Compassionate Mind Training: An 8‐week group for the general public

Abstract

Objectives There is an increasing interest in how compassion training, and in particular, the cultivation of self‐compassion may be an important component in the reduction of distress and promotion of well‐being. Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) has shown promising results in this area, with positive outcome studies in a wide range of mental health problems. However, following the successful development of short mindfulness‐based programmes (e.g., Mindfulness‐based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐based Cognitive Therapy) and compassion/self‐compassion programmes (e.g., Mindful Self‐Compassion) that can be accessed by the general public, we were keen to develop and research an 8‐week Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) course, based on the CFT model. Design Within‐subjects pre‐to‐post‐group comparison. Methods Following an 8‐week CMT groups, participants in the general population (n = 55) completed pre‐ and post‐measures (with 22 of these also providing 3‐month follow‐up data) on self‐compassion, compassion for others, compassion from others, attachment, self‐criticism, positive emotion, well‐being, and distress. Results Significant increases in compassion, self‐reassurance, social rank, positive emotions, and well‐being were found, alongside reductions in self‐criticism, attachment anxiety, and distress. Changes were maintained at 3‐month follow‐up. Change scores indicated the importance of increases in self‐compassion and reductions in self‐criticism in overall improvements in well‐being and psychological distress. Conclusions Findings offer preliminary support for the usefulness of group CMT in community samples. Practitioner points Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) groups appear to be applicable and beneficial in community samples. CMT psychoeducation and practices appear to bring positive changes to a variety of psychological processes, including attachment, self‐criticism, self‐compassion, well‐being, and distress. Further studies are required to investigate whether the mechanisms through which CMT is beneficial.

Nurturing compassion in schools: A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a Compassionate Mind Training program for teachers

“…These results extend those reported by Matos et al [ 87 ], documenting significant increases in teachers’ self-compassion motivation and action (as assessed by the CMAS) after the CMT-T, but where changes in self-compassion attributes and competencies (as measured by the CEAS), and fears of compassion for self, did not reach statistical significance. In the present study, significant improvements in compassion engagement and action towards oneself (as measured by the CEAS) were additionally found in teachers at post-intervention, which is in line with previous studies showing similar results using CMT in community samples [ 66 , 67 ]. This finding suggests that this refined longer version of CMT-T not only promotes an increase in one’s motivation to be accepting and caring, to tolerate distress, and to commit to behaving compassionately towards oneself (as assessed by the CMAS), but also diminishes the inhibitors to be self-compassionate, and fosters the sensitivity to and engagement with one’s suffering including competencies of sensitivity, sympathy, empathy, distress tolerance, non-judgment and care for wellbeing (i.e., self-compassionate engagement) and committed actions to try to alleviate and prevent one’s suffering (i.e., self-compassionate action).…”

“…In line with Matos et al [ 87 ], the practices assessed as the most helpful by the teachers were the Soothing Rhythm Breathing, Compassion for the self, Building the compassionate self, followed by Mindfulness and Safe Place Imagery. These acceptability results extend current knowledge on the evaluation of CMT interventions with community samples [e.g., 66 , 67 , 74 ] and should inform the development, implementation and evaluation of CMT interventions in future research.…”

“…CMT has been tailored for use with different formats (e.g., length, practices) in nonclinical populations, namely the general public [ 66 , 67 ], health care educators and providers [ 68 ], mental health professionals [ 69 ], nurses [ 70 , 71 ], firefighters [ 72 ] and psychotherapy students [ 73 ]. There is a mounting evidence base for CMT effectiveness in improving mental and physiological health and prosocial behaviour [ 56 , 59 , 62 , 63 ].…”

“…Higher HRV is indicative of higher parasympathetic nervous system outflow via the vagus nerve activity and is associated with self-compassion, feelings of perceived safeness and warmth and greater ability to self-soothe when stressed [e.g., 64 , 75 – 78 ]. A recent uncontrolled study demonstrated the promising effects of an 8-week CMT group intervention for the general public, in increasing levels of compassion, positive emotions and wellbeing, and reducing self-criticism and psychological distress, and validated the maintenance of these changes at 3-month follow-up [ 66 ]. In addition, a randomised controlled trial of CFT intervention as guided self-help in an adult community sample reported positive effects on wellbeing and psychopathological indicators up to 12 months after baseline [ 79 ].…”

Cultivating Compassion and Reducing Stress and Mental Ill-Health in Employees—A Randomized Controlled Study

“…A range of compassion-based interventions have been developed, including Compassion-Focused Therapy (Gilbert, 2014), Mindful Self-Compassion (Neff and Germer, 2013), Compassion Cultivation Training (Jazaieri et al, 2013), Cognitively Based Compassion Training (Pace et al, 2009, and Cultivating Emotional Balance (Kemeny et al, 2012). Many of these focus on the view of compassion as an intrinsic motivation (Gilbert, 2017(Gilbert, , 2019, and on the development of affiliative and prosocial functioning (Weng et al, 2013;Kirby, 2017), as well as strengthening mental health (Gilbert and Procter, 2006;Cuppage et al, 2018;Irons and Heriot-Maitland, 2020) and physical health (Austin et al, 2020).…”