TY  - JOUR
AU  - Tainsh, Graeme
AU  - Baughan, Katherine
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/28
TI  - A Compassionate Mind: A Qualitative Evaluation of Compassion Focused Group Therapy for Complex Interpersonal Trauma
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 020
VL  - 11
IS  - 02
AB  - A significant percentage of the population attending local adult psychology services have experienced variable forms of maltreatment from a young age and by a close attachment figure. For those who do not present with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, they may be misunderstood and offered a phase-based approach to their care. Although a stepped care approach to complex trauma is in keeping with current guidelines this often includes lengthy periods of group-based psychoeducation and skills development that often fails to address core transdiagnostic features of such experiences, such as self-criticism, self-attack and shame. This can lead to prolonged care journeys, repeated episodes of care or even exclusion from mental health services. This paper presents a qualitative evaluation of our Compassion Focused Group Therapy programme that integrates both compassionate mind training and formulation driven experiential practices aiming to address self-criticism and shame. This study was a qualitative service evaluation project which used a self-report survey to capture experiences of group members who had completed the 16-session group programme consisting of two pre-group sessions to orientate to model and formulate, 12 weekly 2.5-hour group sessions and two review sessions – an individual session post group and group review at 3-months post group. Group would consist of up to eight patients and two CFT trained facilitators. Eleven questions were listed with supplementary prompts to be used if needed. A thematic analysis was then conducted to identify key themes and sub-themes. Multiple factors were found to be of central importance for group members journey in and through the programme, which supported identification of key areas of improvement. This included the importance of a slower paced approach, the roles of therapists and the need for longer term therapeutic work. Thematic analysis uncovered four main overarching themes, with two themes having sub-themes. Group members found the programme transformative in comparison to previous experiences of psychotherapy. Key to these changes were the role of the group therapists and use compassion focused practices, however all group members indicated a need for longer group therapy input.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2602020
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.2602020
ID  - Tainsh2026
ER  -