Bringing compassion to self-criticism: understanding client experience
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Bringing compassion to self-criticism: client experiences of a compassion-focused therapy intervention for self-criticism
IRAS ID
188390
Contact name
Tobyn Bell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Derby University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 1 days
Research summary
The study will investigate clients' experiences of a specific intervention during a course of compassion-focused therapy. The intervention is part of routine clinical practice for working with self-criticism. It involves identifying and embodying the 'self-critic' (exploring its impact on criticised aspects of the self) before accessing the 'compassionate self' to relate to, and work with, the self-critic. The research will focus on clients with depression, shame and self-criticism in a primary care NHS setting. Participants will be offered a short interview after the intervention and their answers will be transcribed and analysed in order to understand their experiences. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) will be used for the analysis. IPA is a well established qualitative research method for exploring and understanding individual experience and meaning-making. In addition to interviewing the clients receiving the intervention, the therapists providing the intervention will also be interviewed about their perception of the client's experience.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0199
Date of REC Opinion
22 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion