The Seekers Centre was established by Dr. Richard Nahas, a physician committed to using the best therapies from the worlds of alternative, traditional and conventional medicine to help people heal.

Dr. Nahas was born and raised in Ottawa. He studied biochemistry at the University of Ottawa before attending the University of Toronto, where he obtained his medical degree in 1998.

His early professional interest was in international health. This led to short-term medical missions focused on infant diarrhea in Egypt, micronutrient deficiency in the Palestinian Authority and trauma in Johannesburg. He founded the student section of CISEPO, a Canadian non-governmental organization dedicated to peace-building in the Middle East through health partnerships.

After completing a residency program in family medicine, Dr. Nahas spent several years as an ER physician. He worked in a wide range of clinical settings across Canada, from remote rural outposts to academic teaching hospitals in Toronto. It was during the SARS outbreak of 2003, while treating people with the disease, that he became impressed with the importance of treating illness by helping the body heal itself.

He then spent two years backpacking around the world. What began as a six-month vacation evolved into a self-directed sabbatical in over 30 countries. This included time spent with Amazonian shamans, plant healers from the Andes, Ayurveda training in India and brief encounters with dozens of traditional healers from many parts of the world.

With a renewed calling to medicine and healing, he returned to Ottawa and established the Seekers Centre. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He developed and teaches a new 20-hour curriculum in integrative medicine that is now a requirement for all medical students. He has established the Seekers Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching doctors about non-drug therapies. He has written several peer-reviewed articles and textbook chapters, and speaks at medical conferences worldwide.