'It's like they're learning what it is for the very first time': Clinician's accounts of self-compassion in clients whose parents experience mental illness

Abstract

Objectives: Individuals who have a parent with mental illness are more likely to experience mental illness than their contemporaries. As such, it is valuable to examine potential psychological resources, which might assist these individuals to experience good mental health throughout their lifespan. We aimed to learn how clinicians perceive self-compassion, and how it can be incorporated into therapy with clients who have parents with mental illness.

Design: A qualitative interview design was employed to explore clinicians' perspectives and experiences.

Methods: Eight mental health clinicians experienced in working with clients who have parents with mental illness were interviewed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to establish themes representing the clinicians' perspectives and experiences of incorporating self-compassion into their work.

Results: This study found that clinicians were generally positive about incorporating self-compassion into interventions with clients who are children of parents with mental illness. The participants noted barriers to self-compassion for these clients, namely a poor sense of self and divided loyalty between self and family. Participants recommended taking time and care, building rapport and involving others when cultivating self-compassion with those who have parents with mental illness.

Conclusions: This group of clinicians viewed self-compassion as relevant to clients whose parents have mental illness and believe it can be introduced therapeutically in various ways. Suggestions are made for tailoring self-compassion training to the needs and experiences of this group.

Keywords: children of parents with mental illness; intervention; parental mental illness; psychotherapy; qualitative; self-compassion.