This project addresses the promotion of role-related self-compassion (SC) in psychotherapists as part of their professional development and maintenance. There is evidence that therapists who are more self-compassionate are better-protected from emotional burnout (Beaumont et al., 2016), suggesting that self-compassion become part of therapist education(Nelson et al., 2018), but there is a lack of research regarding how this role-related selfcompassion is addressed by supervisors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 clinical supervisors in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Thematic analysis (TA) derived 5 main themes, including Participants’ Definitions of SC, Supervisee struggles leading participants to address SC in supervision Participants’ approaches to addressing SC with supervisees, Institutional structures addressing self-care, self-compassion, and Challenges associated with addressing SC in supervision. Results suggest that participants viewed self-compassion as an important component of therapist self-care, and employed a number of direct and indirect methods to address and encourage it with supervisees. Implications for practice and training are included.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Mindfulness-based interventions targeting psychological and physical symptoms in cancer survivors have been shown to be efficacious. However, little is known about theory-based psychological processes through which mindfulness-based interventions may decrease symptoms. The present study is a secondary analysis of data from a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) pilot trial targeting cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in cancer survivors. Thirty-five persistently fatigued cancer survivors were recruited from a university hospital and various community clinics in Indianapolis, Indiana. Participants were randomized to either a 7-week MBSR intervention for CRF or a waitlist control (WC) condition. Measures were administered at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 1-month follow-up and included levels of mindfulness, acceptance, and self-compassion as well as the symptom outcomes of fatigue interference, sleep disturbance, and distress. I hypothesized that MBSR would lead to increased levels of five facets of mindfulness (i.e., observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, nonreactivity to inner experience), self-compassion, and acceptance as compared to the WC condition. Using a linear mixed modeling approach, significant group by time interactions were only found for observing, acting with awareness, nonjudging, and self-compassion, such that the MBSR group showed steady increases in these processes over time, whereas the WC group’s scores remained relatively stable. In addition, I examined whether positive changes in the five facets of mindfulness were associated with reductions in the three symptoms using multiple linear regression. This hypothesis was partially supported; acting with awareness was the only facet of mindfulness to show a modest association with a decrease in fatigue, but this result fell short of statistical significance. In addition, decreased sleep disturbance was predicted by increases in acting with awareness and nonjudging, while decreased distress was predicted by increases in observing, acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity. Results point to specific psychological processes that may be targeted to maximize the efficacy of future MBSR interventions for cancer survivors.

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The mental health field experiences high levels of stress, resulting in a greater risk of poor professional quality of life, likely exacerbated by the additional stress associated with COVID-19. The present study examined the effect COVID-19 stress had on the professional quality of life of the infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) workforce and whether coping strategies and self-compassion acted as protective factors. Results indicated that higher COVID-19 stress was associated with higher burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) and lower compassion satisfaction (CS). The results also showed that the pathway from COVID-19 stress to burnout was moderated by support-seeking and approach coping. Furthermore, the pathway from COVID-19 stress to CS was moderated by avoidant coping. The link between COVID-19 stress, coping, and professional quality of life suggests increasing adaptive coping is likely to improve the professional quality of life of the IECMH workforce during times of substantial stress.

Sexual minorities must deal daily with their stigmatized identities. Specifically, depression and anxiety as well as psychological distress and self-stigma are common among people with stigmatized identities. Self-compassion has been linked to enhanced psychological well-being and less negative feelings toward the self. The aim of this study was to investigate selfcompassion as a potential buffer of the effects of sexual minority related rejection experiences on self-perceptions of stigma and psychological symptoms. Participants were randomly assigned to a self-compassion induction group versus 1 of 3 control groups (self-esteem only induction; expressive writing condition; true control) to examine whether self-compassion can be induced to reduce self-stigma, negative mood, and fear of negative evaluation. Results did not support hypotheses; analyses revealed nonsignificant effects for the self-compassion induction. However, results revealed a significant main effect for trait self-compassion predicting outcomes of decreased self-stigma, fear of negative evaluation, and negative mood, and increased positive mood.

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People living with HIV (PLWH) may experience internalized shame, which has been associated with negative psychosocial outcomes. Some of these psychosocial outcomes also are linked with worsening disease. Self-compassion, however, is the antithesis of internalizing shame, with elements of self-compassion (self-kindness, mindfulness, common humanity) at odds with indicators of internalized shame (negative beliefs about the self, desire to withdraw or avoid emotion, feelings of isolation). Therefore, we examined whether self-compassion among PLWH was associated with lower levels of internalized shame and, in turn, better psychosocial outcomes. We examined these relations using cross-sectional data collected from 181 PLWH living in the US via their participation in an online survey. Results revealed initial support for lower levels of internalized shame as potential mechanism that may explain how self-compassion comes to be associated with better outcomes among PLWH. Given self-compassion can be induced through intervention, we discuss how future research and clinical work with PLWH might address shame and improve outcomes.

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