Virtual Reality
June 19, 2026
Ylenia D'elia, Catherine I. Andreu, Aida Palacios et al.
Compassion-based interventions have been shown to improve numerous mental health outcomes. However, they are time- and effort-intensive and are associated with high dropout rates. Virtual Reality (VR) could be a useful tool to enhance compassion practice by immersing users in a VR environment, thus facilitating the construction and sustainment of mental images necessary for the practice. The...
International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
December 17, 2025
Aida Palacios, Sara Martínez‐Gregorio, Catherine I. Andreu et al.
Although the effectiveness of compassion-based interventions (CBIs) has been widely demonstrated to improve mental health and prosocial behaviors, not all individuals benefit equally from these interventions. Therefore, enhancing specific capacities relevant to compassion practice (i.e., mental imagery and somatosensory perception) could optimize the benefits of CBIs. This randomized controlled...
Mindfulness
September 1, 2025
Lorena Desdentado, Marta Miragall, Ausiàs Cebolla et al.
Abstract Objectives This study aimed to (1) investigate the feasibility of three online-delivered mindfulness practices that emphasize different types of attentional focus: visceral body scan (VBS), somatosensory body scan (SBS), and external (non-body) meditation (ECM), and (2) gain insight into the potential effects of these interventions on interoceptive and other psychological outcomes....
Mindfulness
June 3, 2025
Catherine I. Andreu, Joana Vidal, Ylenia D’elia et al.
Compassion is a valuable, trainable skill which can bring significant benefits to oneself and others. One method for developing compassion towards others is Tonglen, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation which involves taking in suffering from others and sending them well-being. The aim of this study was to investigate the psychophysiological outcomes of Tonglen meditation in healthcare workers, a...
Mindfulness
January 14, 2022
Jaime Navarrete, Miguel Ángel García-Salvador, Ausiàs Cebolla et al.
Objectives: The purpose of this exploratory non-randomized controlled study was to determine the acceptance and effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) co-designed by a police officer. Methods: A pretest-posttest control group design was followed. Participants (MBI group = 20; control group = 18) answered baseline and post-training self-reported measures. In addition,...
Scientific Reports
April 8, 2020
Rafael González-Moret, Ausiàs Cebolla, X. Cortés et al.
Mindfulness-based interventions have shown some efficacy in decreasing stress levels and improving quality of life. However, so far, only a few studies have studied this type of intervention among patients with inflammatory bowel disease and none of them have studied their effects on inflammatory biomarkers. This current study was a two-armed, single-centre, randomised (2:1 ratio) controlled...
Personality and mental health
August 2018
Miquel Tortella-Feliu, Joaquim Soler, Leonard Burns et al.
As dimensions of effortful control (EC), activation control, attentional control, and inhibitory control could mediate the relationship between mindfulness meditation practice and the facets of mindfulness (i.e., observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging and non-reacting to inner experience). In this study, we tested whether participant status: meditators (n = 330), healthy...
Integrative Cancer Therapies
April 22, 2018
Edgar Gonzalez-Hernandez, Rocío Romero, Daniel Campos et al.
Context: Breast cancer (BC) requires a significant psychological adaptation once treatment is finished. There is growing evidence of how compassion training enhances psychological and physical well-being, however, there are very few studies analyzing the efficacy of compassion-based Interventions on BC survivors. Objective: To study the efficacy of the Cognitively-Based Compassion Training...
PLoS One
January 22, 2014
Joaquim Soler, Ausiàs Cebolla, Albert Feliu-Soler et al.
Mindfulness has been described as an inherent human capability that can be learned and trained, and its improvement has been associated with better health outcomes in both medicine and psychology. Although the role of practice is central to most mindfulness programs, practice-related improvements in mindfulness skills is not consistently reported and little is known about how the...
Ausias Cebolla Marti, Rosa M Baños, Jaime Navarrete
Virtual Reality (VR) could be useful to overcome imagery and somatosensory difficulties of compassion-based meditations given that it helps generate empathy by facilitating the possibility of putting oneself into the mind of others. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an embodied-VR system in generating a compassionate response and increasing the quality and...
Giulia Parola, Catherine I. Andreu, Valerie Bonnelle et al.
preprint
Abstract Self-transcendent experiences, characterized by reduced self-focus and a sense of connection to something greater than oneself, have been linked to positive mental-health outcomes. However, existing induction methods, such as meditation, require sustained training, while pharmacological approaches (e.g., psychedelics) raise legal and ethical issues. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as...