Kind to my Body: A study of feelings towards your body in women with Breast Cancer

The project design is a three-group blind randomised controlled designed with two intervention groups: • Group 1: My Changed Body Writing (MyCB) • Group 2: My Changed Body Writing plus meditation (MyCB + Meditation) All writing activities and study questionnaires will be completed online via the secure Qualtrics portal run through Macquarie University with no direction from personnel. Meditations will be downloadable from the Qualtrics portal and via participant emails (for those in group 2 only). The My Changed Body is an evidence-based web-based writing intervention designed to address body image concerns arising from breast cancer surgery and treatment (Sherman et al., 2018). Participants in both of the MyCB writing condition will complete the condition over two sessions, directly following the baseline and 1 month survey. Participant reminder emails will be sent to ensure adherance. The first session will be conducted directly after completing the baseline questionnaires and entails the complete MyCB activity, which is a self-paced writing activity that is estimated to take approximately 30 min to complete. Six writing prompts are provided: (1) an introductory unstructured writing section where individuals write about a negative body image experience according to a modified Pennebaker (Pennebaker & Seagal, 1999) writing prompt; (2) treatment of one’s body with kindness; (3) kind advice to oneself; (4) connection with others who experience difficulties with body image; (5) awareness of one’s circumstances and reactions in a broader context; and, (6) a self-compassionate letter to the writer that acts as a summary of the most salient points of self-compassion as applied to one’s own situation. Thus, the intervention user addresses self-kindness, common humanity and mindful awareness, as outlined by self-compassion research. The second session will be conducted directly following the 1-month follow-up questionnaires and entail participants completing a brief version of the MyCB writing activity, which will take approximately 10min. Participants will be asked to repeat only step 6 of the writing process, which is to write a self-compassionate letter to themselves. In addition to the protocol outlined above for Group #1 Intervention, participants in Group #2 will complete meditations over two-time periods. Firstly, following the final baseline questionnaires, participants will be provided a link to download an audio file of a self-compassion based meditation. The meditation will also be emailed to their nominated account. The 5 minute meditation can be saved to the mobile or digital device. Participants will be instructed to listen to the meditation either sitting or laying down, in a quiet and uninterrupted space, each day, for the following three weeks. To maximise compliance, participants will receive a daily SMS reminder to listen to the audio recording. Upon completion of the 1-month questionnaires and MyCB writing activity, participants will be asked to listen to the same meditation either sitting or lying down, in a quiet and uninterrupted space, each day, for the following three weeks. To maximise compliance, participants will receive a daily SMS reminder to listen to the audio recording.