More about Dr. Rioux
More About Ayurveda
Ayurvedic care is wonderful for digestive and mood disorders (depression/anxiety/isolation); autoimmune and endocrine conditions; metabolic compromise/disordered eating; after debilitating illness or chemotherapy; to rebuild the immune system; to address grief or trauma; to integrative challenging life events or spiritually transformative experiences; to navigate difficult family dynamics; to identify and enhance one’s sense of meaning and life purpose; or to ground and support children who are navigating an increasingly chaotic and confusing world that devalues the transcendent nature of human connection. Dr. Rioux loves to work with children and young adults of all ages, and she has a a background in learning differences, neurodivergence, ADHD and school anxiety/ avoidance.
Training and Expertise
Dr. Rioux holds a PhD in medical Anthropology and a Doctor of Ayurvedic Medicine credential. She was trained at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, NM by Vasant Lad, where she served as a Clinic Supervisor for a number of years. Dr. Rioux has provided comprehensive preventive and primary care to patients across the lifespan since 1999. She is also a certified yoga therapist (IAYT), a registered herbalist (AHG), a trauma-wise mindfulness instructor (CMBM), a climate café facilitator (CPA-NA), and certified in Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) and interprofessional spiritual care (ISPEC). Dr. Rioux was on the Clinical Roundtable Team at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine from 2010-2013. She served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association and was Chair of the inaugural standards development for the profession of Ayurvedic Healthcare in the US. The three-tier system she developed included scopes of practice, curricular guidelines, professional competencies, clinical hours and credentialing. Dr. Rioux has served on the Board of Advisors of the International Association of Yoga Therapists for several decades and is a Board Member of the New York State Pain Society.
Planetary Health, Health Equity and Research
Dr. Rioux serves as Director of Planetary Health at the George Washington Center for Integrative Medicine and was previously Vice Director and Associate Professor in Integrative Medicine Programs at GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Rioux completed an National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona, Department of Family and Community Medicine, where she trained in complex adaptive systems and completed the first ever pilot study of a whole-systems Ayurvedic medicine and yoga therapy intervention for weight loss. This intervention demonstrated clinically meaningful weight loss of 3% total body weight in a 12-week period with continued weight loss during 6 month follow up. In addition to George Washington University and University of Arizona Schools of Medicine, Dr. Rioux has also been on faculty in the Department of Internal Medicine at University of New Mexico and in the Department of Anthropology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Rioux has conducted research on Integrative Medicine as a social movement and the professionalization of holistic healers as communities of practice. She specializes in mixed methods, qualitative, ethnographic and paradigm-consistent or model-valid research designs. She has expertise in integrative health equity, health justice, planetary health, traditional world and indigenous medical systems and the contemplative sciences. She currently serves on the Reimagining Equitable and Anti-oppressive approaches to Contemplative Research and Healing Committee (REACH) of the International Association for Contemplative Research. She has numerous impactful publications in the evidence-based medical literature and presents nationally and internationally on systems transformation in health care delivery.