Preparing for Eating Disorders Treatment Through Compassionate Letter-Writing

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.

NCT Number	NCT04174703
Lead Sponsor	University of Waterloo Collaborators: St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
Conditions	Eating Disorders, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge-Eating Disorder, Compassion
Enrollment	160 participants
Start Date	2020-09-29
Primary Completion	2026-12 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-12 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-01-28