Dr. Badri (Bud) Rickhi

Dr. Badri (Bud) Rickhi is the research chair and a founding member of Cinim. Born in Trinidad & Tobago, he studied languages, literature and history, before becoming a physician, specializing in psychiatry. He also studied traditional Chinese, Tibetan, Ayurvedic (Indian) and Ryodoraku (Japanese) medicine and trained in functional, energy and quantum physics medicine. As stated by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, “You may not expect a psychiatrist who pursued training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic, Japanese and Tibetan medicine to be behind an e-mental health tool for youth across Canada, but Dr. Badri Rickhi has never been about doing the expected.”

Cinim’s award-winning online mental health program, BreathingRoomTM, supports youth in strengthening coping strategies to better manage the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. It is already accessible to more than 80,000 youth across Canada and Cinim’s goal is to increase the program’s reach and awareness nationally to make it available to all Canadian youth.

In addition to his work at Cinim, Dr. Rickhi is currently an associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of Calgary, and has advised organizations such as Health Canada and the World Health Organization on complementary therapies. He is working closely with the Government of India to incorporate integrative medicine into its healthcare system.

Dr. Rickhi is the first Canadian to sit on the executive committee of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health (The Consortium). In 2009, he was the co-recipient of the world’s largest prize of its kind that recognizes the important contributions to Complementary and Alternative Medicine to health: the prestigious Dr. Rogers Prize.

Recognized as one of Canada’s 150 Difference Makers for Mental Health in 2018, Dr. Badri is passionate about connecting Canadians to a full range of conventional and complementary medicine and therapy to help them overcome their challenges.