Comparing the efficacy of compassionate therapy adapted to islamic teachings with compassionate therapy on self-compassion of breast cancer patients

studies have shown the effectiveness of compassionate therapy and integrating religious and Islamic teachings with psychotherapies. So can integration with Islam increase compassionate therapy effectiveness?      

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of compassionate therapy adapted to Islamic teachings with classical compassionate therapy on self-compassion in patients with breast cancer.

The method of this study, was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. The study population consisted of 45 patients referred to the oncology ward of Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital in 1397 who were selected by convenience sampling and were randomly divided into three groups: Islamic Compassionate therapy, Classical Compassionate therapy and Control. Treatment sessions were conducted over eight 90-minute sessions on Classical compassion therapy group (based on Guilbert “2010”) and Islamic compassionate therapy group (based on the author-made protocol). To collect data, Self-compassion scale (Neff, 2003) was used and data were statistically analyzed by Mancova method.

The Results showed although both treatments were effective in improving the variables studied, Islamically-adapted compassionate therapy was more effective in improving self-kindness component of self-compassion(P value=0/005).

integrating Islamic teachings can increase effectiveness of compassionate therapy and this integration can be a suitable psychotherapy for breast cancer patients.