Research

My research at King’s College London focuses on understanding mind-body therapies' psychoneuroimmunological mechanisms in stress and treatment-resistant depression. I want to understand what the effective component of mind-body therapies applied to mental health is (stress, anxiety, depression and emotional distress) in health and disease.

I achieve this using a complex methodology that includes multimodal neuroimaging (EEG, MRI, fMRI, and DWI), salivary markers (pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines, BDNF, and cortisol) and subjective outcome questionnaires.

This wealth of data allows me to triangulate and correlate different markets and understand how peripheral markers impact neuroinflammation, neuroplasticity and mental health outcomes.

My studies include an intervention aimed at reducing chronic and depressive symptoms. I adopt a yogic technique, yoga nidra, which induces a hypnotic sleep-like state. I have observed in my private clinical practice, as a yoga therapist, that yoga nidra improves mental health outcomes in chronic conditions such as depression, insomnia, pain and cancer.

Take part in my research