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Preparing for Eating Disorders Treatment Through Compassionate Letter-Writing
Sponsor: University of Waterloo
Summary
Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) seeks to lower shame and help people develop compassion for personal distress and shortcomings. There is increasing evidence to support the benefits of incorporating CFT-based interventions into the treatment of eating disorders (EDs). Building on the investigators' prior research, this study will examine the effects of a two-week CFT-based self-compassion letter-writing intervention on patients with eating disorders. Participants will be recruited from the wait-list of patients scheduled to begin treatment at the outpatient St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton Eating Disorders Program, and will be randomly assigned to the two-week letter-writing intervention or to a control group. Results will inform the integration of new empirically-derived interventions into ED treatments to improve the currently dismal rates of ED recovery.
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
17 Years - Any
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
160
Start Date
2020-09-29
Completion Date
2026-12
Last Updated
2026-01-28
Healthy Volunteers
No
Interventions
Self-compassionate letter-writing intervention
Participants in this condition will be asked to engage in an online self-compassionate letter-writing task once per day (10-20 minutes each) for 2 weeks.
Locations (1)
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada