The effectiveness of positive mindfulness training on self-compassion and self-esteem of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is associated with many problems, especially in the field of reducing self-compassion and self-esteem. As a result, this research was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of positive mindfulness training on self-compassion and self-esteem of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Present research was semi-experimental with a pretest and posttest design with a control group. The research population was patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder referring to the counseling centers and psychological services of district 1 of Tehran city in the winter season of 2021 year. The research sample was 40 people who after reviewing the inclusion criteria to study were selected by available sampling method and replaced by random method with the help of lottery into two groups (each group 20 people). The experimental group underwent 10 sessions of 90 minutes of positive mindfulness and the control group was placed on the waiting list for training. Data were collected with the Neff self-compassion scale and Rosenberg self-esteem scale and were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance method in SPSS version 19 software.

The findings showed that there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of gender, age and education level (P>0.05). Also, the experimental and control groups had significant differences in terms of both variables of self-compassion and self-esteem (P<0.001). In other words, positive mindfulness training increased self-compassion and self-esteem of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (P<0.001).

The results indicated the effectiveness of positive mindfulness training on increasing self-compassion and self-esteem of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Therefore, specialists and therapists can use the mentioned method to improve psychological variables, especially self-compassion and self-esteem.