Miami Student

Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Campus

Anthropology professor Deborah Akers (left) heads a summer field program in Dharamsala, Tibet - which is also home to the Dalai Lama.

A Miami University professor has recently been awarded a grant to study the impacts of Tibetan meditation practices on sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Deborah Akers, a professor in the department of anthropology, was awarded $98,366 on March 13 by the Ohio Department of Mental Health to fund the research project, titled "Treatment of Trauma Survivors: Effects of Meditation Practice on Clients' Mental Health Outcomes." The project will take place now through June 2009.

Akers' project is part of a Miami summer field program conducted by the department of anthropology, in which Miami students study Tibetan issues under monks in Dharamsala, a city in northern India.

The summer field program, Peoples and Culture of Tibet Field School, has been held in Dharamsala for the past two years. As the residence of the Dalai Lama, numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries in the town also house leading meditation teachers.

During the program, students and faculty conduct research under Tibetan monks and nuns, as well as study Tibetan Buddhism, language and literature. Students may also earn a degree in Tibetan medicine.

During this year's program, students have the opportunity to study the effects of Tibetan medicine on breast cancer, stress and PTSD, as well as studying Tibetan architecture, government, and legal systems.

In the fall, Akers, along with other Miami professors and students, will study the effects of Tibetan mediation practices on a group of women diagnosed with PTSD as part of the research project.

The meditation techniques will be led and supervised by Geshela Damdhul, a visiting Tibetan meditation master from Dharamsala.

The program will take place at the Amythest House, a half-way house for drug and alcohol addicts in Columbus, Ohio. According to Akers, the facility is ideal for the study because there are about 20 women who have already been diagnosed with PTSD.

According to Akers, the women will meditate each morning and evening for six weeks beginning in October 2007. Mental health professionals will monitor their mental health for change.

"Anything we can do to improve the lives of these women will make the study worthwhile," Akers said.

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