SynthesisThe British journal of clinical psychology2023
Effect of compassion-focused therapy on self-criticism and self-soothing: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in The British journal of clinical psychology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effect of compassion-focused therapy on self-criticism and self-soothing: A meta-analysis.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Self-Criticism as a Mechanism of Change in Compassion-Based Interventions: A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modelling Approach and Systematic Review.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyPooled it
- Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy for Self-Criticism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyPooled it
- How does self-compassion affect posttraumatic adaptation among lymphoma patients? A perspective based on network analysis.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Testing a digital and interactive scale (the three circles) to assess emotion regulation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Effect of the Reassured Self-Compassion-Based School Program on Anxiety, Video Game Addiction, and Body Image Among Rural Female Adolescents: Retrospective Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- A qualitative evaluation of a compassion-focused therapy group intervention for UK healthcare staff at an acute hospital trust.PloS one · 2025Article
- Participants' evaluation of an internet-based group compassion-focused therapy program for young people in Sweden.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Internet-based group compassion-focused therapy for Swedish young people with stress, anxiety and depression: a pilot waitlist randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Effects of the Soothe Vision well-being tool on university students' mood: a pilot study.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2025Article
- The inner critical voice among university students and patients with depression - A linguistic analysis of self-criticism.PloS one · 2025Article
- A preliminary evaluation of a group compassion-focused intervention for individuals affected by perinatal loss.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Understanding Self-Criticism: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Approaches.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2024Review
- A randomized controlled trial of cognitive analytic versus compassion-focused therapy for PTSD in Iran-Iraq War Veterans.Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2024Article
- Enhancing compassion meditation through virtual reality and sensory priming: A focus on individual factors.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
- Guilt-and Shame-Proneness, Birth-related Post-traumatic Stress and Post-Traumatic Growth in Women with Preterm Birth.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveCompassion is oriented towards perceiving and relieving suffering. Hence, its development is beneficial for mental health. Many interventions aimed at cultivating compassion in patients have been empirically supported. This meta-analysis analyses the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) in decreasing self-criticism, a vulnerability factor that has been related to several mental health problems, and in increasing self-soothing.
methodsA literature search was conducted in the PsycInfo, Web of Science, Medline and Scopus databases, through which 7 controlled trials (N = 640) and 7 observational studies (N = 207) were retrieved.
resultsThe results of the meta-analysis determine that CFT decreases the level of self-criticism and increases the ability to experience soothing. The size of the effect varies depending on the design of the study and the subscale of the test used to measure self-criticism (Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale).
conclusionsCFT has proven to be an effective intervention for reducing self-criticism. However, given that the number of studies is small and that only half of them are controlled trials, the results must be interpreted cautiously. More randomized controlled trials comparing CFT with other therapies are needed to determine the effect of this intervention on self-criticism with more scientific evidence.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.