Table 3.

Qualitative Research on the Benefits of Self-Compassion for Mental Health Professionals

Study	Sample	N	Method	Main Results on the Benefits of Therapists’ Self-Compassion
Barton (2020).15	Counselors	5	Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith et al, 2009).	(a) self-care and self-compassion are essential parts of being a therapist that may be prioritized during professionals’ training as a means to cope with demands and challenges that therapists face in their work; (b) existence of barriers to self-care: it is not unusual for those who care for others to struggle with self-care (eg feeling selfish).
Patsiopoulos & Buchanan (2011).45	Counselors	15	Narrative analysis process described by Lieblich et al (1998).	(a) better management of occupational stress and challenges (eg recognizing and addressing signs of depletion, working through ethical dilemmas, and processing decisions and their consequences); (b) overall sense of well-being: physical, psychological and emotional health, greater existential and/or spiritual sense of connectedness; (c) positive impacts on therapists’ ability to work effectively with clients and therapeutic relationship
Quaglia et al (2021).46	Counseling interns (Master’s level)	20	Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).	(a) supporting self-attunement, ie ability to observe one’s internal experience, attending to their emotional experience and promoting a sense of personal kindness and self-acceptance; (b) lessening self-criticism and perfectionism: feelings of “not being enough”, greater acceptance to moments of uncertainty and perceived missteps or mistakes, greater acceptance to limitations as a therapist in training (tolerate not knowing the “perfect” therapeutic response, imposter syndrome); (c) fostering intrapersonal emotion regulation (when receiving difficult feedback from clients during session and when counselors experienced activation from client material; (d) modeling self-compassion for clients.