Mindful Self-compassion and Perfectionism

The study is a randomized controlled study. A total of 200 students will be invited to participate in a 5-session mindful self-compassion course aimed at increasing self-compassion and reducing maladaptive perfectionism, anxiety, depression, and unhealthy body image. Self-compassion is the ability to show oneself kindness in instances of perceived inadequacy, failure, and suffering by attending to distressing experiences with kindness, mindfulness, and the ability to recognize these as a part of a shared humanity. Twelve participants will be randomly selected for pre- and post interviews to qualitatively evaluate outcome. Ten participants with high perfectionistic tendencies will be selected to participate in a narrative life story interview.