Background

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  

    ……………………………………………………………………………… 

    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