Compassion Focused Group Therapy for Adult Female Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: a Preliminary Investigation

Objectives The adverse effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are often significant and enduring. It is therefore important to identify therapeutic interventions that can effectively minimize these effects. Compassion focused therapy (CFT) was originally developed for people with high levels of self-criticism and shame. It holds significant promise as an intervention for survivors of CSA, but has not yet been empirically tested. This study explored both the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a CFT group intervention (CFT-SA) for adult female survivors of CSA. Methods CFT-SA was developed and tested with adult female survivors of CSA, to determine if there was any change in outcome measure scores after participating in the 12-week intervention (n = 30) and at 3-month post-intervention follow-up (n=25). Results Low attrition and high session attendance, in addition to positive participant feedback, suggested the program had high acceptability. Significant improvement was observed across all outcome variables from pre- to post-intervention (n = 30), which were maintained at follow-up (n = 25). Participants demonstrated increased self-compassion and self-reassurance, and reduced symptoms of post-traumatic stress, shame, and self-criticism, as well as fears of compassion, depression, anxiety, and stress, with medium to large effect sizes (d= .55 to 1.36). Across all measures, between 20 and 57% of participants demonstrated reliable change pre- to post-intervention, and 22 to 57% from pre-intervention to follow-up. Conclusions This study provides preliminary support for the acceptability and potential benefits of utilizing CFT-SA as an intervention for adult female survivors of CSA and offers recommendations for future research.