Tobias Esch

Tobias Esch, MD, a neuroscientist, board-certified family physician, and bestselling author, is an expert on the core principles that sustain health and healing. In his book The Neurobiology of Happiness, Dr. Esch outlined the transformative power of positive psychology in medicine. His subsequent publication, The Self-Healing Code, was nominated Science Book of the Year in 2017 in German-speaking countries, and The Better Half, jointly authored with Eckart von Hirschhausen, was number one on the German nonfiction bestseller list in 2019. Driven by a passion for integrating all relevant healing forces in medicine, his interests as a researcher and practitioner also include meditation and mindfulness as means to help people find their way to a life of wholeness, health, and well-being.

With a background in neuroscience and applied psychology, Dr. Esch has focused his work on health promotion and patient-empowerment, including basic research studies on the brain’s reward and motivation systems. Since 2016, he has led the Institute for Integrative Health Care and Health Promotion at the School of Medicine at Witten/Herdecke University, where he is also chair and full professor of medicine. He also founded the first German University Clinic for Integrative Primary Care. Prior to that, he was a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice (Commonwealth Fund New York) and Visiting Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has authored more than 250 scientific papers and written many research contributions.