Alumni Profile: Dr Meera Joshi

Dr Meera Joshi (Clinical Medicine, 2010), is a medical doctor and trauma specialist. Her passion is blending an evidence-based neuroscientific approach to trauma and healthcare with the deep wisdom of body-mind traditions. Her body of work includes preventative primary care, psychotherapy, teaching and independent research. She is an artist at heart and loves to write, paint, dance and philosophise.

Here Dr Joshi reflects on her professional journey in work and life so far

I view medicine and healing primarily as an art informed by science. As such, I am an artist and creative and those of us that walk this path know that the distinction between our professional and personal lives can be somewhat arbitrary – the inner process informs the outer and vice versa. I’d like to share here a few principles that have held true on my path: namely the importance of embodiment, community and access to safe spaces.

Embodied

Much of my thinking about being human has been influenced by my decision to study neuroscience for the Final Honour School of my pre-clinical degree (Univ, 2009). We are, first and foremost, nervous systems seeking to survive and thrive within the environment we find ourselves in.

A decade of working in primary care as a preventative health doctor (supporting patients to become and stay healthy, rather than focusing on medical intervention to alleviate disease) has convinced me that we need a deeply embodied experience of safety in our nervous systems to truly experience health. As the years have gone by, I am increasingly drawn to what supports a healthy nervous system and what dysregulates it – namely trauma. I have decided, therefore, to develop my expertise in as many different evidence-based methodologies of nervous system health as I can – both within and outside of the Western medical paradigm of healing.

As such, I chose to train as a psychotherapist specialising in psychological trauma. I am also a qualified mindfulness teacher and a certified 200-hour yoga teacher. Deciding to develop my career in this way has proven invaluable to my ability to support my patients to define, find and create health on their own terms. The dual principles of safety and embodiment have now become the centre of my practice.

Embedded

No human is, of course, an island. We are only as healthy as the environment and systems that we are embedded in. In parallel to the emphasis on the individual, inner requirements for healing above I have come to recognise the equal importance of the need for the same level of safety and connection with others, social systems and nature.

Healthy co-regulation with an attuned caregiver is the fundamental neurological basis of health at the beginning of our lives, and this translates into interdependence, interconnectivity, and healthy intersectionality as adults in the correct environment. Some would argue my practice is probably better suited to a 1950s model of community-based living than it is to modern-day societal structures – I am convinced that healthy family relationships and social structures are central to healing. These realisations, again borne of my experience of bearing witness to the health and illness of many lives, has led me on an interesting path.

I have found that a sound economic, sociological and public health foundation is required to support any doctor’s efforts to, in turn, support their patients. Completing the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management accreditation in Management in Medicine at GTC (2021 to 2023) has hugely influenced my work. I am also privileged enough to Chair the GTC London Alumni Chapter – nurturing a wonderful community of people who are passionate about creating real positive impact in the world at large.

Contained in a Safe Space

GTC has played a critical role in providing a safe, supportive container for my ideas and work to flourish. I would argue that nowhere else in Oxford will you find such a welcoming, inclusive college with such a strong inter-disciplinary focus. (I may, or may not, of course, be biased.)

The college’s ongoing dedication to supporting cross-departmental discourse on matters affecting our communities, wellbeing and the environment never ceases to amaze me. In truth I have learnt as much, if not more, from my business, sociology and anthropology colleagues as I have from my medical ones. I’m very proud and privileged to be an GTC alumna and honoured to contribute to teaching and community life here at college.