A narrative review exploring the effectiveness of compassion focused therapy

This narrative review summarises findings of research that has shown use of Compassion- Focused Therapy (CFT) to improve psychological outcomes in clinical populations. This article reviews the research studies that have utilised CFT to treat clients experiencing a variety of mental health issues. The paper begins offering an overview of CFT theory and compassionate mind interventions. A literature search was conducted which included book chapters and articles that discussed compassion focused therapy. Twelve studies were identified which showed significant psychological improvements in clients with diagnosed trauma symptoms, brain injury, eating disorders, personality disorders, schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, chronic mental health problems and psychosis, both within groups and during one-to-one therapy. Within the context of the reviewed studies, CFT has shown itself to be an effective therapeutic intervention when combined with approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)