My research interests consist in understanding the interaction between self-regulation and socio-cognitive processes in connection with mental health and resilience. In my PhD I focused on disentangling the relationship between emotion regulation and empathy. I postulate, self-regulation capacities such as emotion regulation (also cognitive control, among others) are crucial skills for metabolizing the consequences of social feelings (as empathy) underlying daily social interactions. Emotion regulation is also a predictor of overall adaptive social functioning.

Even more, I'm interested in how people readily engage and act-on the emotional states of others (social emotion regulation), and how this process is moderated by social feelings (as compassion) and self-regulation. From this, I'm interested in how emotion regulation, social cognition and socio-affective processes are related with well-being, psychopathology (i.e. I have studied emotion regulation deficits in borderline personality patients), adaptiveness and social functioning in general. Not only in clinical populations, but also in diverse at risk professions (e.g. medical professionals). I'm also interested in how self-regulation and social cognition capacities can be modified, through different psychotherapeutic interventions. In my PhD project I have focused on the emotion regulation and socio-cognitive mechanisms of the mindfulness-based stress reduction, thus investigating socio-emotional plasticity, tackling its underlying subjective (self reported), behavioral (experimental tasks) and neurobiological (functional brain) mechanisms. 

Currently, I work as Postdoctoral researcher in the Clinical Psychology of Social Interaction Lab of Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek (at Humboldt Universität), investigating common transdiagnostic social difficulties in autism and social anxiety conditions, tackling diverse behavioral, immunological and brain mechanisms, using machine learning techniques (like clustering analysis), in the context of a Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure funded project. I’m also engaged in a large psychotherapy - randomized controlled - study for people with high functioning autism, investigating socio-cognitive mechanisms at the behavioral and brain levels.

Secondly, I collaborate as a Visiting researcher with the Medical Education Department (at Universidad Católica of Chile), developing a psycho-social intervention for improving resilience and preventing burnout in medical professionals (using mindfulness and self-compassion interventions).

Selected Publications

2023 “Uncovering neuronal-based autism profiles using task-based fMRI and unsupervised machine learning model-based clustering approaches” (Guendelman S, Dziobek I). Manuscript in preparation

2023 “The Role of Autistic Traits and Social Anxiety in Implicit and Explicit Approach-Avoidance Tendencies towards Facial Expressions” (Lin M, Guendelman S, Dziobek I). Manuscript in preparation

2023    “Investigating the Effects of an Online Self-Compassion Training Program for Medical Professionals” (Guendelman S, Echeverría G, Zúñiga D, Pedrals N, Rigotti A & Bitran). Manuscript under review.

2023    “Brain mechanisms underlying the modulation of heart rate variability during emotion regulation. Differential effects of acceptance and reappraisal strategies” (Guendelman S, Kaltwasser L, Bayer M, Gallese V, Dziobek I. Manuscript under review.

2023 “On Scalable and Interpretable Autism Detection from Social Interaction Behavior”. (Saakyan W, Norden M, Herrmann L, Kirsch S, Lin M, Guendelman S, Dziobek I, and Drimalla H.) International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction. IEEE. 979-8-3503-2743-4/23/ S

2022 “Towards a mechanistic understanding of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) using an RCT neuroimaging approach: Effects on self and other emotion regulation.” (Guendelman S, Bayer M, Prehn K, Dziobek I). NeuroImage, 254:119059. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119059

2022 “Regulating negative emotions of others reduces own stress: Neurobiological correlates and the role of individual differences in empathy.” (Guendelman S, Bayer M, Prehn K, Dziobek I). NeuroImage, 254:119134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119134

2021 “Taking care of emotions - from within, from without”. (Guendelman S. & Przyrembel M.). Constructivist Foundations 16(2): 224–226. https://constructivist.info/16/2/224

2020 “Cortical thickness and resting state cardiac function across lifespan: a cross sectional pooled mega-analysis.” (Koening J,…, Guendelman S, Dziobek I,…). Psychophysiology. 2020; 00:e13688. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13688

2018 “Attachment Styles and Personality Structure.” (Miño V, Guendelman S, Castillo-Carniglia A, Sandana C, Quintana S). J Depress Anxiety. 7: 302. doi:10.4172/2167-1044.1000302

2017 “Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation: Insights from Neurobiological, Psychological, and Clinical Studies.” (Guendelman S, Medeiros S and Rampes H). Front. Psychol. 8:220. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00220

2017 "Self-Compassion Mediates the Relationship between Mindfulness and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms". (Schreibner H & Daniels A, Guendelman S, Utz F, Bermphol F). Journal of Personality Disorders. 32:6. 838-856. doi:10.1521/pedi.2017.31.331.

2017 “Varela and Contemporary Psychoanalysis, an epistemological gesture: from representations to co-emergence”. (Guendelman S). Studies in Gender & Sexuality.18:4, 235-243. doi:10.1080/15240657.2017.1383029

2016 “Developmental Trauma from a Contemplative and Relational-Intersubjective perspective.” (Medeiros S*, Guendelman S*). Int J Psychotherapy, 20: 94-113.

2014 “Neurobiology of borderline personality disorder”. (Guendelman S, Miño V, Garay L). Rev Med Chile. 142:2, 204-210. doi:10.4067/s0034-98872014000200009

2014 “Empathy and borderline personality disorder: controversies towards a social neuroscience based psychopathology”. (Guendelman S). Rev Med Chile. 142:9, 1219-1220. doi:10.4067/s0034-98872014000900019

2012 “Contributions of Attachment theory to the understanding of Borderline Personality Disorder.” (Rudolph C, Guendelman S). Rev. Chil. Psiquiatr. Neurol. Infanc. Adolesc. 23:2. ISSN-0718-3798 doi:10.4067/s0034-98872014000200009