Ayahuasca may help to improve self-compassion and self-criticism capacities

Ayahuasca is a traditional psychedelic brew from the upper Amazon that contains N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a classical 5-HT2A agonist, and has become increasingly used in Western contexts. Earlier research—comprising case reports, animal studies, observational work and preliminary clinical trials—has suggested anxiolytic, antidepressant and anti-addictive effects of ayahuasca. Several studies have also reported increases in mindfulness-related capacities (for example acceptance, non-reactivity and decentering) and improved emotion regulation following ayahuasca, capacities that overlap with mechanisms targeted by mindfulness-based interventions. Domínguez-Clavé and colleagues framed their study around the relatively sparse attention given to self-compassion (SC) in psychedelic research. Because mindfulness training tends to increase SC and some prior psychedelic studies and preliminary open-label work hinted that ayahuasca could enhance compassion-related constructs, they hypothesised that ayahuasca intake would improve self-compassion and reduce self-criticism. The present exploratory study therefore tested pre–post changes in validated measures of self-compassion and self-criticism/self-reassurance in a community sample attending ayahuasca ceremonies.

Participants were recruited through ayahuasca communities in Barcelona, Spain. Individuals planning to attend an ayahuasca ceremony were invited to participate; 45 people provided informed consent and completed the study assessments. The extracted text does not provide a full sociodemographic breakdown beyond noting that most participants had prior ayahuasca experience, but it states that the study procedures and aims were explained and the work had ethics approval from the Sant Pau Hospital Ethics Committee. Data collection used a within-subject pre–post design. Self-report questionnaires were administered 2–3 hours before the ceremony and again within 24 hours after the ceremony. The local ceremonial context is described: groups of around 20–25 participants, with most individuals taking two to four consecutive doses of ayahuasca about an hour apart; sessions included an introductory facilitator-led briefing and a post-session integration discussion. The investigators relied on participants' self-report to screen for current psychiatric or medical conditions; a formal medical history was not obtained. Two primary psychometric instruments were used. Self-compassion was measured with the 12-item Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SC-SF), which yields three facets—Common Humanity, Mindfulness and Self-kindness—each derived by combining positive and reversed negative items; the Spanish version with acceptable reliability (Cronbach's α 0.72–0.79) was used. Self-criticism and self-reassurance were assessed with the 22-item Forms of Self-Criticism/Self-Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCSR), which measures the inadequate-self and hated-self forms of self-criticism plus a self-reassuring factor; reported Spanish-language alphas range from 0.71 to 0.90. For the analysis, missing item responses were imputed using the item mean when under 20% of a scale was missing; this was required for fewer than 5% of questions. Within-participant pre–post changes were tested using repeated measures ANOVA, significance was set at p < 0.05, and effect sizes were reported as partial eta-squared.

Repeated measures ANOVA found statistically significant pre–post changes on the Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form. The three SC-SF subscales showed improvements: Common Humanity (F = 11.21, p < 0.01; partial η2 = 0.203), Mindfulness (F reported as -15.44, p < 0.01; partial η2 = 0.260; note that the extracted text lists a negative F value, which is likely a typographical error in the extraction), and Self-kindness/Self-Compassion (F = 5.17, p < 0.05; partial η2 = 0.105). The total SC-SF score increased significantly (F = 16.75, p < 0.01; partial η2 = 0.276). These effects were described by the authors as medium to large in magnitude. Scores on the FSCSR also changed significantly from pre- to post-ceremony. The Self-Criticism form decreased (F = 8.33, p < 0.01; partial η2 = 0.184) while the Self-Reassuring form increased (F = 12.81, p < 0.01; partial η2 = 0.257). Overall, the extracted results indicate consistent within-subject improvements in measures of self-compassion and reductions in self-critical tendencies assessed within 24 hours after an ayahuasca ceremony. The extracted text notes that most participants (67%) had previous ayahuasca experience. Missing data were minimal (<5% of questions) and addressed by mean imputation when necessary. No long-term follow-up outcomes are reported in the extracted Results section, and the absence of a control group means results reflect pre–post changes without a comparator.

Domínguez-Clavé and colleagues interpret their findings as preliminary evidence that ayahuasca intake is associated with short-term increases in self-compassion and self-reassurance alongside reductions in self-criticism. They link these outcomes to prior observations that ayahuasca can enhance mindfulness-related capacities and emotion regulation, and they note conceptual overlap between mindfulness training and self-compassion interventions. In the authors' view, ayahuasca may evoke a compassionate stance—reported anecdotally by users as fostering loving and self-kindness—that could facilitate reprocessing of emotionally salient material. The investigators acknowledge several important limitations. Chief among these is the exploratory, uncontrolled design conducted in a community ceremony setting; without randomised controls the influence of contextual factors such as set and setting cannot be ruled out. Another limitation is the sample composition: most participants were ayahuasca-experienced, which could produce ceiling effects, and the study did not systematically compare regular users with ayahuasca-naïve participants nor obtain formal medical histories. The short follow-up window (≤24 hours) means longer-term persistence of effects was not assessed. Given these caveats, the authors recommend larger, controlled trials to confirm the effects and to examine whether combining ayahuasca with mindfulness-based interventions might produce larger or more durable increases in self-compassion. They also suggest exploring clinical applications, for example for trauma-related conditions, while stressing the need for rigorous designs to disentangle pharmacological effects from psychological and contextual contributors.