Mindfulness
September 30, 2026
Yoel A. Behar, Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar et al.
Abstract Objective We aimed to test whether mental health problems are associated with distressing experiences during intensive meditation training and with the impact of these experiences following intensive training. Method We conducted a preregistered prospective matched-control study comparing 6-day insight mindfulness meditation retreats ( n = 89) to daily living among matched controls ( n...
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
April 29, 2026
Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Romi Oren-Schwartz et al.
Despite increased public interest and research on intensive high-dose mental health interventions, much remains unknown about the mental health effects and safety of multi-day intensive high-dose mindfulness meditation training. Accordingly, we conducted a preregistered prospective intervention study among 89 adults who registered for 6-day insight mindfulness meditation retreats and 46 matched...
Annual Review of Psychology
2026
Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Iftach Amir et al.
Attention is theorized to have a definitive role in mindfulness and its salutary effects. Yet, findings from more than two decades of research testing this central theoretical premise have been surprisingly mixed. To account for this paradoxical disparity between theory and findings, we propose the Mindfulness Internal Attention (MIA) framework. We theorize and review initial findings...
American Psychologist
2026
Amit Bernstein, Noga Aviad, Yuval Hadash et al.
Mindfulness meditation is a robust and rapidly growing area of inquiry in the psychological sciences. However, core questions remain about how mindfulness develops, how it exerts its effects, and what conditions amplify or attenuate these effects. We argue that empirical research on mindfulness has predominantly relied on reductionist decomposition-a foundational scientific approach that...
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
April 1, 2024
Yuval Hadash, Tatyana Veksler, Omer Dar et al.
8 citations
We sought to address a growing debate regarding the adverse and salutary impact of unusual, extraordinary or intense subjective experiences during meditation-based interventions. To do so, we empirically characterized such peak experiences during an intensive meditation intervention and their impact postintervention. We conducted a preregistered prospective intervention study among 96 adults...
July 31, 2023
Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Iftach Amir et al.
preprint
Although attention is thought to have a definitive role in mindfulness and its salutary outcomes, extant empirical findings from more than two decades of research on the effects on mindfulness training on attention are mixed and provide only partial support for this central theoretical premise. To account for these findings, as well as to advance field-wide understanding of mindfulness...
PsyArXiv
March 8, 2023
Yuval Hadash, Tatyana Veksler, Omer Dar et al.
preprint
Objective: We sought to address a growing debate regarding the adverse and salutary impact of unusual, extraordinary, or intense subjective experiences during meditation-based interventions. To do so, we empirically characterized such peak experiences during an intensive meditation intervention and their impact post-intervention. Method: We conducted a preregistered prospective intervention...
Psychological Assessment
March 2023
Yuval Hadash, Liad Ruimi, Amit Bernstein
Training attention and awareness in mindfulness meditation is theorized to be essential for the cultivation of mindfulness and its salutary outcomes. Yet, the empirical foundation for this central premise in mindfulness science is surprisingly small due to a limited methodological capacity to measure attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation. Accordingly, we set out to measure and...
Psychological Assessment
July 23, 2020
Adam W. Hanley, Amit Bernstein, Yoshio Nakamura et al.
The ability to decenter from internal experiences is important for mental health. Consequently, improving decentering is a common therapeutic target, particularly for mindfulness-based interventions. However, extant decentering measures are limited as they fail to directly assess all 3 metacognitive processes recently theorized to subserve decentering. We thus conducted 4 studies to develop and...
Psychological Assessment
April 14, 2016
Yuval Hadash, Reut Plonsker, David R. Vago et al.
69 citations
We propose that Experiential Self-Referential Processing (ESRP)-the cognitive association of present moment subjective experience (e.g., sensations, emotions, thoughts) with the self-underlies various forms of maladaptation. We theorize that mindfulness contributes to mental health by engendering Experiential Selfless Processing (ESLP)-processing present moment subjective experience without...