The social context of health and healing is deeply embedded in the indigenous medical systems of India. In contrast, Western medicine, only in the recent decades, has partially adopted holistic approaches prompted by new developments in psychology such as positive psychology, health psychology and developmental psychology. An attempt is made to draw the salient features of ayurveda, unani, siddha and tibetan medicine, and examine their relevance to contemporary insights of positive, health and developmental psychologies. Child care in the four systems offer remarkable insights drawing strength equally from the folk childcare and medical practices. These highlight the contributions of social and religious contexts as inextricably intertwined with healthcare practice. There appears to be a need for a paradigm shift in psychology to study the holistic approaches of the indigenous medical systems.