Joan was born in 1951 in Barcelona in a family where psychiatric practice and the pursuit of scientific rigor in mind-spirit duality was already present. He simultaneously studied Medicine and Social Anthropology from which he graduated in 1974 and 1975 respectively. He got his Ph.D in Medicine (1991). As a psychiatrist he has intented to work in the frame of Transcultural Psychiatry. He has been a member of the International Committee of the Transcultural Psychiatry Section (World Psychiatric Association) from 2002 to 2008, serving as secretary of the Section from 2005 to 2008. In 1992 he did fieldwork in Ecuador in a Shuar community, known for traditional use of Ayahuasca. Dr. Obiols is currently the director of the Public Mental Health Department of Andorra (SAAS).