This project was funded by the Commonwealth Government Program and supported by Rekindling the Spirit (Lismore), Bullinah Aboriginal Medical Service (Ballina) and Namatjira Haven Rehabilitation Centre (Alstonville).
This project commenced in 2019 and concluded in 2023.
This project focused on exploring whether compassion focused therapy (CFT) could be of value for Indigenous Australians. Although CFT has a growing evidence base, there have been few studies outside of an Anglo-European cultural context. This pilot study looked at what kind of cultural adaptations might be needed to ensure CFT group processes would meet the needs of Indigenous Australians. To do this, we developed a strong culturally appropriate, Indigenous-adapted model of compassion focused therapy, which was termed Arts-based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST). ABCST conveyed the principles and practices of CFT through visual arts, delivered in groups. An eight-session program was created; a participants’ manual was developed; outcomes were written up in a journal paper and conveyed at important conferences, including the Lowitja 2023 Conference; and a trainer’s manual was developed for further dissemination. ABCST has now been adopted and incorporated by two of the organisations which participated in the project.
Our aim from the outset was to create a culturally appropriate co-designed program that would meet the needs of the various groups to whom it was being offered. In practice, this ranged from men’s groups for men with drug and alcohol problems in a residential drug and alcohol program to a women’s group in the community and an online health professionals’ group in 2020.
The eight-session manualised culturally appropriate program allowed for adaptation to different contexts. Adaptations were typically in response to participant or health worker feedback, or service needs. For instance, the program afforded sufficient flexibility that at different times it was offered as an eight session, six session, or one day workshop program.
The Participants’ Manual and Trainer’s Manual were key outputs, guiding the sessions. For example, in each session, participants can follow their Manual, which includes illustrative pictures, ideas, tips, parts to be filled in, pages for reflection, and between-session practices. The Trainer’s Manual was developed through a co-design workshop at Namatjira Haven. This was attended by health professionals from the three collaborating services, as well by other key stakeholders. It helped us create a training and mentoring model to enable Aboriginal health professionals to develop the skills to run the program via a four-stage model.
We also developed a novel method of Quantitative Measurement. As we facilitated three co-design workshops dedicated to creating more effective ways to engage participants with quantitative measures, this was something important to emerge. Previous work with the linear rating scale methods of quantitative measurement typically used in outcome studies indicated that these had not worked well with the Namatjira Haven population. Accordingly, we developed a new method of measurement which used a bullseye/dartboard tool.
While the timing of this project coincided with major disruptions (COVD and devastating flooding), we were able to deliver Arts-based Compassion Focused Therapy Groups for Aboriginal and Torres Strait clients in three locations (Namatjira Haven, Bullinah and an online version).
“just helped me be more compassionate with myself… At the start of this course, I got asked, what is compassion? I really didn’t know. And now I know what compassion is, you know. That’s kind of helped me that and I think some of the other fellows didn’t even really know either. You know, we just knew the word, but we didn’t know what it meant to us, what it meant to myself.“
