Bio
Ripal Shah, M.D., M.P.H. is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. She specializes clinically in reproductive psychiatry (the Women's Wellness Clinic - pre-conception, pregnancy, postpartum, breastfeeding, fertility, pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), reproductive and sexual health disorders), lifestyle and integrative approaches to health (the Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine - vitamins, supplements, exercise, behavioral modifications, hypnosis), and in physician wellness (the WellConnect program - serving Stanford resident/fellow/faculty physicians). Dr. Shah is regarded as one of the world's experts in PMDD, and one of very few specifically studying PMDD in women of color.
Her research areas of focus are on women's reproductive psychiatry, integrative approaches to mental health, diversity & inclusion program development, ethnicity-dependent variability in mental health access and treatment response, psychedelics, spirituality, and minority stress. Her lab also studies the role of Eastern religions on mental health in the U.S., and the connection between Hinduism and psychedelics. Outside of consultations, she specializes in psychotherapy for minority populations, particularly those struggling with issues related to identity (religious identification, racial/ethnic minority stress, racial trauma, professional transitions, changes in family structure or relational status, sexual orientation), as well as cognitive-behavioral therapy for ADHD and anxiety disorders. She has received specialized training in working with Black and South Asian populations.
While in training at Stanford, she served as Chief Resident and led community partnerships and DEI efforts. She consistently ranked #1 in the Stanford residency (and top 1% in the nation) on the annual knowledge-based examination (PRITE). She is a Disaster Mental Health Responder both domestically and internationally, volunteering after wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. She founded and led the Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council (DIAC) for psychiatry faculty and residents which is now a model organization for programs across the country, built and then graduated from a Diversity & Health Equity track in the residency, and created the first known Diversity & Health Equity Grand Rounds series. She served as Chair of the Chief Residents’ Council, representing over a thousand physicians to the Stanford Health Care leadership. Before her time at Stanford, she completed an M.P.H. at Harvard University in Health Care Management and Policy, an M.D. from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York with tuition merit scholarship, and a B.S. from Duke University in Economics and Biochemistry.
She is board certified in Adult Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine, and Obesity Medicine, and board-eligible in Integrative Medicine. She pursued additional training in the fields of Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, which has informed her evidence-based approach to integrative medicine. She is credentialed as one of very few physicians in the country able to bill for TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation), ECT (electroconvulsive therapy), hypnosis, and ketamine infusions. She completed a Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research, with training from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and also completed MAPS' program MDMA Assisted Therapy Researcher Training. She is on the MDMA Clinical/Monitoring Team for Stanford's Pilot Study of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-Assisted Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: (MDMA+CBT-4-OCD). She advises several companies and research teams on the clinical use of psychedelics in psychiatry, and often consults with media and tech companies as an industry expert. She has been seen in TIME, Forbes, and the Washington Post, and in 2020 was awarded one of the top 25 rising stars in medicine by Medscape.
