Transdiagnostic group therapy for people with self- critic and low self esteem, based on compassion focused therapy principles

Background: People with mental health problems often have difficulties linked to high self-criticism and shame, and may be fearful of and resistant to compassionate and prosocial motives. Compassion focused therapy (CFT) is specifically designed to help people address these difficulties, cultivate and build compassionate motives and emotions for self and others. There is increasing evidence for the effectiveness of CFT for both individuals and groups. This study, describing a protocol and evaluating a protocol-based CFT group treatment, adds to the evidence base in a Danish community transdiagnostic group of patients, suffering from shame, selfcriticism, depression and anxiety. Methods: This is a naturalistic study from a private psychiatric practice. Based on CFT theory and practice we developed a protocol for group therapy. As part of a routine procedure in the clinic, people were rated according to BAI, BDI and SES pre-and post-treatment. Ten groups, involving 102 patients with various psychiatric diagnosis followed a tenweek compassion mindtraining programme with an eleven follow-up session. Results: CFT Group treatment significantly reduced the group participants’ symptoms of depression and anxiety while increasing self-esteem. There was no significant difference in outcome between the various diagnostic categories. Conclusions: For this cohort of patients with severe psychological problems, protocol-based compassion focused group therapy was an effective treatment regardless of their diagnosis.