The Effectiveness of Compassion Focused Therapy on Body Shame and Quality of Life in Women with Breast Cancer

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student, Department of Psychology, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

2 Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Psychology, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

4 Department of Hematology-Oncology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/jmpr.2026.70761.6934

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of compassion focused therapy on body shame and quality of life in women with breast cancer. This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with control group and 2-month follow-up. The statistical population was women with breast cancer at Taleghani Hospital in Tehran in the summer of 2025. Then the number of 40 women with breast cancer were randomly divided into two groups, including an experimental group (20 women with breast cancer) and a control group (20 women with breast cancer). Then the experimental group underwent ten sessions of 90-minute compassion focused therapy. The body image as a source of shame (BISS) of Duarte et al. (2015) and the short form health survey (SF-36) of Ware (2000) were used to collect data. Analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test were used for data analysis. The data analysis software was SPSS version 29. The results showed that compassion focused therapy had a significant effect on body shame and quality of life in women with breast cancer (p<0.05). These findings indicate that compassion focused therapy can be used in an educational and therapeutic context to body shame and quality of life in women with breast cancer.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Modern Psychological Researches
Volume 21, Issue 81
May 2026
Pages 209-226

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  • Receive Date: 16 December 2025
  • Revise Date: 01 March 2026
  • Accept Date: 04 March 2026

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