Alejandro Chaoul, PhD

Dr. Alejandro Chaoul is an Assistant Professor at the John P. McGovern Center for Health, Humanities and the Human Spirit, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Services at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he is involved in research using Tibetan mind-body techniques with cancer patients and facilitates meditation for cancer patients and their support system at their Place of Wellness. He is also the Director of the Center for Professional Renewal at the Institute for Religion and Health and lectures at Rice University’s School for Continuing Studies and at the Jung Center of Houston.

Alejandro was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were he completed his High School studies. He then came to the U.S. and obtained a BA in Philosophy and a BS in Mass Communications from Boston University (1987).

Traveling to India and Nepal, he had the great fortune to receive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other teachers such as Yeshe Dorje Rinpoche. Back in the West he studied under Tibetan masters such as Lopon Tenzin Namdak, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche.

Inspired by these experiences Alejandro continued his education in religious studies, focusing on Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, at the University of Virginia (1994-6), and obtained his MA (1999).

Coming to Houston to pursue his PhD, he was deeply influenced by the medical center began offering meditation for cancer patients and their families as a volunteer at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He obtained his PhD in religious studies at Rice University (2006), writing his dissertation on Tibetan mind-body practices and applications with cancer patients.

Dr. Chaoul’s publications have focused on the role of mind-body practices in integrative cancer care and research, as well as Tibetan meditation and ritual practices within religious studies, humanities, and the intersection of humanities and medicine.

He has also been teaching Tibetan meditation and mind-body techniques under the auspices of the Ligmincha Insititute in various parts of the US, Mexico and Poland since 1995.