Cargando…

Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples

The last 20 years have seen the development of a new form of therapy, compassion focused therapy (CFT). Although CFT has a growing evidence base, there have been few studies of CFT outside of an Anglo-European cultural context. In this paper, we ask: Might a CFT-based approach be of value for Indige...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bennett-Levy, James, Roxburgh, Natalie, Hibner, Lia, Bala, Sunita, Edwards, Stacey, Lucre, Kate, Cohen, Georgina, O’Connor, Dwayne, Keogh, Sharmaine, Gilbert, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7772135/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33391084
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.568561
_version_ 1783629811168575488
author Bennett-Levy, James
Roxburgh, Natalie
Hibner, Lia
Bala, Sunita
Edwards, Stacey
Lucre, Kate
Cohen, Georgina
O’Connor, Dwayne
Keogh, Sharmaine
Gilbert, Paul
author_facet Bennett-Levy, James
Roxburgh, Natalie
Hibner, Lia
Bala, Sunita
Edwards, Stacey
Lucre, Kate
Cohen, Georgina
O’Connor, Dwayne
Keogh, Sharmaine
Gilbert, Paul
author_sort Bennett-Levy, James
collection PubMed
description The last 20 years have seen the development of a new form of therapy, compassion focused therapy (CFT). Although CFT has a growing evidence base, there have been few studies of CFT outside of an Anglo-European cultural context. In this paper, we ask: Might a CFT-based approach be of value for Indigenous Australians? If so, what kind of cultural adaptations might be needed? We report the findings from a pilot study of an arts-based compassion skills training (ABCST) group, in which usual CFT group processes were significantly adapted to meet the needs of Indigenous Australians. At face value, CFT appeared to be a promising approach to enhancing the social and emotional wellbeing of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. However, despite initial consultations with Indigenous health professionals, the first attempts to offer a more conventional group-based CFT to Indigenous clients were largely unsuccessful. Following a review and advice from two Indigenous clients, we combined elements of CFT with visual arts to develop a new approach, “arts-based compassion skills training” (ABCST). This paper reports an evaluation of this pilot ABCST group. The group had 6 × 4 h sessions of ABCST, facilitated by two psychologists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous) and two artists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous). There were 10 participants, who attended between 2 and 6 sessions: five were clients, five were health professionals. Between 1 and 3 months later, six of the participants (2 clients, 4 health professionals) were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of interview data identified that two key processes—creating a positive group atmosphere and channeling compassion skills training through the medium of visual arts—led to four positive outcomes for participants: planting the seeds of new understandings, embodying the skills of compassion, strengthening relationships with others, and evolving a more self-compassionate relationship. We suggest that the preliminary results are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further development of ABCST in Indigenous communities.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7772135
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77721352020-12-31 Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples Bennett-Levy, James Roxburgh, Natalie Hibner, Lia Bala, Sunita Edwards, Stacey Lucre, Kate Cohen, Georgina O’Connor, Dwayne Keogh, Sharmaine Gilbert, Paul Front Psychol Psychology The last 20 years have seen the development of a new form of therapy, compassion focused therapy (CFT). Although CFT has a growing evidence base, there have been few studies of CFT outside of an Anglo-European cultural context. In this paper, we ask: Might a CFT-based approach be of value for Indigenous Australians? If so, what kind of cultural adaptations might be needed? We report the findings from a pilot study of an arts-based compassion skills training (ABCST) group, in which usual CFT group processes were significantly adapted to meet the needs of Indigenous Australians. At face value, CFT appeared to be a promising approach to enhancing the social and emotional wellbeing of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. However, despite initial consultations with Indigenous health professionals, the first attempts to offer a more conventional group-based CFT to Indigenous clients were largely unsuccessful. Following a review and advice from two Indigenous clients, we combined elements of CFT with visual arts to develop a new approach, “arts-based compassion skills training” (ABCST). This paper reports an evaluation of this pilot ABCST group. The group had 6 × 4 h sessions of ABCST, facilitated by two psychologists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous) and two artists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous). There were 10 participants, who attended between 2 and 6 sessions: five were clients, five were health professionals. Between 1 and 3 months later, six of the participants (2 clients, 4 health professionals) were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of interview data identified that two key processes—creating a positive group atmosphere and channeling compassion skills training through the medium of visual arts—led to four positive outcomes for participants: planting the seeds of new understandings, embodying the skills of compassion, strengthening relationships with others, and evolving a more self-compassionate relationship. We suggest that the preliminary results are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further development of ABCST in Indigenous communities. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7772135/ /pubmed/33391084 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.568561 Text en Copyright © 2020 Bennett-Levy, Roxburgh, Hibner, Bala, Edwards, Lucre, Cohen, O’Connor, Keogh and Gilbert. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Bennett-Levy, James
Roxburgh, Natalie
Hibner, Lia
Bala, Sunita
Edwards, Stacey
Lucre, Kate
Cohen, Georgina
O’Connor, Dwayne
Keogh, Sharmaine
Gilbert, Paul
Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples
title Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples
title_full Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples
title_fullStr Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples
title_full_unstemmed Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples
title_short Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples
title_sort arts-based compassion skills training (abcst): channelling compassion focused therapy through visual arts for australia’s indigenous peoples
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7772135/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33391084
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.568561
work_keys_str_mv AT bennettlevyjames artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT roxburghnatalie artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT hibnerlia artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT balasunita artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT edwardsstacey artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT lucrekate artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT cohengeorgina artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT oconnordwayne artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT keoghsharmaine artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples
AT gilbertpaul artsbasedcompassionskillstrainingabcstchannellingcompassionfocusedtherapythroughvisualartsforaustraliasindigenouspeoples