The Experience and Meaning of Compassion and Self-Compassion for Individuals with Depression or Anxiety

Drs. Pauly and MacPherson, two researchers in the United Kingdom, recently published a qualitative of self-compassion. Using Dr. Kristin Neff's conceptualization of self-compassion, the researchers explored the self-compassion in a small group of people with anxiety and depressive disorders.

Participants saw "kindness" as the key component of compassion, and they indicated compassion is best expressed through action. Other insights are discussed in the article. As the sample consisted of 10 Caucasian British participants, all but one of whom were female, it's unclear how representative the sample is. One neat thing about the article is that it contains the researchers' self-compassion interview in the Appendix.

If you're interested, you can download the article in Neff's Self-Compassion website here.

For the full citation:

Pauley, G. & McPherson, S. (2010). The experience and meaning of compassion and self-compassion for individuals with depression or anxiety. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 83, 129–143.