The Effect of Spiritual Therapy on Posttraumatic Growth, Self-Compassion and Hope in Women with Breast Cancer

Introduction: Cancer has many consequences, including psychological effects such as stress and depression. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of spiritual therapy on post-traumatic growth, self-compassion and hope in women with breast cancer. Methods: The method of the present study was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up design and control group. The statistical population included women with breast cancer who referred to Firoozgar Palliative Medicine Center and Cancer Prevention and Control Center (Macsa) in Tehran. A total of 30 patients were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. In this study, to collect data from a demographic questionnaire, the “Post-Traumatic Growth Questionnaire”, the “Self-Compassion Scale” and the “Snyderchr('39')s Hope Scale” were used. The validity of the instruments was determined by convergent validity and their reliability by Cronbachchr('39')s alpha method. The intervention group underwent "Spiritual Therapy" intervention in 8 sessions of 90 minutes. Data were analyzed in SPSS. 19. Results: There was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the two stages of post-test and follow-up. The results of analysis of variance on repeated measures showed that spiritual therapy is an effective on improve post-traumatic growth, self-compassion and hope in cancer patients (P <0.05).  Conclusions: Given the effectiveness of "Spiritual Therapy" in improving post-traumatic growth, self-compassion and hope in women with cancer, it is suggested that this psychological intervention use to promote post-traumatic growth, self-compassion and hope in women with cancer.