Dr Shawn Shea is an internationally acclaimed workshop leader and educational innovator in the fields of suicide prevention, resiliency, clinical interviewing, and improving medication adherence having given over 850 presentations worldwide. He has been a recipient of an Outstanding Course Award presented by the American Psychiatric Association for his presentations at their annual meetings. He is a frequent presenter at the annual meeting of the American Association of Suicidology and at the Cape Cod Symposium where his courses have received some of the highest evaluations in the 30 year history of the Symposium.

Dr. Shea is the author of seven books and numerous articles including one of the classic texts in the field of suicide prevention, The Practical Art of Suicide Assessment. His works have been translated into languages as diverse as French, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese. Both previous editions - as well as Dr. Shea’s recently published Third Edition of Psychiatric Interviewing: the Art of Understanding - were chosen by the Medical Library Association for the Brandon Hill List (now known as Doody’s Core Titles List) as one of the 16 most important books in the field of psychiatry, and was selected by the British Medical Association as the 2017 Book of the Year in Psychiatry.

His book on creating resiliency in difficult times - Happiness Is. - was chosen as a Brodart Library Gem, a Bowker's title to Watch, and as the Philosophy Book of the Month by the Radical Academy. Former US Surgeon General C, Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D. provided the foreword to Dr. Shea’s book, Improving Medication Adherence: How to Talk with Patients About Their Medications which, in 2009, was chosen for Doody’s Core Titles list of the most important books in the fields of medicine and nursing.

Dr. Shea brings nearly 40 years of clinical experience including being the former US Director of the Diagnostic and Evaluation Centre (the psychiatric emergency room for Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA). He has been a frequent invited guest speaker at events such as the Annual Meetings of both the American Association of Suicidology (where he has presented 20 consecutive years) and the American Psychiatric Association (where he has received the Outstanding Course Award).

He is also the Director of the Training Institute for Suicide Assessment and Clinical Interviewing, a training and consultation service providing workshops, consultations, and quality assurance design in mental health assessments, and is also in private practice.