Psychology · Human experience · Research & design

Sonia
Rábago Lorca.

I want to understand how people experience the world they live in: what they make of it, how they find their way through it, and what they create within it. Psychology, research, teaching and design are ways I work with that interest.

↓

Where I want to take this

Understanding experience.
Giving that understanding a form.

I am looking for work in which I can investigate people’s experiences, interpret what I learn and help develop services, experiences or opportunities for learning. In contemporary life, digital environments are part of the setting in which people act, relate and make sense of themselves.

This can bring research, analysis, design and facilitation together. I am open to roles in which that combination takes different forms.

The experience I bring

01 / Selected work

From an idea
to something you can use.

I can imagine a service, give it a form, build the website and be the person who delivers it. These projects bring those parts of my work together.

Service prototype / AI tuitionpensar.IAA place to begin
with your own questions.

01Service conception · Web design

Learning to use AI,
person by person.

I conceived pensar.IA as individual tuition, starting with what someone wants to understand or do. I developed the name, visual identity, written presentation and responsive landing page for sessions I would deliver myself.

The work behind the page

I drew on my freelance experience teaching people to use computers and digital tools. I defined what the sessions would offer, developed the name and visual identity, wrote the content and built the responsive page. The prototype lets you see those decisions together: the service, its explanation and the way someone can get in touch.

Service and website prototype. English presentation available here; the original Spanish version is linked inside.

Explore pensar.IA

Service prototype / ConversationA walk.
A conversation.An encounter beyond the screen.

02Service format · Web · Print

Making room
for a conversation.

A walking-conversation service I would facilitate. I worked on the encounter itself, its presentation on the web and a printed invitation with a QR code. My psychology training informs the proposal.

The work behind the invitation

I developed the encounter format and wrote the invitation, then carried the proposal across a website and printed material with QR access. My contribution includes both imagining the service and creating the materials through which someone would encounter it. I would also be the person facilitating the conversation.

Service prototype with an existing website. English presentation available here; the original Spanish version is linked inside.

Explore the proposal

AI · Human Experience / Working sketchesa questiona replywhat changes?A conversation leaves something to think with.

03Writing · Visual editing

Looking at the
conversation itself.

In AI · Human Experience, I work with writing and visual compositions to explore dialogue between a person and artificial intelligence. The exchange itself becomes something to examine and give a visible form.

How I work with this material

I developed the editorial concept, texts and visual sequences. Choosing what to keep, how to arrange it and where to pause is part of the work of making a reflection readable.

Editorial project: texts and visual compositions. The sketchboard gathers questions and visual notes around the project.

Open the sketchboard

The research behind other questionsResearch

02 / Research

Following
a question.

I study human experience through different questions and methods: how it is expressed in digital environments, what conversational technologies may offer, and how institutional settings shape ways of understanding oneself.

Master’s research · 2025–2026

Conversational agents
& depressive symptoms.

I conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of autonomous conversational agents and depressive symptoms in Asian adults.

10randomised controlled trials

1,169participants across the studies

Pooled Hedges’ g 0.41, 95% confidence interval 0.15 to 0.66. The prediction interval spans −0.28 to 1.10 and crosses zero. Positive values favour conversational agents. Heterogeneity is 72%; evidence certainty is low. — Effect at the first post-intervention assessment. The confidence interval describes uncertainty around the average; the prediction interval shows the estimated spread of effects in comparable settings.

What I take from this

A possible point of contact.
A question still open.

I am interested in what these tools might make accessible to someone who would otherwise receive no support. Most of the studies involved people outside clinical care. That places much of this evidence around early support and prevention.

The average effect leaves a more precise question: for whom, under what conditions, and for how long? My analysis does not establish equivalence to a human therapist or a lasting effect. Those distinctions matter to how I think about AI and depression.

Manuscript submitted for publication

Methods and scope

I defined the eligibility criteria, searched three bibliographic databases and two trial registries, and extracted the study data using a predefined coding framework. My supervisor partially verified the extraction and risk-of-bias assessments.

I analysed the data in R with metafor, using a random-effects model, subgroup comparisons and sensitivity analyses. I followed PRISMA 2020, assessed risk of bias with Cochrane RoB 2 and rated certainty with GRADE.

Interpreting the result meant examining its limits. Certainty was low; when studies at high risk of bias were excluded, the confidence interval included zero. These decisions and analyses are part of the research, alongside the pooled estimate.

Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology Research · Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha · 2026.

Explore the research presentation

Doctoral research
UNED · Since October 2026

Subjectivation and the
reconstruction of meaning.

My doctoral research concerns people leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses in Spain. I approach this as a totalising context of experience: one that reaches across everyday life, relationships, moral judgement and the way a person understands themselves. Leaving makes the formation and reworking of those meanings a question for research.

The research approach

I developed a proposal combining cultural psychology with a historical and genealogical approach. Planned methods include the analysis of institutional sources and narrative interviews.

The research is in its initial stage. This describes the proposal and planned methods.

Open the research notebook

Undergraduate dissertation · UNIR · 2024

Human experience,
in a digital setting.

What can online expression tell us about a person’s experience — and what do we need to understand before drawing an inference?

My dissertation examined Twitter as a setting where people express thoughts, emotions and aspects of everyday life, and as a possible source of complementary information about mental health. The starting point was ecological: understanding behaviour also means examining the environments in which it happens.

The setting

People express themselves.

Posts and interactions can make aspects of experience observable: feelings, accounts of events, relationships and patterns of activity.

The research

Expression becomes data.

I reviewed how language analysis, LIWC, NLP and machine learning are used to identify patterns and make predictions in the published literature.

The interpretation

A trace needs a person’s context.

The contribution is complementary information. Interpretation depends on the sample, the context of expression, validation and the conditions under which the data were obtained.

An ecological reading · Explore six connected ideas

A map of ideas from the dissertation and its defence. Choose an idea below to read more.

Language gives access to accounts of experience.

People use language to describe feelings, thoughts, relationships and events. My review examined how these accounts can inform psychological research, alongside the patterns that language-analysis tools identify.

What became clearer to me

The digital environment belongs
inside the psychological question.

The literature I reviewed supported the value of online expression as complementary information, while making the limits of interpretation equally important. The study also left a question open: how does the platform itself shape interaction and expression? I identified that as a direction for further work, rather than a question my dissertation had resolved.

Scope, contribution and original presentation

Original title: Twitter (X) como predictor de salud mental y su aplicación para el diagnóstico de trastornos mentales.

My work: a theoretical synthesis of published research, developed into a written dissertation and an oral defence with visual explanations. I examined predictive approaches, their psychological relevance and their limits. I did not collect a Twitter dataset or train a predictive model for this project.

Further directions identified: depressive narratives, the particular language of digital interaction, interdisciplinary validation, ethical research practices and the transfer of knowledge into psychological work.

This English overview draws on the dissertation and the 15-slide defence, particularly its ecological starting point, conclusions and future directions.

The experience alongside the researchMy path

03 / My path

Several kinds
of experience.

I have worked in technology, taught people, built websites and studied psychology. Some of this work has been freelance, some within organisations. My studies have given me further ways to examine the questions that arise in practice.

Explaining how something works has been part of my work since 2008. So has paying attention to the person trying to understand it.

Education & applied learning

What I have studied.
What I have put to work.

Since October 2026 · UNED

Subjectivation and the reconstruction of meaning.

Doctoral programme in Diversity, Subjectivity and Socialisation. I developed a proposal on subjectivation and meaning among people leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses in Spain. I approach this as a totalising context of experience, combining cultural psychology with a historical and genealogical perspective.

Research in its initial stage. Institutional-source analysis and narrative interviews are planned.

2025–2026 · UCLM · 60 ECTS

Research as a practice.

My Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology Research covered research methods, advanced data analysis, scientific documentation and publication, and technologies for psychological research.

Subjects and applied learning

I also studied research on cognition and emotion, adult development, and clinical and health psychology.

In my meta-analysis, I put the methodological training to work: defining criteria, searching and selecting studies, coding data, analysing results in R and evaluating the quality of the evidence. The interpretation had to account for variation between studies and uncertainty around the result.

See the analysis

2021–2024 · UNIR · 240 ECTS

People, learning and context.

My Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology gave me a foundation in cognition, learning and language, social and organisational psychology, human development and health.

The areas behind that foundation

Cognition and learning: Attention, perception, memory, thought, language, motivation and emotion.
Social and organisational life: Social interaction, groups, organisations, family and community, conflict and negotiation.
Research and assessment: Quantitative and qualitative methods, research design, psychometrics, psychological assessment and interviewing.
Development and health: Cognitive, emotional and social development, neuropsychology, psychopathology and health psychology.

My dissertation brought psychology into a digital setting: I reviewed how language and online behaviour are used in mental-health prediction, including the ethical and methodological questions this raises.

Design & technical training

Giving an idea a usable form.

UX Design Fundamentals, Visual Elements of User Interface Design, web application development and multimedia programming. I have applied this training in client websites and in my own service prototypes, working on structure, content and interfaces.

Explore the prototypes

Professional experience

Work with people.
Work I have built.

Since 2008Freelance · Recurring
Individual technology tuition.
Teaching computer skills, hardware, software and digital tools alongside other work. I adapt explanations and practical guidance to the person learning.
2024–2025Freelance
Psychological consultancy.
I provided psychological guidance to people who had left religious communities, supporting decision-making and life transitions.
Sep 2023 – Jan 2024Internship
Forensic psychology.
Work with an independent practitioner in Madrid: attending court proceedings, transcribing interviews, searching the literature and supporting the practitioner’s work.
Oct 2021 – Jun 2023Employment
Customer service at Unísono / Intelcia.
Phone and email support, customer enquiries, service requests and front-office and back-office responsibilities using CRM systems. I joined through an employment agency and later moved into direct employment.
Dec 2019 – Oct 2021Freelance · Self-employed
Web design and development.
Client websites with HTML, CSS, WordPress and Elementor. My work included UX/UI, maintenance, copywriting, SEO and digital training.
2008–2019Earlier employee roles
Technology retail and telecommunications.
Customer advice, staff training and commercial coordination, including reports, action plans and customer experience indicators. Roles included PC City, The Phone House and other telecommunications businesses.

Further study and practical tools

Research & psychology

Applied Statistics with R; Computational Social Science Methods; psychosocial intervention with children, families and adolescents; social project design and evaluation; support for victims of gender-based violence; crisis and emergency intervention.

Research tools and methods include R, metafor, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, scientific writing and IRaMuTeQ. My study of text analysis includes LIWC and dictionary-based methods.

Design & organisations

UX Design Fundamentals; Visual Elements of User Interface Design; Web Application Development; multimedia programming; Preparing to Manage Human Resources.

HTML, CSS, WordPress and Elementor; responsive interfaces, multimedia and editorial design. I use generative AI in writing, design and prototyping.

There is also what I read and think aboutMy interests

04 / What interests me

I like to
think things through.

Reading and reflection are a substantial part of my life. They also enter my work: the questions I ask about technology, the services I imagine and the research I choose to do.

A starting point

What happens to the person
in all of this?

Reading and philosophy.

I read philosophy because I want to think about how we live, what we take for granted and how we come to understand ourselves. Those questions accompany my interest in psychology and subjectivation.

Working with AI. Thinking about it, too.

My interest in technology sits within a wider interest in human experience. We live, learn, work and relate to one another in a world where digital environments play a central part. I want to understand that experience from within the situations in which it happens.

I also use AI to write, investigate, design and prototype. That involvement gives me something concrete to examine: how an exchange develops, what it makes possible and what the person taking part makes of it.

Giving an idea a form.

Sometimes I want to follow an idea far enough to see what it might become. A conversation can suggest a service; a question can lead to research or a piece of writing. I enjoy the work of making that possibility concrete.

To get in touchContact

05 / Contact

We can start
from here.

If something here interests you, you can write to me. We can start with a project, a question or a possibility you would like to discuss.

Write to meWrite to me

Madrid, Spain · Open to international opportunities

Spanish · English · Romanian

Thank you for taking the time
to look at my work.

Sonia

← Selected workEnglish · Español ↗

pensar.IA · Individual AI tuition · Service prototype

Hello,
artificial intelligence.

It seems we have a few things to talk about.

Bring a question, a task or an idea. We can start there, explore what AI can do, and make sense of what comes back. At your pace, with room to try again.

Let’s talk about a session ↗

Start with what matters to you

What could I use it for?

Studying something new. Organising work. Giving an idea a form. Or finding out what this technology is like to use. We begin with your interests and experience.

Choose a starting point · Illustrative examples

“I keep reading this, but I don’t understand it.”

We can ask for another explanation, try an example and compare the response with the original material. You decide what has become clearer and what still needs checking.

Inside a possible session

A question becomes
something we can work with.

Illustrative exercises for a possible session. Choose a starting point above to explore how the work could unfold.

01 / Bring

A paragraph that will not quite make sense.

We choose a short passage you want to understand and identify where it becomes difficult.

02 / Try

A way into the conversation

Explain this idea in plain language. Give one example, then ask me a question to see how I understand it.

03 / Examine

Does the explanation hold up?

We compare it with the original. What was simplified? Was anything added? Could you now explain the idea in your own words?

04 / Carry forward

A way to keep learning.

You can keep the questions that helped and repeat the process with another passage, checking against the source.

The experience within the task

What feels unfamiliar? When does an answer become convincing? What helps you decide for yourself?

These questions matter to the way I would facilitate the session. Learning a tool also involves making sense of the experience of using it.

How a session works

Try it. Question it.
Make it your own.

Your starting point

Tell me what interests you and what you would like to do. No previous experience is needed.

Work with an example

We try questions, change the approach and examine the replies. The material comes from something relevant to you.

Keep your judgement

Practise checking information, recognising limitations and choosing what to use. Leave with a way to continue exploring.

FormatOne to one

Session60 minutes

MeetingOnline or in person

The person alongside you

I’m Sonia.

I have taught people to use computers and digital tools alongside my work in psychology, research and design. I use AI to investigate, write, think and create. I am interested in what becomes possible when a person has time to explore a tool and ask their own questions.

What would I need?

Your usual computer or device, an internet connection for an online session, and anything you would like to explore. We can begin with free tools. Any paid features would be discussed first.

How do we arrange it?

Write to me about what you have in mind. We can discuss availability, format and the fee before agreeing a session. This is the English presentation of the service prototype.

Start a conversation ↗

← Selected workEnglish · Español ↗

Sonia Rábago · Walking conversation · Service prototype

A walk.
A conversation.

An hour away from the desk. No need to arrive with a prepared account of yourself. We meet, start walking, and begin with whatever is present that day.

Suggest a walk ↗

A route, rather than a script

Some thoughts need
a little room.

A decision taking shape. A change in your life. An idea that keeps returning. Or simply the wish for an attentive conversation outside the usual setting.

We meet

We agree a time and meeting place, and choose a route and pace that suit the walk.

We walk and talk

For about an hour, the conversation follows what you bring. There is room for pauses and changes of direction.

We draw to a close

We bring the walk to an end without needing to force every question into an answer.

A possible starting point

What brings you
to the walk?

You do not need to choose in advance. These examples suggest how the encounter could begin.

A decision taking shape

What is making this decision difficult to place?

We could begin with the options as you experience them: what each one means, what draws you towards it and what makes you hesitate. There is no requirement to reach a decision during the walk.

Towards the end: is there a question you now want to put differently?

My part in the encounter

Attend to what is being said.

I would listen, ask questions and make room to follow something more closely, while staying attentive to your pace and what you want from the conversation.

Your part

Bring as much as you want.

You can stay with a topic, change direction, pause or leave something unspoken. The walk does not need to produce a solution to have been worth taking.

The surroundings take part, too

The body moves.
There is a pause.
A thought finds its way into words.

DurationAbout 60 minutes

FormatIn person, walking

ArrangementRoute agreed together

About the proposal

A space I would facilitate.

My training is in psychology. I work with conversation, psychological research and the analysis of human experience. I developed the encounter, its written invitation and the materials through which someone could discover it.

This English version presents the service concept. The original local proposal is available in Spanish; location, availability and fee would be agreed before arranging a walk.

Write to me about a walk ↗

← Selected workAI · Human Experience

Writing & visual composition · Working notebook

Looking at
the exchange.

These are questions I want to keep visible while I work with AI. Sketches to think with, rearrange and return to.

01 / Beginning

What did I bring
to the question?

An intention, a hesitation, a way of putting something into words. The exchange begins before the reply.

02 / Reply

A fluent answer.
What do I do with it?

read → question
↖ try again ↙

Keep a sentence. Reject an assumption. Ask differently. The decisions I make are part of the material.

03 / Return

The next question
is already different.

I want to look at how the conversation changes what I notice and what I choose to pursue.

04 / Giving it form

A conversation
becomes a page.

Selection, rhythm, space, emphasis. Editing makes some parts visible and leaves others outside the frame.

Editorial sketches around the project. These are reflective questions, not findings from an empirical study.

The interests behind these questions →

← ResearchDoctoral research · UNED · In progress

A notebook for communicating the research

Leaving.
Making meaning.

How do people come to understand themselves, and what happens when the framework through which they understood their lives changes?

The question I am working with

A framework for living.
A question about becoming a person.

My doctoral proposal concerns people leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses in Spain. I approach this as a totalising context of experience: a framework that reaches across relationships, daily practices, moral expectations and interpretations of the self. I want to study how people become subjects within that context, and how meaning is reworked when they leave.

01 / Formation

How is a way of being learned?

The language, practices and institutional accounts through which people learn to recognise themselves and their place in a community.

02 / Departure

What becomes a question?

How a person narrates leaving, and how the terms through which they make sense of their life may change.

03 / Reconstruction

How is meaning reworked?

The accounts people give of their experience, their relationships and their possibilities after leaving.

How I propose to study it

Institutions and personal accounts.

The proposal brings cultural psychology into conversation with a historical and genealogical approach. Planned work includes institutional-source analysis and narrative interviews.

Research in its initial stage, begun in October 2026. This page introduces the questions and planned approach; it does not present participant accounts or research findings.

Why this context?

I am interested in the breadth of the framework: how a way of understanding the world can organise everyday conduct, relationships, expectations and the account someone gives of themselves. “Totalising” names the scope of the context I propose to examine; the research must still attend to differences between people and their experiences.

Departure provides a way to investigate what is carried forward, questioned or reconstructed. These are questions guiding the work.

What do I mean by subjectivation?

Here, it names the processes through which people become subjects: how they come to recognise, describe and relate to themselves within particular social and historical conditions.

What would this notebook make public?

A way into the research question, its concepts and the reasoning behind the method. As the work develops, it could become a place for short essays and visual explanations, with a clear distinction between questions, interpretations and findings.

Discuss the research →

SoniaRábago Lorca.

Understanding experience.Giving that understanding a form.

From an ideato something you can use.

Learning to use AI,person by person.

Making roomfor a conversation.

Looking at theconversation itself.

Followinga question.

Conversational agents& depressive symptoms.

A possible point of contact.A question still open.

Subjectivation and thereconstruction of meaning.

Human experience,in a digital setting.