Meaning of compassion for individuals with an Eating Disorder.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The experience and meaning of compassion and self-compassion for individuals with an eating disorder presenting to a Compassion-Focused Treatment.
IRAS ID
179678
Contact name
Amy Crossley-Lewis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Roehampton Univeristy
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
PSYC 16/208, University of Roehampton Ethics Committee
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) was developed to help people with high levels of shame and self-criticism (Gilbert, 2009). It has successfully been used with different client groups, including people with depression and psychosis (Gilbert & Procter, 2006). Compassion Focused Therapy for Eating Disorders (CFT-E) (Goss & Allan, 2010) was developed at Coventry Eating Disorders Service (CEDS) as a group based treatment in response to the limited success of current therapies for people with an eating disorder (NICE, 2004). CFT-E has evolved over a number of years and clinical audit suggests that it could provide an effective treatment for eating disorders (Gale, et al. 2012). However, as is common with other treatments for eating disorders, there is still a significant drop out rate. It is thought that this may be because for some people and especially those with an eating disorder, the construct of compassion can be threatening (Gilbert, McEwan, Matos & Rivis, 2011). Within a clinical population Kelly, Zuroff & Boraini (2013) found that eating disorder patients who became more self compassionate early in treatment had a better treatment response. However they also found in a later study that a fear of compassion is predictive of responses to eating disorder treatment, and can play a mediating role in recovery (Kelly, Carter, Zuroff & Borairi, 2014). To date there is no qualitative research exploring the experience and meaning of compassion for people presenting with an eating disorder. Given the known benefits of compassion in promoting recovery in eating disorders (Goss, 2012), it is important that any resistance to it in psychotherapy is addressed as part of the therapeutic process. An increased understanding of the individual experiences and meaning of both compassion and self-compassion would offer valuable insight into how individuals relate to the concept which could help in the shaping of new clinical interventions.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/YH/0125
Date of REC Opinion
21 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion