Conclusions
traumatic
GILBERT
Threat-based responses to compassionate exercises are sometimes viewed as a reason to not assign them to clients. The present study offers preliminary evidence that self-compassion is no more threatening than relaxation imagery, a task which is widely applied without therapeutic groundwork, even for clients most likely to respond poorly to compassion. It may be that non-specific elements such as attending to breath or conjuring mental imagery may sometimes be at the root of these negative responses. Repeated practice of the same exercise often produces unchanged or worsening responses, rather than improvement. Habituation to exercises may be lessened if clients can personalize exercises or alternate between different ones, as in real therapy contexts. However, these findings also emphasize the need to respond in novel ways when clients struggle with compassion, since prescribing continued practice is unlikely to help. Current available techniques include guided discovery around inhibitors, exploration of past traumatic experiences, and practice of other supporting skills such as mindfulness (e.g. Gilbert, 2009). Further research will be able to illuminate the most effective ways to overcome these inhibitors, depending on client needs.