Lisa Shapira
Lisa B. Shapira is the first author of a 2010 online trial that compared a week of self-compassionate letter writing against an optimism exercise and against a control writing task. It is the most practically useful intervention study in this publication's self-compassion file, and its honest reading is more interesting than the one usually reported.
Who they are
No affiliation is stated here. No faculty page or current institutional record was located for her in the vault's pass, and house practice is to leave the post blank rather than guess at one. Her co-author on the 2010 paper is Myriam Mongrain.
The trial ran three groups: self-compassionate letter writing, an optimism exercise, and a control group writing about an early memory. Each did their exercise daily for a week, with follow-ups at one week, one month, three months and six months.
Key papers
Shapira, L. B., & Mongrain, M. (2010). "The benefits of self-compassion and optimism exercises for individuals vulnerable to depression", The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(5), 377 to 389. First author. Self-compassionate letter writing, 63 participants; optimism exercise, 55; control writing about an early memory, 70. Daily for one week, with follow-ups to six months.
Key ideas
The self-compassion exercise did not beat the optimism exercise. Both beat writing about an early memory. What the trial supports, then, is that a short, structured, daily writing practice helps, not that self-compassion specifically is the active ingredient.
That is a better and more usable finding than the one normally quoted, because it is the one somebody can act on without first having to believe a particular theory.
The follow-ups are the unusual part. Happiness gains were still visible at six months, and reductions in depressive symptoms held to three. Most writing studies stop long before that.
The comparison condition is what gives the result its shape. Had she only compared against the control writing task, this would look like strong evidence for self-compassion. She did not, and it does not.
Concepts on this site
Find them elsewhere
Nothing confirmed. A search was run and no website or account could be tied to this person with enough certainty to publish. A name match on its own is not evidence, and a wrong link here would be worse than none.
No faculty page or current institutional record was located for her. The 2010 paper is with Myriam Mongrain. Affiliation deliberately left blank rather than guessed
Checked 2026-09-11. Handles and affiliations go out of date, so treat this block as a snapshot rather than a standing fact.
Sources
- Shapira, L. B., & Mongrain, M. (2010). The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(5), 377 to 389.
- Vault note, 2026-09-11. Affiliation not verified and deliberately not asserted.