AUTHOR=Gilbert Paul , Basran Jaskaran K. , Raven Joanne , Gilbert Hannah , Petrocchi Nicola , Cheli Simone , Rayner Andrew , Hayes Alison , Lucre Kate , Minou Paschalina , Giles David , Byrne Frances , Newton Elizabeth , McEwan Kirsten 

TITLE=Compassion Focused Group Therapy for People With a Diagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder: A Feasibility Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.841932

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.841932

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Background: Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is an evolutionary informed, biopsychosocial approach to mental health problems and therapy. It suggests that evolved motives (e.g., for caring, cooperating, competing) are major sources for the organisation of psychophysiological processes which underpin mental health problems. Hence, evolved motives can be targets for psychotherapy. People with certain types of depression are psychophysiologically orientated towards social competition and concerned with social status and social rank. These can give rise to down rank-focused forms of social comparison, sense of inferiority, worthlessness, lowered confidence, submissive behaviour, shame proneness and self-criticism. People with bipolar disorders also experience  elevated aspects of competitiveness and up rank status evaluation. These shift processing to a sense of superiority, elevated confidence, energised behaviour, positive affect and social dominance. This is the first study to explore the feasibility of a 12 module CFT group tailored to helping people with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder understand the impact of evolved competitive, status-regulating motivation on their mental states and the value of cultivating caring and compassion motivesand their psychophysiological regulators. Methods:  Six participants with a history of bipolar disorder took part in a CFT group consisting of twelve modules (over 25 sessions) as co-collaborators to explore their personal experiences of CFT and potential processes of change.  Assessment of change was measured via self-report, heart rate variability (HRV) and focus groups over various time points.
Results: Although changes in self-report scales between participants and across time were uneven, four of the six participants consistently showed improvements across the majority of self-report measures. Heart rate variability measures revealed significant improvement over the course of the therapy. Qualitative data from three focus groups revealed participants found CFT gave them helpful insight into:  how evolution has given rise to a number of difficult problems for emotion regulation (called tricky brain) which is not one’s fault; an evolutionary understanding of the nature of bipolar disorders; development of a compassionate mind and practices of compassion focused visualisations and behaviours; addressing issues of self-criticism; and building a sense of a compassionate identity as a means of coping with life difficulties.