Observing Minds Lab مختبر مراقبة الدماغ המעבדה לתודעה מתבוננת
Through science and practice, our Observing Minds Laboratory is dedicated to helping those who struggle and suffer live better lives. We often have good reason to suffer – too many of our lives are burdened by trauma, stress, loss, and injustice. Yet, suffering and mental health problems may be amplified and maintained by the dynamics and habits of our internal mental lives. Thus, the Observing Minds Lab is working to better understand the (mal)adaptive ways that people process, relate to, and respond to their internal states (e.g. thought, physical sensation, emotion); and to develop innovative approaches to therapeutically re-train internally-directed cognition in order to promote mental health and buffer the toxicity of trauma and adversity. We are doing this work through two major programs of research – the Looking In Project and the Moments of Refuge Project.
Looking In Project. Our lab has worked to develop theory and conduct experimental research at the interface of mindfulness, internally-directed cognition, and mental health. We have done this by investigating attention in mental life and health, the mechanisms of mindfulness and their measurement, and, most recently, by applying formalized complex dynamical systems theory and computational modeling. Read more about Looking In here.
Moments of Refuge Project. Moments of Refuge Project is a social impact- and research- initiative that aims to empower refugees to heal and thrive. Our work has focused on the interface between forced displacement, mental health, and social justice. In 2010, we founded a mobile, community-based, clinical science laboratory, embedded in the urban heart of the African asylum-seeker community, in S. Tel Aviv. We have applied an inter-disciplinary, inter-cultural and community-participatory approach to our operations and our science. In recent years, much of our work has focused on the application and study of mindfulness and compassion in refugee empowerment, recovery and mental health. Read more about Moments of Refuge here.