Self-compassion in ACT informed therapy for chronic pain. Version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring how people experience self-compassion within acceptance and commitment informed therapy for chronic pain.
IRAS ID
239056
Contact name
Foteini Oikonomitsiou
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 26 days
Research summary
The aim of the study is to understand how individuals experience self-compassion within acceptance and commitment informed therapy for chronic pain.
The healing properties of self-compassion have been recorded many times over the centuries. Recently, self-compassion has started being used in Western psychology after it was found that self-compassionate individuals experience more psychological health and less depression and anxiety. As a result, a lot of research tries to understand which parts of existing psychological therapies can help people become more self-compassionate, even if initially those parts were not designed to affect self-compassion.
One of those psychological therapies, that researchers are trying to understand whether it can help individuals become more self-compassionate, is acceptance and commitment (ACT) informed therapy for chronic pain. Acceptance and commitment informed therapy for chronic pain aims to help individuals accept their pain and live a life that is based on the individual’s personal values. Self-compassion is believed to be a hidden mechanism within the above therapy and it is believed that it helps people accomplish mental well-being and reduce their psychological distress. Nevertheless, there seems to be a limited understanding of how the above hidden mechanism works within acceptance and commitment informed therapies for chronic pain and how people experience changes in self-compassion within ACT. Gaining a better understanding of the way that individuals are helped within therapy to become more self-compassionate will hopefully help us improve the above psychological therapy. Therefore the aim of this present study is to firstly understand how individuals experience self-compassion within acceptance and commitment informed therapy for chronic pain and secondly how self-compassion changes over the course of acceptance and commitment informed therapy for chronic pain.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/YH/0060
Date of REC Opinion
9 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion