Caring from the Center. A Practical Guide to Self-Compassionate Care:  Psychoeducational Groups for Caregivers

Carmen Lledó Rando; Maria Pilar Moreno Jiménez; Maria Luisa Ríos Rodríguez

doi:10.24310/mumaedmumaed.264

Caring from the Center. A Practical Guide to Self-Compassionate Care: Psychoeducational Groups for Caregivers

Authors

Carmen Lledó Rando

Universidad de Málaga

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4214-2501

Maria Pilar Moreno Jiménez

Universidad de Málaga

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3076-2826

Maria Luisa Ríos Rodríguez

Universidad de Málaga

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-373X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24310/mumaedmumaed.264

Keywords:

cuidadores, caregivers, autocuidado, selfcare, autocompasión, self-compassion, psicología, psychology, grupos, groups

Synopsis

This manual is the result of the research project carried out by the HUM-207 group, funded by the University of Málaga’s 2023–2025 Second Research, Transfer, and Scientific Dissemination Plan, through the project Psychosocial research and intervention with informal caregivers: How to improve their quality of life.

The manual is intended for psychology professionals who wish to facilitate psychoeducational self-care groups within non-profit organizations, as well as for caregivers of dependent individuals who, although aware of the need to take care of themselves, feel unable to attend in-person sessions and prefer to engage in the process from home. It is also aimed at students who want to become familiar with psychoeducational practices based on self-compassion.

The manual presents a program specifically designed for people caring for dependent family members, serving as a practical guide. Throughout the different sessions, participants are invited to engage in an individual journey through self-compassion-based self-care practices. The content draws inspiration from the techniques developed by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer, focusing on self-compassion practices and the obstacles encountered in self-care, while taking sociocultural factors into account.

Approaching the topic from a social psychology perspective aims to encourage reflection on how social dynamics influence individual mechanisms such as self-criticism, social isolation, and a particularly common issue among caregivers: over-identification. This refers to a pattern of thought that is hyper-focused on meeting the needs of the cared-for person, leading, on the one hand, to neglecting one’s own needs and, on the other, to the development of caregiver overload syndrome, accompanied by deep subjective distress and feelings of guilt.

In our previous theoretical research, we have demonstrated that developing self-compassion has a positive impact on improving quality of life. With this proposal, we set out to create a practical intervention roadmap specifically based on self-compassion. As caregivers and psychology professionals, we recognize that there are other approaches to fostering self-care strategies among caregivers. However, we believe that cultivating self-compassion fosters a way of relating to ourselves that goes beyond simply “doing” and focuses instead on “knowing–understanding–identifying” what we need to feel better.

In doing so, we develop metacognitive skills that we consider to be a powerful driver of deep change, which are not present in other self-care approaches.

This proposal is developed through the creation of a psychoeducational group, replicating the experience carried out in Málaga between May and June 2025. The manual describes the activities implemented with a group of 17 participants over six sessions, each lasting two and a half hours. It serves simultaneously as a theoretical explanation and a practical workbook, indicating pauses for exercises. In addition, it includes a complementary bibliography that allows readers to further explore the development of self-compassion and mindfulness.

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