Modified African Ngoma Healing Ceremony for Stress Reduction: A Pilot Study.
Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) October 1, 2017 Ava LaVonne Vinesett, Riitta Rutanen Whaley, Cheryl Woods-Giscombe et al.
A randomized pilot study compared a modified Central African ngoma ceremony (Ngoma) with mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in 21 women over 8 weeks. Both groups showed improvements in depression, anxiety, emotional well-being, and social functioning, with social bonding increasing in both groups as a possible mechanism. Participants found both interventions credible. The ngoma ceremony demonstrated significant and durable beneficial effects comparable to MBSR, suggesting indigenous rhythm-dance ceremonies warrant investigation in larger clinical studies for distress and health status in Western culture.