The compassionate mind approach to supporting psychological wellbeing in people living with HIV

There is a growing body of evidence exploring the health, psychological and social benefits of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) for managing complex issues such as shame, loneliness, stigma and disease adjustment. As a component of CFT, compassionate mind training (CMT) has been found to bring about significant reductions in psychological distress and improvements in levels of compassion, emotion regulation and wellbeing. There is also growing evidence for how these approaches can bring benefits across a variety of psychological and physical health difficulties, including HIV. This study explored how a CMT-informed wellbeing day followed by access to The Self-Compassion App supported people with HIV. Most study participants (97%) found taking part in the session helpful, reporting they felt they had increased their knowledge around compassion and understood the benefits of CMT after engaging in it. The compassionate mind approach and CFT can support and improve psychological wellbeing in people living with HIV.