Physiological response to self-compassion versus relaxation in a clinical population.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Compassion-focused imagery (CFI) can be an effective emotion-regulation technique but can create threat-focused responses in some individuals. However, these findings have been based on tasks involving receiving compassion from others.

Aims

This study sought to compare responses CFI involving self-compassion to relaxation and a control task, and to see whether any threat-responses to self-compassion and relaxation decrease with practice.

Method

25 participants with depression/anxiety symptoms and high self-criticism and/or low self-compassion engaged in three tasks (control task, relaxation imagery, and CFI) at three or four separate testing sessions, every three days. Heart-rate variability (HRV) was used to explore group-level differences between tasks. A

SUBMITTER: Naismith I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9904495 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature