Self-Compassion & Persistent Pain - Insights from New Research

Imagine living with chronic pain—not just the physical ache, but the emotional weight that comes with it. Now imagine if being kinder to yourself could help ease that burden.

Sounds far-fetched? According to research, it’s not.

A 2019 study published in the European Journal of Pain found that self-compassion is strongly linked to better psychological and physical functioning in people living with persistent pain. In fact, it was a better associated with well-being than pain intensity itself.

Let’s break down the science—and why this matters for both patients and healthcare professionals.

The Science: What the Study Found

Researchers examined over 300 adults seeking treatment at a UK interdisciplinary pain clinic. Each participant completed measures on pain intensity, depression, disability, pain acceptance, coping strategies, and self-compassion.

Here’s what they found:

• Higher self-compassion = better functioning across all eight health domains measured.

• It was associated with less depression, pain anxiety, and disability, and more pain acceptance, value-based living, and effective coping.

• Even after controlling for pain intensity, duration, age, and gender, self-compassion remained a strong and unique predictor of functioning.

In numbers:

• Self-compassion scores explained 32% of the variance in depression severity,

• 29% in pain acceptance,

• 27% in psychosocial functioning,

• 23% in pain-related anxiety and coping.

What Is Self-Compassion, Anyway?

Coined by researcher Kristin Neff, self-compassion involves three key elements:

1. Mindful awareness – Actually being aware you are suffering

2. Common humanity – Recognising suffering is part of the human experience and rather than being isolating, our suffering connects us to others

3. Self-kindness – Being warm and understanding with yourself during pain or failure.

This isn’t self pity. Self compassion considers suffering from the perspective of a universal human experience. It’s about recognising and responding to pain without adding self-criticism, shame, or isolation on top of it, with the same kindness you'd naturally show a friend if they were in pain.

Correlation ≠ Correlation

This study was cross sectional. They took a snapshot in time and saw that self compassion was associated with wellbeing, but that does not mean that higher self compassion scores necessarily caused the improved wellbeing scores in this study.

Fortunately, Torrijos-Zarcero et al., (2021) did a randomised controlled trial to test if a Mindful Self-Compassion program causes wellbeing improvements for people living with persistent pain. They found training self compassion improves self compassion and also anxiety symptoms, pain interference and pain acceptance more than Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

Another randomised controlled trial by Zheng et al., (2024) showed that combining self compassion therapy with exercise for persistent lower back pain improved pain related disability, average pain intensity and the peak pain severity significantly more than the group doing exercise alone, when they measured the outcomes one year later.

Practical Relevance

You don’t need to “think your way out” of pain—but you can train your brain to relate differently to it.

Practicing self-compassion may:

• Reduce emotional reactivity to pain

• Increase your willingness to engage in valued activities

• Help you feel more connected, less alone, and more in control

Self-compassion helps with secondary suffering—the emotional pain we pile on top of physical pain

How to Cultivate Self-Compassion

For this I would advise exploring Dr. Neff's website, which you can access by clicking here👈

Compassion Is Not Soft—It’s Scientific

These studies show how you relate to your pain matters. Self-compassion isn’t weakness —it’s neurobiological self-defense.

References

• Edwards, K. A., Pielech, M., Hickman, J., Ashworth, J., Sowden, G., & Vowles, K. E. (2019). The relation of self-compassion to functioning among adults with chronic pain. European journal of pain (London, England), 23(8), 1538–1547. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1429

• Torrijos-Zarcero, M., Mediavilla, R., Rodríguez-Vega, B., Del Río-Diéguez, M., López-Álvarez, I., Rocamora-González, C., & Palao-Tarrero, Á. (2021). Mindful Self-Compassion program for chronic pain patients: A randomized controlled trial. European journal of pain (London, England), 25(4), 930–944. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1734

• Zheng, F., Liu, S., Yin, Q., Zheng, Y., Yang, J., Huang, H., Chen, L., Wang, Y., Chen, X., & Wang, C. (2024). Long-term impact of self-compassion training with core stability exercise on patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of psychosomatic research, 181, 111678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.111678