Clinical trial · Interventional
Traditional African Healing Ceremony in a U.S. Population
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Pre-agricultural societies almost universally used healing ceremonies that involved reverence, rhythm and dance in the presence of a healer. It is believed that we are "wired" for such experiences and they foster an integrative mode of consciousness similar to that of mindfulness based stress reduction, which has been shown to have therapeutic effects in a variety of conditions. Collaborator Ava Lavonne Vinesett of the Duke Dance Program has developed a healing ceremony based in sub-Saharan African traditions. The investigators plan is to have 25 subjects with a variety of clinical conditions participate in this ceremony. Subjects will then be asked to write a commentary about their experience and to participate in a focus group discussion. It is anticipated that the study will give us some idea of how promising this approach would be and what kinds of patients might benefit. Safety issues are minimal and include the possibility of injury (though the dancing is not strenuous) and psychological distress.
Conditions
Conditions (4)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anxiety | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Cancer | Malignant Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
| Chronic Fatigue Syndrome | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Depression | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Movement to rhythm | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (1)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Movement with rhythm
- description
- Subjects will move for 1 hour in time to the Congolese rhythm called Zebola.
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Movement to rhythm
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Report from each participant as to whether they found the experience positive, neutral or negative.
- timeFrame
- During the first hour after the intervention
Secondary outcomes (1)
- measure
- written narrative of experience
- timeFrame
- During the first hour after the intervention
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 25 Years
- Maximum age
- 65 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Age 25 to 65 with one of the diagnoses listed above or with 8 visits to their provider in the last year and with no diagnosis of chronic illness. Exclusion Criteria: * physical disability making participation difficult and previous experience with a similar ceremony, for instance while growing up in Africa.
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available