Center for Social Emotional Health and Consciousness


(Far right) Sanford Nidich, EdD, director of the Center for Social-Emotional Health and Consciousness and Professor of Physiology and Health, and Education at Maharishi International University, has been a pioneering researcher in the field of complementary and integrative medicine for over several decades. He has been a principal investigator or co-investigator on research projects funded by the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and private foundations in the areas of mental health, rehabilitation, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, totaling over $20 million.

Dr. Nidich is speaking with Candy Crowley, formerly of CNN News, Bob Roth, CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, and Dr. Jack Rigg, neurologist at Eisenhower Air Force Base in Augusta, GA, on the recent findings of a Department of Defense-funded clinical trial on the effects of Transcendental Meditation in Veterans with PTSD. The study was conducted at the San Diego VA and later published in The Lancet Psychiatry, a leading journal in the field of mental health. Click here for findings.


Center Programs

Veterans, Students, Prison Inmates, Administrators and Staff, and Women’s Health

The Center for Social-Emotional Health has as its main mission to promote the mental health and emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing of at-risk and disadvantaged groups in society through the Consciousness-based approach of Transcendental Meditation (TM).

  • The Center has collaborated with the VA San Diego Healthcare System, CA, the University of California at San Diego, Uniform Health Services, MD, and Northwell Healthcare System, NY, to conduct groundbreaking research on the effects of TM on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Veterans.

  • In collaboration with University of Loyola Stritch Medical School, TM was found to significantly reduce burnout and depression in academic physicians, leading other medical schools to begin implementation of similar programs.

  • Employee wellness programs with TM further showed substantial improvement in emotional intelligence and perceived stress.

  • A recent study in Uganda with impoverished mothers indicated improvement in self-efficacy and self-empowerment. The media coverage of these and other projects has been widespread around the world.

You can see our latest press coverage here.

You can see a selected list of Center research publications and grants here. 

If you would like to donate (https://giving.miu.edu) to the Center for Social-Emotional Health at Maharishi International University (MIU), a nonprofit 501©(3) to help support its projects worldwide, please contact the MIU Development Office at 641-472-1180 (Account # for Center for Social and Emotional Health: 30-62048-4119).