Berlowitz, Ilana

Ilana is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich (Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Anatomy) and at the University of Fribourg (Department of Psychology, Unit for Clinical & Health Psychology) specializing in research on traditional Amazonian medicines and applications in the psychosomatic and mental health domain. She received her PhD (summa cum laude) in clinical and health psychology in 2017 (University of Fribourg, Switzerland). She had been granted a Swiss National Science Foundation Doc.CH scholarship for her doctoral project, which involved extensive field work in Peru focusing on Amazonian treatments adapted to substance use disorders. Ilana's work was awarded with the Inger-Salling Prize for outstanding accomplishments in psychiatry research in Switzerland (2018). She investigates both basic research questions regarding indigenous medical concepts and practices, as well as conducts applied clinical studies in this context. Her research currently focuses particularly on traditional Amazonian medical uses of the tobacco plant, associated controversies, and therapeutic applications in the psychosomatic domain, for which she collaborates with Peru and Cuba. Her scientific interests extend to other indigenous healing systems and indigenous health, the usage of sacred plants in Latin American medical traditions, and to the integration of indigenous medicines in Latin American public health care. In the scope of the current InterActHealth Project, Ilana is conducting epistemological research on basic health-related concepts held in Amazonian medicine and is carrying out an interview study with traditional healers of Peruvian Amazonia. Furthermore, she is co-facilitating the collaborative and transdisciplinary processes of InterActHealth. Ilana is writing for scientific and other journals and has co-edited a book on indigenous spirituality in the Western world (2017; "Espiritualidad Indígena y el Mundo Occidental").