Mindfulness and compassion for youth with psychotic symptoms: A description of a group program and a consumer’s experience

ABSTRACT

An 8-week mindfulness and compassion program was developed for youth at risk for, or already experiencing, psychosis, based on UK national guidelines for developing interventions. The aim of this paper is to provide a program description and first hand account of a participant’s experience.

First, mindfulness skills are taught. Next an emotional regulation model is introduced, to help participants understand how psychotic experiences, anxiety and depression contribute to a heightened threat system, and how compassion can help them. The program contains meditations (e.g. breath practice, compassionate friend) and practices for use in daily life (e.g. STOP practice).

The second author found mindfulness allowed her to feel and acknowledge her experience and give her emotions the recognition they needed. Being self-compassionate was a new concept, which at times was challenging but helped her realize her emotions were normal and she could manage difficult emotions using soothing practices. Furthermore, being part of a group helped her realize she was not alone.

Mindfulness and compassion skills can be helpful for youth with psychotic experiences. A group program can provide a safe place to share experiences and reduce isolation. An evaluation of the program will be the focus of future papers.

KEYWORDS:

• Group program
• mindfulness
• compassion
• youth
• psychosis
• intervention

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the clinical staff who supported the program and the consumers who attended it, all of whom made this paper possible

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Key practitioner message

1. Using best practice guidelines the first author developed a mindfulness and compassion program for youth with psychotic experiences described in this paper

2. According to a detailed first hand account of a consumer’s experience the group helped her to feel less alone, stop beating herself up, tolerate difficult emotions, chose a compassionate response and cope better with life stresses

3. The MAC-P program may offer a promising treatment choice for youth experiencing psychotic symptoms and further evaluation is warranted

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.