Research on Social Work Practice, Ahead of Print.
Purpose:Studies have found that writing with self-compassion about a stressful event helps promote mental health in college students and nonclinical populations. Using a randomized controlled trial, this study investigated whether a self-compassion writing intervention would lead to increases in self-compassion and proactive coping and reductions in mental health symptoms in a sample of individuals with mental illness.Method:Individuals with mental disorders were recruited and randomly assigned to a treatment condition in which participants wrote with self-compassion or a control condition where participants wrote about how they spent their time. Outcome measures were administered at pretest, after the 3-day intervention, and 1 month later.Results:Both the treatment and control groups showed significant improvements in self-compassion, proactive coping, mental health, and physical health.Discussion:Overall, the results suggest both self-compassion writing and writing about how one spends one’s time may be beneficial for individuals with mental illness.