Shaifali Sandhya, PhD.
Life-Coaching and Intercultural Relationships
PHOTO: DR. SHAIFALI SANDHYA
EXPLORE YOUR SECOND MOUNTAIN
Speaker, Author, Psychologist
PBS Interview
Shaifali Sandhya speaks on how refugee trauma affects their integration
Dr. Shaifali Sandhya is an internationally acclaimed author, public speaker, and expert couple and family therapist. She has collaborated with hundreds of couples and families across cultures on rebuilding their relationships. Her areas of expertise are intimate relationships, forced migration, and physician wellness and her clients are doctors and couples. She is the author Displaced: Refugees, trauma, and integration within nations (Oxford University Press, 2024) & Love Will Follow: Why the Indian Marriage is Burning (2009, Penguin Random House). She is available as a keynote speaker on migrant mental health, resettlement and its impact on local communities, and forced displacement.
Education: Dr. Shaifali Sandhya is a US and UK-trained psychologist. She earned a PhD. in The University of Chicago, US as a Mellon Fellow and an M.A in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK as a Cambridge Commonwealth Fellow and Rajiv Gandhi Fellow. She is the Chair of the American Psychological Association's Division 52, International Committee of Women (2021-2023).
Why Therapy?: A Letter to Clients
Are you feeling: down, depleted, or discouraged?; unable to relax?; life is in limbo?; discomfort at not being where you think you ought to be?; not as happy as you should be?, and despite your professional success, unsettled?
Do you also believe that you can experience more - more happiness, positive self-esteem, and a better you...? In our unprecedented times and in the discontent they churn, I invite you to explore your soul and to embark on your adventure of self-exploration by scheduling your appointment.
I am a skilled psychologist seasoned in drawing out inner matters to help you break impasses in your life and relationships. My clinical services provide solutions and strategies for individuals, couples, and families for their relief, restoration, and growth. Whether it is working with you to repair your broken heart, parsing existential dilemmas, developing a greater insight into your symptoms, or curbing familiar-but-unproductive patterns in practical ways, I provide a compassionate and caring environment where your repair and healing can begin.
I have over twenty years of experience in curating growth, recovery, and success of individuals and families. My multicultural expertise has been honed through interviews with hundreds of diverse individuals, interracial couples, and families spanning two decades from Greenland to India to the Faroe Islands...
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TESTIMONIALS
Anthony Ong
Professor
Cornell University
"In Love Will Follow, Shaifali Sandhya provides a sound, humane, and empirically grounded framework for interpreting how modern-day Indian couples wrestle with tradition, societal changes, and ultimately how they create something “new.” Written with a high level of sophistication, the book is nonetheless extremely accessible and full of deep insights about human behavior as well as useful suggestions for how to apply them in everyday life."
— Dr. Anthony Ong, Professor of Human Development, Cornell University, USA
Ninette Kelley
Author
People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge
In this insightful book, Shaifali Sandhya sheds light on a critical but often overlooked aspect of refugee well- well-being: mental health. Drawing from the lived experiences of refugees whose journeys have been shaped by suffering and resilience, Sandhya illustrates the importance of psychological well-being to their physical health, learning and employment. Importantly, the book offers valuable insights and actionable solutions on how to how strengthen refugee settlement services. It also provides a powerful reminder that in providing better care to refugees, we also strengthen our communities.
Anthony Chambers
Professor
Northwestern University
"As evidenced by the historic election of the first biracial Indian and Black Vice President, Dr. Sandhya’s book is the perfect book at the perfect time! She explores and provides clinical wisdom for the understudied population of Indian Couples. Given the tumultuous times we are all living in with regards to race relations, this book comes at a time when the profession is craving for more culturally informed writings. This book is a must read for all graduate students and practicing clinicians looking to be a culturally informed therapist!"
"Sandhya’s tight focus on refugee mental health, with her extensive qualitative and quantitative research, makes Displaced a useful work that will benefit both refugee service workers and researchers. The book is effective on three different levels. For those who want to know more about the refugee experience, the author provides narrative vignettes from her interviews. For those who want a larger context, she assembles a research framework that emphasizes her thesis that refugees need much more access to primary mental health services. Finally, for those who want to dig into the sources, her detailed footnotes and extensive bibliography provide a wealth of information. Sandhya, a psychologist, treats the refugees she interviewed with respect and compassion. Her empathic tone is similar to Mary Pipher in her seminal refugee work Middle of Everywhere (2002). Her examination of the complex interplay of factors that affect refugee mental health are reminiscent of The Psychological Impact of War Trauma on Civilians (2006) edited by Stanley Krippner and Maria McIntyre, and Richard Mollica's Healing Invisible Wounds.
The global refugee displacement crisis is an ongoing tragedy that shows no signs of abating soon. Sandhya’s hashtag#Displaced is a compassionate work that will help our most vulnerable world citizens."
In the Press
