Shaifali Sandhya, PhD.
Coaching for Individuals, Children & Couples
Speaker, Author, Psychologist
Dr. Shaifali Sandhya is an internationally recognized clinical psychologist, policy advisor, and author whose work bridges mental health, governance, and culture. She earned her PhD from the University of Chicago and an MA from the University of Cambridge as a Cambridge Commonwealth and Rajiv Gandhi Fellow. Her book Displaced (Oxford University Press, 2024) explores refugee trauma and social resilience in host nations. A former professor of clinical psychology, she has advised legislators, judges, and international agencies on asylum, public health, and social policy. Her commentary has appeared in major global outlets and she explores the intersection of culture, relationships, mental health, and migration.
Why Therapy?: A Letter to Clients
Do You Feel Stuck, Overwhelmed, or Unfulfilled? Are you feeling depleted, discouraged, or unable to relax? Do you sense that, despite professional success, life feels incomplete—or that you are not as happy as you “should” be? Perhaps you feel caught in patterns that don’t serve you anymore, or burdened by stress, trauma, or loneliness.
If so, you are not alone. Many individuals, couples, and families quietly carry emotional pain for years before reaching out. Therapy provides a safe and caring space to begin healing—and to imagine a better version of yourself and your life.
Why People Come to Therapy Therapy is not just about solving problems—it’s about reclaiming joy, connection, and balance. Patients come to me seeking help with:
• Emotional challenges: anxiety, depression, burnout, or low self-esteem
• Trauma recovery: healing from childhood abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, captivity, or war/conflict
• Relationship struggles: intimacy issues, communication breakdowns, infidelity, divorce, or family conflict
• Life transitions: coping with illness, grief, caregiving, parenting stress, or career changes
• Identity and belonging: navigating racial identity, cultural expectations, microaggressions, or social justice concerns
Many of my patients are high-achieving professionals, creatives, parents, students, and caregivers who—despite their talents and drive—find themselves weighed down by stress, loneliness, or unresolved wounds. Therapy is where they begin to turn those struggles into strength.
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TESTIMONIALS
Ninette Kelley
Author
People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge
In this insightful book, Displaced, 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, Displaced, 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."
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
Interviews, Podcasts, Op-ed, & Books
