Development and Effects of a Generative AI-Assisted Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Professional School Counselors

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a mindful self-compassion program that uses generative AI as a reflective support tool for professional school counselors and to examine its effects on self-compassion, counselor self-efficacy, and counselor burnout. Based on the ADDIE model, an eight-session program was designed to include mindfulness, self-compassion, exploration of self-critical thoughts, emotional distancing from case rumination, and identification of counselor strengths. Generative AI was used as an auxiliary tool to support emotional reflection, selfcompassionate statement generation, personalized reflective questioning, and guided meditation writing. Participants were 20 professional school counselors working in Wee Classes, with 10 assigned to the experimental group and 10 to the control group. The experimental group participated in the program once a week for eight weeks, with each session lasting 90 minutes, while the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results showed that the experimental group demonstrated significant increases in self-compassion and counselor self-efficacy and a significant decrease in counselor burnout, whereas the control group showed no significant changes. Significant group differences were also found in the amount of change in all three variables. These findings suggest that the generative AI-assisted mindful self-compassion program may help enhance self-compassion and counselor self-efficacy and reduce burnout among professional school counselors. This study highlights the potential of integrating generative AI as a structured reflective support tool into a self-care program for promoting emotional recovery among professional school counselors.