Effectiveness of Self-Compassion Meditation Intervention on the Professional Quality of Life among Trainee Clinical Psychologists

A one-week self-compassion meditation intervention improved professional quality of life among 30 female trainee clinical psychologists. Compared to a wait-list control group, those who received the intervention showed increased compassion satisfaction and reduced burnout and secondary traumatic stress scores. Within the experimental group, compassion satisfaction rose significantly from pre- to post-intervention, while burnout and secondary traumatic stress decreased significantly. The control group showed no significant pre-post changes. The authors argue that clinical training programs should integrate self-compassion meditation to help future therapists manage stress and burnout.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of self-compassion meditation intervention on the professional quality of life among trainee clinical psychologists. A quasi-experimental design with non-equivalent groups was used. A sample size of 30 female trainees was selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL) Scale” (Stamm, 2009) was administered as a primary outcome measure. Participants in the experimental group were given self-compassion meditation intervention for 1 week while participants in the wait-list control group were not given any intervention until after post-assessment. Results of Mann-Whitney U test revealed that trainee clinical psychologists who received self-compassion meditation intervention had increased compassion satisfaction scores and reduced burnout and secondary traumatic stress scores compared to wait-list control group. Results of Wilcoxon Signed Rank test revealed that compared to pre-intervention, compassion satisfaction scores were significantly increased among experimental group while burnout and secondary traumatic stress scores were significantly decreased post self-compassion meditation. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the mean pretest scores and the mean posttest scores for control group. The implications of the study revealed a need to integrate self-compassion meditation intervention into training programs by supervisors in clinical settings to equip future therapists with tools to manage stress, burnout and compassion fatigue, thereby improving their overall well-being and resilience.