Visually grounded emotion regulation via diffusion models and user-driven reappraisal.

Cognitive reappraisal is a key strategy in emotion regulation, involving reinterpretation of emotionally charged stimuli to alter affective responses. Despite its central role in clinical and cognitive science, real-world reappraisal interventions remain cognitively demanding, abstract, and primarily verbal in nature. This reliance on higher-order cognitive and linguistic processes can be especially impaired in individuals with trauma, depression, or dissociative symptoms, limiting the effectiveness of standard approaches. Here, we propose a novel, visually based augmentation of cognitive reappraisal by integrating large-scale text-to-image diffusion models into the emotional regulation process. Specifically, we introduce a system wherein users reinterpret emotionally negative images via spoken reappraisals, which are then transformed into supportive, emotionally congruent visualizations using stable diffusion models with a fine-tuned IP-adapter module. This generative transformation visually instantiates users' cognitive reappraisals while maintaining structural similarity to the original stimuli, thus externalizing and reinforcing regulatory intent. To evaluate this approach, we conducted a within-subjects experiment (