Articles on MBCL

Research on MBCL is growing with promising results in clinical and non-clinical populations, with face-to-face and online interventions, in uncontrolled and controlled, quantitative and qualitative studies.

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2Kılıç, D, P. Tosun Taşar, & M. Cengiz. (2024). The effect of mindfulness-based compassionate living training for informal caregivers of palliative inpatients on burnout and caregiving burden: a randomized controlled trial. Health Education Research 39(4), 313-322.

• Scheepbouwer, V., Hanssen, I., Collin, G., Huijbers, M. J., Schuling, R., & Speckens, A. E. M. (2025). Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living for Recurrent Depression: Examining Experiential Avoidance, Fear of Self-Compassion, and Positive Affect as Mediators of Response in a Randomized Controlled Trial. Cogn Ther Res (2024).
• Ter Avest, M. J., Schuling, R., Greven, C. U., Huijbers, M. J., Wilderjans, T. F., Spinhoven, P., & Speckens, A. E. M. (2021). Interplay between self-compassion and affect during Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living for recurrent depression: An Autoregressive Latent Trajectory analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 146, 10394
• Schuling, R., Huijbers, M.J., van Ravesteijn, H., Kuyken, W. & Speckens, A. E. M. (2021). Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (MBCL): a Qualitative Study into the Added Value of Compassion in Recurrent Depression. Mindfulness (2021).
• Schuling, R., Huijbers, M. J., Van Ravesteijn, H., Donders, R., Cillessen, L., Kuyken, W. & Speckens, A. E. M. (2020). Recovery from recurrent depression: Randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of mindfulness-based compassionate living compared with treatment-as-usual on depressive symptoms and its consolidation at longer term follow-up. Journal of Affective Disorders, 273, 265-273.
• Ondrejková, N., Halamová, J. & Strnádelová, B. (2022). Effect of the intervention mindfulness based compassionate living on the level of self-criticism and self-compassion. Current Psychology (2020).
• Krieger, T., Reber, F., Von Glutz, B., Urech, A., Moser, C.T., Schulz, A., & Berger, T. (2019). An Internet-Based Compassion-Focused Intervention for Increased Self-Criticism: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Behavior Therapy 50, 430–445.
• Schuling, R., Huijbers, M., Jansen, H., Metzemaekers, R., Brink, E. van den, Koster, F., Ravesteijn, H. van, & Speckens, A. (2018). The co-creation and feasibility of a compassion training as a follow-up to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in patients with recurrent depression. Mindfulness, 9(2), 412-422.
• Schuling, R., Huijbers, M. J., van Ravesteijn, H., Donders, R., Kuyken, W., & Speckens, A. E. M. (2016). A parallel-group, randomized controlled trial into the effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living (MBCL) compared to treatment-as-usual in recurrent depression: Trial design and protocol. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 50, 77-83.
• Bartels-Velthuis, A. A., Schroevers, M. J., Ploeg, K. van der, Koster, F., Fleer, J., & Brink, E. van den. (2016). A Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living training in a heterogeneous sample of psychiatric outpatients: a feasibility study. Mindfulness, 7, 809–818.
• Krieger, T., Martig, D.S., Brink, E. van den, & Berger, T. (2016). Working on self-compassion online: A proof of concept and feasibility study. Internet Interventions, 6, 64–70.

Doctoral thesis on MBCL

• Schuling, R. (2020). Compassion in depression – Mindfulness-based compassionate living for recurrent depression. Doctoral thesis Radboud University, Nimwegen. >> Click here for access to the full version