Her Bio

Dr. Elisseou received her B.A. and M.D. at Brown University and completed residency and chief residency at Yale School of Medicine. She is a practicing physician in the VA healthcare system, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine, and an internationally recognized expert in trauma-informed care (TIC), a strategic framework for supporting survivors of physical, sexual, psychological, and structural trauma. Dr. Elisseou creates evidence-based platforms to train professionals in trauma-informed practices.

Her Story

Over the past 17 years, Dr. Elisseou has cared for thousands of patients with a trauma history. Her patients taught her that there is a need for a universal, trauma-informed approach to care. In order to help meet this need, Dr. Elisseou read extensively about TIC and created a novel framework to enhance patient safety during medical appointments. Dr. Elisseou is considered the premier expert on trauma-informed physical examination; her award-winning curriculum on this subject is now taught at medical schools across the U.S.. She has since applied TIC to help organizations within and outside healthcare.

Her Experience

Dr. Elisseou is the co-founder of the National Veterans Health Administration TIC Collaborative, a member of the Trauma Informed Health Care, Education and Research (TIHCHER) collaborative, and a member of the Harvard Medical School TIC Steering Committee. She is invited to speak about TIC for broad audiences including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), disaster relief organizations, and health officials in developing nations. She has been named an Ambassador of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation.

Dr. Elisseou had the privilege of speaking with the 14th Dalai Lama about healing from trauma, through Harvard’s Lifestyle Medicine Course.