The Training Effects of a Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher Program: Pilot Study

INTRODUCTION Korea has the number one suicide rate among OECD countries in recent years (Statistics Korea, 2016). As the society becomes more polarized, there are more conflicts among individuals, and more people with various psychological symptoms are looking for psychiatric hospitals or counseling centers. The media has successively reported events and accidents due to impulse control disorder. Thus, the need for psychological intervention has become stronger than ever. If traditional psychotherapy targets psychiatric patients, Korean society is now increasingly shifting to the prevention of psychological disorders. Recently, there has been a growing demand for stress management programs for the general public who are in the healthy or subclinical range before the onset of psychiatric disorders. Amid this, mindfulness and self-compassion attract attention among clinicians and counselors. Mindfulness brings attention and awareness to momentary experiences with acceptance and non-judgment (Kabat-Zinn, 1994), and selfcompassion refers to treating oneself kindly considering the pain in a moment of struggle (Neff, 2003). Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2013) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) have been actively applied in clinical and non-clinical settings. These programs have proven effective at reducing psychological symptoms and improving wellbeing (Kabat-Zinn, 1994; Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004; Aalderen, 2012) to aid in more effective depression treatment and prevention of relapse, another factor is considered necessary besides mindfulness, which is a key factor in MBCT and MBSR: self-compassion. Self-compassion is conceptualized as a trait that is inherent in human nature but can be modified or improved through training (Bluth, Gaylord, Campo, Mullarkey, & Hobbs, 2016; Neff & Germer, 2013). From the viewpoint of Buddhist psychology, the typical symptoms of depression can be seen as the energy of frustration, hatred, aggression toward oneself on the side of grief, suicidal impulse, helplessness, anger, worthlessness, and anxiety. Therefore, it seems that the treatment of depression would benefit from the effect of self-compassion meditation as an antidote to aggression and anger toward the self. Depressive patients with high self-criticism, self-loathing, and shame are not strong enough to tolerate and accept each moment as it is or to tolerate it internally. Therefore, self-compassion meditation is needed as training to first send kindness and compassion to the suffering self. In the intervention to improve self-compassion, it appears that optimism, self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and compassion for others are enhanced, while depression, rumination, and stress reactions are reduced (Albertson, Neff, & Dill-Shackleford, 2015; Kelly & Amp; Carter, 2015). When we compare the results of previous studies related to the effects of self-compassion, the higher the level of self-compassion, the less negative thoughts, self-blame, sadness, suicide, and rumination there are (Neff, Kirpatrick, & Rude, 2007). AbstrAct: For the last 10 years or more, mindfulness meditation based on Buddhist practice has been widely spreading in the medical field including psychology in Korea. Until now, if psychological programs based on mindfulness meditation have been applied, recently, attention has been focused on the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program combining mindfulness and self-compassion. There are a few people who have the qualifications and training to conduct this program. In this paper, we discuss our pilot study on a MSC Teacher Training Program developed. 51 participants (41 women, 10 men) were involved in this program. Qualitative thematic analysis confirmed 5 themes and 18 subthemes. Participants reported positive changes in cognition, emotion, professional work, spiritual area, and interpersonal areas after the program. The meaning and the mechanism of this program were discussed.