Effect of compassion-focused therapy on self-criticism and self-soothing: A meta-analysis

Compassion 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.

A 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.

The 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).

CFT 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.