Dr. Geller is currently serving as faculty for the Greater Lawrence Family Practice Residency program and is clinical faculty for the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine and Tufts University School of medicine. He has been engaged in several research projects over the last 5 years, some funded by the CDC, to study his work with loneliness and group visits. He was awarded the AAFP / Park-Davis Teacher Development Award in 2000, and the AAFP Resident Scholars Award: First Place in 2001 for some of his published research. He frequently presents his work at conferences. His alternative medicine clinic in an underserved community has won awards and financial support from the following agencies: CVS, Eileen Fisher Co., Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Harvard Pilgrim, and Latino Project 2010. Partial funding for this fellowship is through a relationship with EBSCO Publishing. His clinics offer acupuncture, hypnosis, OMM, and group visits with Tai Chi, Yoga, meditation in coordination with western modalities. As a practicing integrative physician, Dr. Geller has been using the scientific literature to compare the various methods of approaching illness and healing.

He was an electrical engineer prior to his career in medicine graduating from the University of Massachusetts as the Most Outstanding Senior Electrical Engineer in 1992. This background gives him a very firm basis in statistics, which has been very helpful in reviewing and making sense of the medical literature. By maintaining a vibrant practice, he feels he is able to sort through not only what is statistically meaningful, but also what is generally useful and helpful for physicians.

Robert Luby, M.D. is the Director of Curriculum and Education for the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency and the Lawrence H.I.P. Medicine Fellowship. He is double-boarded in family medicine and holistic medicine by the American Board of Holistic Medicine. Dr. Luby attended Dartmouth College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons before completing family medicine residency at Providence Hospital in Seattle, Washington. He has had several stints of work in Guatemala, and has been employed in Hispanic Community Health Centers for his entire career. Dr. Luby’s interest in unconventional medicine extends back 20 years. He has had extensive training in Functional Medicine and Detoxification, European Biological Medicine, as well as shiatsu, hypnosis, and nutrition.

A strong value of his is pluralistic medicine. This refers to the importance of understanding all unconventional medicine modalities from the point of view of their own paradigm, as opposed to the allopathic paradigm. He also has a keen interest in the use of language in the medical encounter. Dr. Luby has won the Teacher of the Year Award and the Residency Innovation Award multiple times in his current position. He is a creative teacher and enjoys using games, songs, poems, and drama in his teaching. He presents over 60 lectures per year in the residency and is currently developing an elective in integrative medicine at the residency. Dr. Luby strongly believes that a self-wellness program is integral for any faculty, fellow, or resident involved in these programs.

Elizabeth G. Rocco, M.D. was the first H.I.P. (holistic, integrative and pluralistic) fellow at the Greater Lawrence Family Medicine Residency in 2005. Elizabeth is thrilled to be part of our faculty to combine her passions of working with underserved immigrants, studying the mind-body connection, and exploring alternative therapeutic health care relationships i.e. groups. She has created a year of study which includes a personal practice of yoga, meditation, chi kung and re-evaluation counseling, practical skill development in hypnosis, reiki, and guided body imagery.

Elizabeth is applying all of her skills in integrative and allopathic medicine into a group visits format. She is observing and facilitating existing group visit formats at the health center and is also creating 2 new groups: a Latina Wellness group and a Parent-Child Obesity group for the health center. Information about evidence based practice in integrative medicine is gained through review of the EBSCO research database in Integrative Medicine. Prior to medical school Elizabeth considered studying naturopathic medicine but instead spent 2 years in the Peace Corps working in the Nigerian Guinea Worm Eradication Program. When she returned she decided to pursue her M.D. at the Ohio State University College and Medicine, so she would have the ability to work with underserved communities. She completed Family Medicine residency at University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2001, and then, she studied Spanish in Mexico and Portuguese in Brazil in preparation for working in community health centers in the Northeast.

She worked in Somerville community health center with new immigrants and young American transplants. She was soon surprised to discover that a majority of her patients presented with psychosomatic complaints and pain and illnesses due to the stress of their new life. She found that allopathic medicine really has little to offer these patients. She was inspired by Dr Geller's successful use of groups and incorporation of integrative medicine into full-spectrum family medicine practice in an underserved Spanish-speaking immigrant community and started planning the perfect fellowship year.

Current HIP Fellows
Kavitha Gazula, M.D. - During medical school I was fortunate enough to work with the most underserved populations’ seeking care at one of the major government funded hospitals. Even as I studied conventional medicine through formal training, I learned numerous natural and herbal therapies from my patients. My exposure to self-healing techniques like Yoga and Reiki increased my curiosity enough to make me attend a level I course in Reiki. Looking back, I realize that the roots to alternative thinking were already in place for me by the time I completed my medical education. Over the years I have come to realize how a holistic orientation and focus on prevention offers unique tools to address the complex problems of health care for low income patients.

I strongly believe in the philosophy of integrating the best of conventional and alternative therapies to achieve personal wellness, and I understand and respect how a patient’s health beliefs and choices must shape their individualized treatment plan. One of the blessings in being a physician is learning from the experiences and perspectives of patients.

My interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine led me to train in structural acupuncture at Harvard Medical School and Boston University Medical Center thus enhancing my hands-on acupuncture skills. It also provided diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for managing pain along with neuro-anatomical approaches to pain modulation with dry needling as an adjunctive treatment technique. My certification and learning of acupuncture not just opened new modalities of therapy I could offer my patients as an integrative physician but also brought on new challenges for me with its incorporation into a busy office based practice schedule.

I strongly believe in the innate healing abilities of the human body and would like to have my patients’ partner with me in their own healing process. Lastly, I also believe in my own personal wellness. As a physician I feel the importance of role modeling healthier living while I encourage my patients to lead healthier lives. As a fellow in the HIP fellowship program at the GLFHC, I feel inspired and privileged with having this opportunity to not just practice and integrate my acupuncture skills but most of all feel empowered with my own personal wellness. Thus I find myself in the path towards providing exceptional integrative medicine as I further my learning of Natural supplements, Nutritional and Herbal therapies, hypnosis and group medical visits.

Recent HIP Fellowship graduates:
Hansie Wong M.D. It all started in college without warning when a knee injury threw me into the world of medicine. From that experience, I was introduced to Chinese medicine and qigong and was amazed by how much improvement was made even after just one treatment. Since then, I have been interested in non-conventional modalities of medicine and through the years of medical school and a residency in Family Practice, I came to realize that medicine barely touches the expanse of health and well-being. This put me on a path of self-discovery and improvement as I began gathering tools for health promotion instead of disease treatment. I learned more about complementary alternative therapies (acupuncture, osteopathy, energy work, herbs, mind-body work, etc.) and came to understand and appreciate the fundamental importance of nutrition, exercise, and emotional balance in healthy living. Through one of life’s ingenious synchronicities along the way, I stumbled upon the field of integrative medicine and thought, Wow! There’s actually a name for what I want to do! This is it! This is what health is about!

The HIP fellowship at GLFHC gives me an opportunity to put it all into practice and deliver excellent holistic, integrated healthcare. As I begin the fellowship and proceed on this life-long journey of well-being, I am excited to share my experience and empower others with ways to live a healthier, balanced life mentally, physically, and spiritually. After all, everyone deserves access to quality patient-centered care for personal health and development.

Hansie is focusing her year on practicing acupuncture and leading group visits for people with anxiety and chronic pain. She hopes to open her own clinic someday with Tai Chi and integrative medicine.

Nina Spiro M.D. I have always been drawn to the traditional medicines of developing countries. While modern medicine dazzled and dazed the global populace with advancements and semi-cures, my mind’s eye was always curious to hear about and seek out the ongoing healing practices of little-known villages and countries. Mind you, I am an MD and have known I would follow this path since childhood. But growing up, traveling and studying in different places, I knew there were respected, time-tested methods and knowledge that I needed to learn about, adapt, and include in my modern practices. Today people are more aware of the existence of alternative approaches and, in fact, often seek them out, much more so now than when I was growing up. While it is obvious to me that modern medicine has so much to offer, at the same time, it falls short in so many areas, particularly in the areas of preventative medicine, educating our patients about healthy lifestyles, and discussing alternative options to health and disease management based on individualized assessments.My most intense firsthand experience with traditional medicine was under the tutelage of traditional healers, or ombiasy, of Madagascar, about whom I wrote my thesis during college. My years in medical school and residency proved to be so vigorously packed with new information as to stall temporarily my previously active learning process about natural medicines. Fortunately, there were a few key preceptors and attendings that allowed me to realize both that one can be a relaxed doctor with a smile and still be effective, and also to realize that one can integrate evidence-based alternative practices into a great family practice. These were such revelations for me and such a relief in a world, I knew, was searching for just these things in their doctor. When the opportunity arose for a HIP medicine fellowship at the very site of my residency, the place I have grown to love, and am proud of for its work in our community, I knew the energy of the universe had aligned in my favor.

This is a groundbreaking fellowship to me. Lawrence is one of the only places in the country where I can choose what modalities and skills to get out of the fellowship; and to serve an underserved population in the process is really where my heart lies. I know I am extremely fortunate to work at a site where group visits are being pioneered like nowhere else; I am taking advantage of the knowledge being offered there. Balance and mindfulness, I believe, are the keys to healthy living inside and outside the practice of medicine. Educating both myself and my patients with the resources to live a healthy life, as well as being able to respond to medical issues with the most excellent and complementary alternatives of traditional and modern medicine, are my goals within this fellowship. With such knowledge I hope to approach my vision of being an effective, outstanding, responsible, and responsive family medicine practitioner. Nina is focusing her year on learning acupuncture as well as hypnosis and integrating it into her medical practice.

Indira Mahidhara, M.D. was the second graduate of the H.I.P (Holistic, Integrative, and Pluralistic) fellow at the Greater Lawrence Family Medicine Residency Program graduating in 2007. Indira has often stated that she had “struck gold” when she interviewed for and was accepted into this fellowship. She feels that the fellowship opportunity became available to her at the perfect time in her career; a time when she had become frustrated with the limitations of traditional western allopathic medicine, if used alone, in truly healing the people she encountered during her years of work. Indira spent this year learning and acquiring new skills such as acupuncture, medical hypnosis, and Reiki energy healing. Most importantly, she has found a new purpose for her future medical career, which includes being involved in the gathering of evidence to support the practice of various Holistic Medical modalities such that Holistic Medicine is considered more first line treatment and integrated with Allopathic Medicine, rather than considered separate and alternative. Indira is board certified in Family Medicine. She attended University of California, Berkeley for her undergraduate education and majored in Molecular Cell Biology with an emphasis in Genetics. This early exposure to the scientific method has provided a basis for her motivation in obtaining evidence to support the use of Holistic Healthcare options to integrate with already established evidence based Allopathic Medicine. She then attended The Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA where she earned her M.D. Afterward, she completed her Family Practice training at Scottsdale Healthcare Family Practice Residency Program in Scottsdale, Arizona. Indira spent the next 7 years working in both Primary Care and Urgent Care settings. Indira feels fortunate that the Directors of this H.I.P. Fellowship Program believe in empowering not only their patients and staff, but also their fellows in finding an individual path and following through with proposed goals. Indira has spent the last year attending formal training sessions for Acupuncture via the Harvard Medical School Structural Acupuncture for Physician’s course and Yamamoto’s New Scalp Acupuncture course, two courses in Hypnosis, and three courses in Reiki Energy Healing. She has also increased her knowledge base via independent study in Nutrition, Herbal and Natural Therapies, and Energy Medicine. She has attempted to integrate Holistic modalities with Allopathic treatments in her own care of patients during Acute Care sessions and her Acupuncture Clinic sessions. She is furthering her experience with the research world by providing summaries of alternative treatments for common medical presentations for EBSCO/Dyna Med Database. Lastly, she has continued to work on her own personal healing and wellness by setting and following through with several goals. She firmly believes that “we were given two hands- one to heal ourselves, and one to heal others.” She continues to practice acupuncture at the GLFHC.

Elena Rosenbaum M.D. is now working as faculty for a family medicine residency in Albany, New York. She is teaching and practicing integrative medicine.

As a young child in Guatemala, I constantly witnessed vast disparities in wealth and particularly, in health. I accompanied my mother in her fieldwork in tiny villages in Guatemala and Mexico. I remember feeling lucky to have doctors, dentists and any type of health care provider if I was sick. I started medical school with the mission to make health care accessible to more people both in the United States and internationally. As I am finishing my residency in Lawrence, I feel that I am part of the way towards my mission. For the last few years, I have dedicated my care to those who would not otherwise receive health care.

Growing up and during medical school, I quickly understood that western medicine is not omnipotent. In particular, I have been fascinated with acupuncture, herbal medicines, Ayurveda and Chinese medicine. Through my readings, travels and experiences, I have come to view practicing medicine as an art. I value my training in a U.S. Medical School. However, I am convinced that learning acupuncture and other forms of alternative therapies is essential providing the best care to my patients. While there is a huge disparity in western medicine health care, there is even a larger disparity in the world of holistic, alternative and complimentary treatments. Thus, I have decided to pursue a fellowship in Holistic and Integrative Medicine in Lawrence with the goal to provide excellent medical care to my patients. I want to combine the best of western medicine with the best of acupuncture, hypnosis, and osteopathic medicine to treat patients who rarely have the opportunity to see a physician and who would never have the opportunity to receive these alternative therapies.