Journal ArticleDOI
Exploring change processes in compassion focused therapy in psychosis: Results of a feasibility randomized controlled trial
Christine Braehler,Christine Braehler,Andrew Gumley,Andrew Gumley,Janice Harper,Sonia Wallace,Sonia Wallace,John Norrie,Paul Gilbert +8 more
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TLDR
Findings support the feasibility of group CFT in psychosis and suggest that changes in compassion can be achieved, which appear to reduce depression in particular.Abstract:
Objectives
Compassion focused therapy (CFT) was developed to stimulate capacities for soothing and affiliation to self and others as a way to regulate the threat system. This feasibility study aimed to assess the safety, the acceptability, the potential benefits, and associated change processes of using group CFT with people recovering from psychosis.
Design
A prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded end point evaluation design was used.
Method
Forty adult patients with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder were randomized to CFT plus treatment as usual (TAU; n = 22) or to TAU alone (n = 18). Group CFT comprised 16 sessions (2 hr each, 1 x week). Participants were assessed prior to randomization and at the end of treatment. Assessments included semi-structured interviews to elicit narratives of recovery from psychosis and self-report measures. At the end of treatment, participants were rated on the Clinical Global Impression Scale. Narratives were coded using the Narrative Recovery Style Scale to provide measures of change in compassion and avoidance. Change processes were correlated with changes in depression, personal beliefs about illness, fear of recurrence, and positive and negative affect.
Results
Group CFT was associated with no adverse events, low attrition (18%), and high acceptability. Relative to TAU, CFT was associated with greater observed clinical improvement (p < 0.001) and significant increases in compassion (p = 0.015) of large magnitude. Relative to TAU, increases in compassion in the CFT group were significantly associated with reductions in depression (p = 0.001) and in perceived social marginalization (p = 0.002).
Discussion
Findings support the feasibility of group CFT in psychosis and suggest that changes in compassion can be achieved, which appear to reduce depression in particular. This is the first randomized controlled evaluation of CFT.
Conclusion
Compassion focused therapy appears as a safe, acceptable, promising, and evolving intervention for promoting emotional recovery from psychosis.
Practitioner Points
Compassion focused therapy appears safe to use with people recovering from psychosis.
Compassion focused therapy was associated with significantly greater clinical improvement than Treatment as Usual.
Relative to TAU, CFT was associated with a significant increase in compassion of large magnitude.
Relative to TAU, in the CFT group increases in compassion were significantly associated with reductions in depression and in perceived social marginalization.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy.
TL;DR: The importance of developing people's capacity to (mindfully) access, tolerate, and direct affiliative motives and emotions, for themselves and others, and cultivate inner compassion as a way for organizing the authors' human 'tricky brain' in prosocial and mentally healthy ways is highlighted.
Special Section Paper The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy
TL;DR: Compassion focused therapy (CFT) as discussed by the authors is rooted in an evolutionary, functional analysis of basic social motivational systems (e.g., to live in groups, form hierarchies and ranks, seek out sexual, partners help and share with alliances, and care for kin).
Journal ArticleDOI
Psychotherapeutic benefits of compassion-focused therapy: an early systematic review.
Joanna Leaviss,Lesley Uttley +1 more
TL;DR: CFT shows promise as an intervention for mood disorders, particularly those high in self-criticism, however, more large-scale, high-quality trials are needed before it can be considered evidence-based practice.
Journal ArticleDOI
Compassion interventions: The programmes, the evidence, and implications for research and practice
James N. Kirby,James N. Kirby +1 more
TL;DR: Although further research is warranted, the current state of evidence highlights the potential benefits of compassion-based interventions on a range of outcomes that clinicians can use in clinical practice with clients.
Journal ArticleDOI
Self-compassion as an emotion regulation strategy in major depressive disorder.
TL;DR: Findings support the use of self-compassion as another adaptive emotion regulation strategy for patients with major depressive disorder, especially for those suffering from high levels of depressed mood.
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