Dunedin Hospital psychologist Miriama Ketu-McKenzie has been awarded a New Zealand Psychological Society scholarship for her research into the effects of mindfulness on the stress hormone cortisol.
The eight women in the study had had a stressful childhood with adverse experiences.
In a couple of weeks, they will start a mindfulness programme with Dunedin practitioner Kovido Maddick. Their cortisol levels would be checked before, during, and after the eight-week programme.
It includes meditation and yoga, in addition to group activities, as well as individual practice.
Mrs Ketu-McKenzie said she believed mindfulness was more in keeping with the Maori world view than the likes of cognitive behavioural therapy.
"Mindfulness may be more attractive to Maori," Mrs Ketu-McKenzie said.
Maori lived in a more communal way with emphasis on relationships, she said.
Mrs Ketu-McKenzie, who moved to Dunedin from Tauranga a year ago, said recruiting enough women for the study was not easy. She believed Maori were likely to be under-counted as a demographic in the South.