Current mindfulness research and studies
We research the benefits of mindfulness courses for different communities and groups of people where good evidence doesn’t already exist.
Researching the impact of mindfulness courses
We have been researching mindfulness courses for people experiencing a range of mental health difficulties including obsessive-compulsive difficulties, depression and distressing voices.
Some of our research is for working age adults but we have also been doing research involving younger and older people.
And we systematically evaluate the impact of the eight-week mindfulness courses on NHS staff every year.
Researching mindfulness self-help
There are a wide range of mindfulness self-help books, online courses and smartphone apps available. On the one hand, these could be a good way of extending the reach of mindfulness to people who may not be able to attend a mindfulness course. On the other hand, it might be that the teaching becomes too watered down or loses its effects without live a mindfulness group or teacher.
Our research is examining the potential of mindfulness self-help for members of the general public, members of staff and for people experiencing mental health difficulties.
Compassion research
We are researching compassion-enhanced mindfulness courses, in order to see if bringing compassion practices into our mindfulness courses is helpful for participants. Our compassion research has included developing a new self-report measure of compassion so that we can see if our courses help to enhance levels of compassion for the self and other people.
Sussex Mindfulness Centre researchers have published the results of their study and have produced two new measurement scales, one for self-compassion and one for compassion towards others.