Alexithymia, Experiential Avoidance, Self-Compassion, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.

Introduction: People who have experienced childhood trauma are at high risk of developing complex psychiatric disorders. For this reason, it is necessary to identify and treat effective mechanisms between traumatic experiences and psychiatric problems; therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Alexithymia, Experiential Avoidance and Self-Compassion in Adults with Childhood Trauma Experience. Methods: The current study was a semi-experimental type with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. Among the people who experienced childhood trauma and referred to clinics and counseling centers in Tehran, 30 people were selected using convenience sampling method and randomly replaced in two experimental groups and a control group (15 people). The experimental group received 8 sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, but the control group did not receive any specific intervention. The research tools were: Bernstein et al.'s Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (2003), Bagby et al.'s Toronto Alexithymia Scale (1994), Bond et al.'s Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (2011), Neff's Self-Compassion Scale (2003). Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance test. Results: The mean post-test scores of alexithymia and experiential avoidance in the experimental group were significantly lower than the control group. Also, the mean scores of the self-compassion post-test in the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. The results indicate a significant effect of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness in reducing alexithymia (F=70.247, P=0.001), experiential avoidance (F=74.364, P=0.001) and increasing self-compassion. (F=14.569, P=0.001) in people with childhood trauma experience. Conclusions: The findings of this study, in line with the background of the research, showed the effectiveness of this treatment approach on the psychological components of adults with childhood trauma experience, although additional studies in this field are suggested.