Richard Nahas

Dr. Richard Nahas is a physician and founder of The Seekers Centre in Ottawa, where he uses an integrative medicine approch to treat pain and heal the brain.

In 1998, after graduating with a medical degree from the University of Toronto, Dr. Nahas spent four years as an ER physician, working in remote rural outposts and academic teaching hospitals across Canada. He worked as an ER physician at Mount Sinai Hospital when the SARS outbreak of 2003 began. While tending to SARS patients, Dr. Nahas saw the potential of treating illness by helping the body heal itself. He developed an interest in global health while on medical missions to the Middle East, Africa and Central America.

Prior to returning to Ottawa and establishing The Seekers Centre in 2006, he spent two years backpacking in 30 countries to study traditional healing systems. To better understand different perspectives on illness and healing, he worked alongside shamans, gurus, healers and traditional doctors from around the world.

Dr. Nahas leads a multi-disciplinary team at The Seekers Centre, is on a mission to understand the root causes of chronic pain, and helps patients manage their symptoms by integrating prescription drugs, injection and IV infusion treatments with mindfulness, breathing, myofascial manual therapy, acupuncture, natural health products and other specialized treatments.

Dr. Nahas has worked to promote evidence-based integrative medicine. He created an undergraduate curriculum for medical students at the University of Ottawa, and has published journal articles and textbook chapters, contributed to national guidelines and multinational clinical trials. He also speaks and writes about the potential for integrative medicine to improve healthcare.

Dr. Richard Nahas has been appointed to the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa and has served as Chair of the Medical Interest Group for Complementary and Integrative Medicine at the Ontario Medical Association.

When not treating patients or working to improve healthcare, he enjoys reading, playing music and riding his bicycle.