Development and evaluation of a mindfulness and compassion program for youth with psychotic experiences

Using best practice guidelines a mindfulness and compassion program (called MAC-P for short) for youth with psychotic experiences was developed and evaluated. The program consists of eight weekly sessions of 90 minutes duration. A small study was conducted to compare the well-being of participants before and after the program and 6 weeks later. The results indicated the program might promote increases in self-compassion, mindfulness and day-to-day functioning while reducing mood, anxiety and distress. The results also highlighted a number of areas that might have an impact on long-term outcome. Future studies are warranted to evaluate the program on a larger scale.