, USA). His article “Ethical Standards for Transnational Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS): Do No Harm, Preventing Cross-Cultural Errors and Inviting Pushback” continues to be cited by development practitioners to advance positive international work. After being prompted to form an organization in 2008, he and his teams have been active with USAID, NGOs, and implementers, reflecting Greenleaf Integrative’s action-driven and innovative approach to trauma in the development sector.
Siddharth lives with his wife, two kinetic daughters, and their Hungarian Short-haired Pointer in the Washington DC metro area where he is a fair-weather triathlete and youth basketball coach.