Anna was overwhelmed by the administrative burden of her job. Self-compassion was the answer

‘Anna would find herself caught in a cycle of good intentions, well-made plans, paralysing procrastination, a failure to stick to her plan, and a lot of shame and self-recrimination.’ Photograph: Tetra Images/Alamy

A central tension in psychotherapy is the interplay between acceptance and change. People usually seek therapy because they wish to alter some aspect of their lives. Yet, at its core, therapeutic change often begins with reaching an acceptance that suffering, distress and imperfections are an inherent part of the human experience.

While this tension is at the heart of all therapies, there are two forms of therapy that explicitly target this interplay.