Exploring the roles of compassion and post-traumatic stress disorder on global distress after sexual trauma.

OBJECTIVES: Recovery from sexual trauma can be complex and multi-faceted. Most current psychological treatment protocols for trauma use a cognitive model of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, sexual trauma may include specific complexities beyond that of a cognitive model of PTSD, such as relational factors. The distress experienced after sexual abuse may involve variables not exclusive to a PTSD model. Compassion focused therapy (CFT) is an approach that incorporates evolutionary, relational and social perspectives. This study explored the relationships between variables associated with CFT, PTSD and distress in survivors of sexual abuse to determine the role of CFT-related variables. METHODS: 155 adults who had experienced sexual abuse or any unwanted sexual experience at any point in their lives completed online questionnaires pertaining to various CFT variables (self-compassion, receiving compassion from others, having a fear of compassion from others, having a fear of compassion from the self, shame and self-criticism) and questionnaires measuring global distress as the outcome of sexual abuse and PTSD symptoms. RESULTS: An exploratory model involving CFT-related variables explained significantly more of the variance (4.4%) in global distress than PTSD symptomology alone. Self-criticism was found to be the variable with significant contribution. CONCLUSIONS: That CFT treatments, targeting self-criticism, should be developed alongside the standard cognitive model of PTSD based treatments for survivors of sexual abuse was supported. Future research may explore experimental designs utilizing CFT in this population, as well as further investigations on the roles of these specific CFT variables.

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of service users' experiences in a psychosocial addictions intervention.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the subjective experiences of participants who: (1) received a psychosocial intervention as part of an addiction recovery research trial, and (2) responded to treatment through drug reduction, with the intention of eliciting qualitative change processes of recovery. DESIGN: Data were collected using semi-structured interviews designed to capture detailed descriptions of participants' experiences of recovery within the intervention. METHODS: Eleven participants who had achieved drug abstinence or significant drug reduction by successfully completing the psychosocial intervention took part in the study. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). RESULTS: Five superordinate themes were identified relating to (1) An active, individualised and skills-based intervention that validates a new way of being; (2) Staff that foster good working relationships based on trust and safety within services that do not stigmatise; (3) To be understood individually, historically and psychologically, and with regard to the pernicious relationship with drugs; (4) Motivation is personal, intrinsic, requires vigilance and is driven forward by periods of success through abstinence; and (5) Interpersonal connectedness is essential to recovery; family is a key reason to abstain and friendships can either facilitate or hinder success. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the success of the psychosocial intervention may be due to a combination of modality specific factors and also broader holistic aspects that were provided through intervention. Future research is required to generalise these findings to wider addiction populations. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Review of the evidence base suggests the need to move beyond testing addiction interventions and instead understand change processes through psychosocial intervention. Narratives of lived experience of those undergoing psychosocial intervention inform us that specific features relating to intervention, working relationship, motivation, identity and interpersonal factors instigate recovery. Practitioners should consider a multi-faceted approach in designing and applying psychosocial intervention for addiction.