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Gulamabbas Lakha

Gulamabbas Lakha

Gulamabbas Lakha

DPhil Student

Gulamabbas is undertaking a doctorate in psychiatry, within the Neuroscience, Ethics & Society team, investigating the ethical principles underpinning personalised mental health for faith communities, with specific regard to interventions for depression in the UK Muslim population.  This process involves working with patients, practitioners and policy makers, within an empirical ethics methodological framework, working with Professor Ilina Singh (Department of Psychiatry) and Dr Michael Dunn (Nuffield Department of Population Health, Ethox Centre).

A diverse professional and academic background has created a passion for combining multiple disciplines to develop new mental health treatments, drawing upon his community work over the last decade and recent postgraduate studies in psychology, neuroscience, Islamic studies, history and Christian theology.  His previous research includes comparative analysis of EEG neural correlates of mindfulness meditation from MBCT and dhikr practices (mindfulness from the Islamic tradition), together with empirical studies on how ʾakhlāq (ethical and psychological teachings from Islam) may contribute to treating depression and anxiety.  Prior to that he worked with early Arabic primary sources to investigate the reception history of Al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya, one of the oldest Islamic prayer manuals that is rich in ethics and psychology, commentaries of which had not previously been studied in Western scholarship.

His professional background over the last two decades is in quantitative finance and currently manage an investment firm he founded twelve years ago, having originally graduated in Economics & Econometrics and subsequently awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.  He is actively involved in working with faith communities in London and Oxford, which serves as a constant reminder about the need for practical applications of research, particularly with regard to how existing frameworks in daily life (such as religious practices) can be harnessed for therapeutic benefit and promoting mental health.