On Reclaiming Joy for Justice and Healing

Everyone alive will endure great pain—multiple times over the course of a lifetime and usually beyond our control. Integrative physician and activist Tanmeet Sethi’s work focuses on shifting our nervous system and biochemistry into a form of joy at the cellular level. She believes that anyone can reclaim joy—as they reclaim their personal power, strength, and purpose—despite the burden of living in an unjust world, despite past traumas, and despite any platitudes that a whitewashed wellness world says about their capacity. 
 
As a physician with a specialty in Integrative Medicine, Dr. Sethi has worked both on the frontlines with the most marginalized communities, as well as globally with victims of school shootings, survivors of hurricanes, citizens impacted by police violence, and psychologists in Ukraine under attack.  
 
As a mother, she has received the impossible news that her youngest son has a fatal degenerative disease. As a Sikh, Desi woman raised in the American South, she has deeply felt the pain of separation, fear, and racism. So, when she urges us to access joy, she does not mean: “Be happy” or “be grateful,” and certainly not, “be resilient.” She means something more along the lines of: “Honor your pain, feel everything, and integrate joy as the healing practice you need as rocket fuel for your own personal justice.” In her latest book, Joy Is My Justice, Dr. Sethi issues an invitation to everyone whom “wellness” has left behind to help them rediscover their joy—not as a destination or solution—but as a profound practice for healing.

Join Dr. Sethi and Pakistani American licensed marriage and family therapist Anjuli Sherin for a conversation about how to rediscover your joy and learn how to reframe joy as an act of resistance to reclaim your resilience and sense of purpose as a unique human right.


Tanmeet Sethi, MD, is an Integrative Medicine physician who has devoted her career to caring for the most vulnerable and teaching physicians how to care for these communities in the most humane and skillful way possible. She has spent the last 25 years on the frontlines practicing primary care, global trauma, and community activism. Dr. Sethi lectures nationally and has spoken on three TEDx stages about using gratitude as medicine. She lives in Seattle with her family.


Anjuli Sherin, MA, LMFT is a Pakistani American licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in trauma recovery, resilience building, and cultivating joy. She has 18 years of practice working with immigrant, South Asian, Middle Eastern, Muslim and LGBTQI+ populations. Sherin received her BA in sociology and anthropology from Mary Washington University and her MA from CIIS. She has trained and mentored with leading figures in trauma recovery and energy psychology, including Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Staci Haines, and Vianna Stibal. In addition to awards for academic excellence and community service, Sherin received the 2007 Emerging Leader Award from the E-women Network and has been featured in O Magazine as a finalist for the O Magazine/White House Leadership Project. Her award-winning book is Joyous Resilience: A Path to Individual Healing and Collective Thriving in an Inequitable World. Learn more about Anjuli at her website. 

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