I’m a general adult psychiatrist with formal schooling in three health/wellness practice traditions (over time, in this order), with cross-cultural and broad personal and clinical experience:
- Buddhist psychology
- Contemporary allopathic medicine, psychiatry, and related psychologies (“Western,” “mainstream” [in the Global North…] approaches, though globalization makes these terms less and less correct)
- Jungian/analytical psychology
Past positions, healthcare provider licenses, formal schooling:
I’ve worked in, founded, administered etc. many various health-human services-wellness settings, with people across the lifespan and ethnicities. My clinical roles (unlicensed, then various counseling etc. licenses, then as physician) have been many: nursing home orderly, pre-school assistant teacher, child/family counseling in-home and office, community clinics, substance abuse, jail, psychiatric and general hospitals, residential homes, adults in relationship (couples, and more), community health system planning/contracting/administration, etc.
- Psychiatry resident/psychodynamic therapy fellow:
- Harvard Medical School-Cambridge Health Alliance (HMS-CHA)
- Analytic training candidate:
- Boston Jung Institute
- Medical intern:
- Seattle Indian Health
- Qualified Chemical Dependency Counselor:
- Washington state
- Licensed Mental Health Counselor:
- Washington state
- Public mental health system admin/correctional services roles:
- Pierce County (WA) Regional Support Network
- Mediation training/community mediator:
- Center for Dispute Resolution/Boulder (CO) Community Mediation Service
- Certified Addictions Counselor III (Senior Counselor):
- Colorado
- Massage Therapist:
- Washington state
- Doctor of Medicine:
- University of Washington
- International relations/security studies completion:
- Harvard Extension School
- Master of Arts: Psychology/Contemplative Psychotherapy:
- Naropa Institute (now University)
- Bachelor of Arts: Comparative History of Ideas:
- University of Washington
Invited presentations and community participation:
A sampling
Through interest in people, languages and the world, close family, friends and colleagues across ethnicities, I stumbled into cross-cultural wellness clinical work and advocacy, in the US and part of the Middle East. This includes some years of academic focus across Jewish-Islamic/Middle East, political, and International Relations/Security studies. In addition to working with patients, I focus on tie-building across challenging ethnic lines — in touch with all, while allocating most of my scarce teaching and advocacy time to communities with less current resources….
Extended:
- 2020-2022 Massachusetts Psychiatric Society Anti-racism Committee, training planner, discussion leader:
Anti-Racism Conference Series, I-III: Transforming Psychiatric Practice and Ourselves
- 2018- Harvard Medical School (HMS) Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Partnership Annual Muslim Affiliates Dinner — planner; some years:
Welcoming remarks
- 2009-2015 HMS-Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) Psychiatry and Spirituality seminar, guest presenter:
Ethnic, sexuality and religious diversity topics
- 2008-2021 HMS-CHA (2010-21 with internist B. Ali MD), seminar leader:
Decentering Ego: Buddhist and Jungian Clinical Applications, renamed: Clinician Self-Care: Ayurvedic, Buddhist and Jungian Approaches
- 2004– US Gaza Mental Health Foundation, leadership roles (advisor, director, president)
- 1994 — (intermittent) Local general community-Native activities, Vashon Island, WA participant/leader:
Various: Community acknowledgements, elders’ ties, gravestone placement, etc.
- 1988-1989 Two Recoveries (severe mental illness/substance abuse) Program, Arapahoe House, program founder/coordinator
Two Recoveries (severe mental illness/substance abuse) Program
- 1985-1988 Center for Dispute Resolution/Boulder (CO) Community Mediation Service, community mediator
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Brief:
- 2023 Global Coalition for Ethics and Human Values, webinar presenter:
Supporting civil society leaders: A sampling of urgent WhatsApp messages from the Gaza Strip NOW
- 2023 Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza City, Palestine-Israel, guest lecturer:
Cross-Cultural Psychological Differences—Global South and North
- 2021 Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, webinar planner/panelist (with Drs. Y. Abu Jamei, J. Humei and R. Chaudry):
Gaza Children’s Mental Health: Under Siege & Under the Bombs
- 2021 British Medical Journal BMJ 372:m4853. With N. Jawad et al, last author:
Rapid response letter, to: COVAX must go beyond proportional allocation of covid vaccines to ensure fair and equitable access.
- 2020 Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association/Puyallup Tribe of Indians Historic Preservation Department, webinar moderator:
History of Vashon’s First People and the Puyallup Tribe
- 2020 Society for Culture and Social Guidance, Beirut, Lebanon, webinar panelist:
Coping with Psychological Problems: Pornography
- 2020 American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP) and Muslim American Society, webinar panelist:
A Multidisciplinary Forum on Mental Health & Physical Wellness in the COVID-19 Era
- 2020 Scientists for Palestine, 3rd International meeting, Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
Healing the Catastrophe and What Followed
- 2020-2021 United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) and Palestine Ministry of Health, participant:
Vaccine procurement ad-hoc working group
- 2019 AMHP, recipient:
2019 Community Service Award
- 2019 7th International Mental Health and Human Rights Conference, Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), Gaza City, Palestine-Israel, presenter:
North American supports for Palestinian well-being; and Strip health-social services leaders’ community discussion,
And moderator, with E. Amed, MD:
Opiate Treatment — Where does the Strip go from here?
- 2018 US Institute of Peace, WA D.C., 10th annual US Muslim Mental Health Conference, presenter:
Gaza: Endless trauma, redux — on redux
And arranger, with M. Mujahid and W. Wahabi:
Muslim Fests, Canada and the US: General and Muslim synergy for positive communities
- 2018 49th Middle East Medical Assembly, American University of Beirut/repeat: UNRWA, Jordan Field health leadership team, Amman, Jordan, presenter:
Weaving the fabric of resilient Levantine wellness: Integrating strongest bio-, psycho-, and social threads
- 2018 William James College (MA), Psy D. defense (A. Alkusayer), discussant:
Exploration of constructing a mindfulness-based treatment for depression anchored in Islamic practice
- 2018 US Congressional briefing, with Drs. Y. Abu Jamei (GCMHP), B. Barber, E. Campbell (UNRWA), Kh. Elgindy, (Brookings Institution, Center for Middle East Policy), planner/panelist:
Mental Health in the Gaza Strip & Civil Society Response
- 2018 Video bridge, ad hoc via Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), PsychoActive network, and GCMHP, Ramat HaSharon-Khan Yunis, Israel/Palestine, lead organizer/moderator:
Colleagues’ update on mental health conditions in the Gaza Strip
- 2018 UNRWA* and GCMHP+ Gaza City, and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund# Deir al Beleh refugee camp training centers, Palestine/Israel, trainer:
Suicide assessment*+#, Opiate basics+#, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy+, Trauma recovery+, Social and case supports+, and Culturally-fitted chronic nightmare treatment#
- 2017 Columbia University, 2nd annual “In Fluency” conference, “Psychology Beyond Borders,” panelist:
Palestine
- 2017-2018 American Friends of Combatants for Peace, advisor
- 2016 Boston University Medical Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Practice program, guest lecturer:
BIO/fundamentals-PSYCHO/awareness-SOCIAL/community: Cultural Formation of DSM categories
- 2016 Harvard School of Public Health, participating stakeholder (Greater Boston Muslim Health Initiative/GBMHI) representative:
Countering Violent Extremism Pilot Evaluation
- 2015 Red Crescent Society, Gaza City, Palestine/Israel, staff facilitator/trainer, with M. ElFarra MD:
Mutual Support for Colleagues Who Survived the War
- 2015 HMS, Family Medicine Interest Group/Longwood Muslims, with B. Ali MD:
Navigating Cultural Competences in a Diverse Healthcare Space
- 2015 Harvard Center for Middle East Studies, co-host (w/Dr Roy):
“Intimate health leaders’ lunch for A. Seita MD, UNRWA Director of Health”
- 2014 (and also 2015) Harvard Arab Weekend:
Avicenna Healthcare and Science Networking Reception Featured Guest
- 2014 CHA Originator/presenter, with M. Albanese MD:
Suboxone ‘Half-n-Half’ seminar
- 2014 University of Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine, panelist, with K. Jones MD:
The Politics of Despair: Mental Health in Chicago and Palestine
- 2014 Voice of America television, guest:
Talking Depression
- 2014 US Congressional briefing, with R. Goldstein (PHR-I), Y. Abu Jamei MD (GCMHP), panelist:
Open Gaza
- 2014 Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, GBMHI’s Islam and Psychology Discussion Group founder/presenter:
Families, Global South and North
- 2014 Harvard Center for Middle East Studies, panelist (w/Drs Biletzki, Owens, Roy):
Gaza Strip Update
- 2014 United Nations Country Team Protection Cluster, Mental Health and Psycho-social Services working group, UNICEF, Gaza City, Palestine-Israel, trainer:
Chronic nightmare treatment: Best practices across cultural lines, and: Opiate basics and tramadol, with survey of Islamically-focused treatments globally
- 2012-2013 Tufts University Chinese Student Preparation Program, series director:
Survey of Psychology
- 2012 American Psychiatric Association, annual conference, seminar planner/lead presenter (with Drs. R. Sprott, E. Sheff):
Polyamory/responsible non-monogamy, an emerging relationship/identity orientation: Research and clinical information
- 2011-2012 American Psychiatric Association, collaborating investigator:
DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) Trials in Routine Clinical Settings
- 2011 Harvard Center for Governmental and International Studies, Sino-American Basic Education Forum, keynote speaker:
Stress, East and West: A Spectrum of Solutions
- 2010 MA Psychiatric Society training day, originator/lead organizer:
“Mindfulness/related approaches: Research + services”
- 2008 GCMHP/World Health Organization “Walls and Bridges” conference (Ramallah/Gaza City, Palestine-Israel) panel leader, and presenter:
Grieving the Catastrophe: Acknowledging and healing America’s Shadow in Palestine
- 2008 HMS Meditation and Psychotherapy conference, presenter:
Meditation and psychosis
- 2006 Harvard University Mental Health Services, grand rounds presenter:
50 Years of Buddhist influence in American mental health
- 2005 and 2006 CHA Psychiatry Dept., co-facilitator:
Multicultural Competence Core Seminar
- 2003 CHA Psychiatry Consult-Liaison seminar, presenter:
The psychobiology of ethnicity: From racial to individual understandings of human differences affecting psychopharmacology, and
Comparison of PET imaging of patients receiving CBT vs. an SRI anti-depressant
- 2003 Brain Injury [research journal]: Sept 17(9) 731-741. Lead author, with J. Fann MD and D. Ehde PhD:
Traumatic brain injury in a county jail population: prevalence, neuropsychiatric functioning and psychiatric disorders.
- 2002 Journal of Buddhist Ethics: 9: 149-158. Author:
Animal use in biomedicine: An annotated bibliography of Buddhist and related perspectives.
- 2001 American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, panelist and presenter:
Remembering the Animals: Memorial services for animals used in laboratory science
- 1998 Archaeology/documentary project (1st ever First Nations [Puyallup Tribe of Indians] — university [U. of WA, Burke Museum] — local school district [Vashon Island] contractual partnering), historian:
Vashon’s And Maury Islands: Hands Across Time