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Treatment - Mindfulness & Acceptance

Design and Preliminary Outcomes of a Compassion-Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Pilot Study in a Community Sample

(PS5-B26) Design and Preliminary Outcomes of a Compassion-focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Pilot Study in a Community Sample

Friday, November 18, 2022

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Location: Westside Ballroom, 5th Floor

Author(s)

KK

Keryn Kleiman, M.A.

Doctoral student clinician / researcher
Kean University
North Bergen, New Jersey
BF

Benjamin Foote, M.A.

Doctoral student clinician and researcher
Kean University
Hoboken, New Jersey

Co-Author(s)

RD

Ritvik Dutta, M.A.

Doctoral Student-Clinician
Kean University
Livingston, New Jersey
JS

Jacob A. Schrier, B.A.

Contributor
Kean University
Woodmere, New York
ND

Nicholas Dynan, B.A.

Doctoral Student
Kean University
Jersey City, New Jersey
LR

Leslie T. Regan, B.A.

Student/contributor
Kean University
New York, New York

Author(s)

Donald R. Marks, Psy.D.

Associate Professor
Kean University
Hillside, New Jersey
JB

Jennifer Block-Lerner, Ph.D.

Association Professor and Program Director
Kean University
Livingston, New Jersey

Uncertainty and stress associated with crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic can contribute to increased anxiety, strained social relationships, and intensified self-criticism and shame. Given the pivotal role self-criticism and shame can play in the development and maintenance of various psychological disorders, several compassion-based treatments, such as compassion-focused therapy (CFT; Gilbert, 2009), have been developed in recent years to address shame-based difficulties across a range of psychopathological conditions. Compassion for self and others has been demonstrated to serve not only as a focus for treatment of psychological disorders, but as a protective factor, which may buffer against the potential detrimental impacts crises have on our mental health (Matos et al., 2022). CFT and other compassion-based treatments align with major tenets of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT; Hayes et al., 1999), which has been shown to be effective in treating various clinical disorders, including depression, anxiety (Twohig & Levin, 2017), and PTSD (Pohar & Argaez, 2017). Compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy (CF-ACT; Tirch et al., 2014) merges elements of CFT and ACT. This pilot study examines the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of a manualized CF-ACT protocol in a community clinic setting through a multiple-baseline single-case experimental design. Data will be presented from 5 participants who are receiving the therapy over 16 weekly sessions in a non-concurrent, multiple baseline design. Data collection is ongoing and will be completed by April 2022. Levels of psychological distress, psychological flexibility, self-compassion, shame, and self-criticism are being assessed through self-report measures during baseline, and immediately after weekly sessions in the experimental phase. We predict that CF-ACT will be acceptable to both the participants and doctoral student clinicians. In line with past research, we expect that those exhibiting higher levels of shame and self-criticism will find CF-ACT to be especially relevant and useful. In terms of outcomes, we predict that relative to baseline, participants will demonstrate increased psychological flexibility and compassion, higher functioning in valued life contexts, and decreased symptomatology (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress, shame and self-criticism) during and following CF-ACT. Visual inspection will be conducted based on established guidelines set by Kratochwill and colleagues (2010). Conservative dual-criterion analysis (Fisher et al., 2003; Swoboda et al., 2010) will also be conducted to increase reliability of visual inspection.