Employing Loving-Kindness Meditation to Promote Self- and Other-Compassion Among War Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract: In this paper, we described how we have recently incorporated compassion training in the form of Loving Kindness Meditation into an existing psychotherapy for war-related PTSD called Adaptive Disclosure. We provided background to support the assumption that targeting compassion deficits in war-related trauma may improve mental and behavioral health by helping patients engage in adaptive and potentially reparative behaviors, particularly improving social connections. We also described how compassion training may help veterans suffering from traumatic loss and moral injury, specifically. Throughout, we provide clinical heuristics that may help care providers who work with veterans who have experienced diverse war traumas.