Self-compassion training for individuals with social anxiety disorder: a preliminary randomized controlled trial

• Published in: Cognitive behaviour therapy 2023, Vol.52 (1), p.18-37
• Main Authors: Teale Sapach, Michelle J. N., Carleton, R. Nicholas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Anxiety disorders; Clinical significance; Clinical trials; Fear; Female; Humans; Male; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Phobia, Social - therapy; Randomized controlled trial; Self compassion; self-compassion training; Social anxiety; social anxiety disorder; Training
• ISSN: 1650-6073; 1651-2316
• DOI: 10.1080/16506073.2022.2130820

Self-compassion is the ability to offer oneself kindness and compassion in response to failure, suffering, or insecurity. Learning how to be self-compassionate through self-compassion training appears effective for improving psychological well-being in community samples and promising for clinical populations. The current randomized controlled trial was designed to (a) examine the effectiveness of a self-guided self-compassion training program; and (b) determine whether self-compassion training can help mitigate social anxiety disorder (SAD) symptoms. Adults with SAD (n = 63; Mage = 34.3, SD = 11.4; 67.8% female; 84.7% Caucasian) were randomized to a waitlist control condition, a self-guided self-compassion training condition, or a self-guided applied relaxation training condition for six weeks. Outcome measures of SAD symptoms and self-compassion were completed pre-, mid-, and post-treatment, as well as at 3-months follow-up. Multilevel linear modelling results suggested the self-compassion training program was statistically superior at improving outcome measures relative to the waitlist control condition (ps  .05; η 2 p s = .01-.05). Self-compassion training produced greater clinically significant gains in self-compassion and reductions in fear of self-compassion compared to both the waitlist condition and applied relaxation training. The current trial provides preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of a self-help self-compassion training program and provides evidence that self-compassion training may be beneficial for managing clinically significant SAD symptoms.