Study aim: Comparing the efficacy of compassion-focused therapy on depressive symptoms in individuals with severe and mild histories of childhood maltreatment Design: Clinical trial, with control and experimental groups, parallel, one-sided blind, on 48 patients. Settings and conduct: Initial sampling will be done by screening with Beck's Depression Inventory and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire In internal and external messengers in 2023. Then, according to the inclusion and non-inclusion criteria, 24 people are selected for the intervention group and 24 people for the control group. The intervention sessions will be held in groups and on the platform of virtual space. Participants/Inclusion and exclusion criteria: Inclusion: moderate to high score in the Beck Depression Inventory, subclinical symptoms of depression based on the diagnostic interview, and the ability of read and write; Non-inclusion: A mild to moderate score in each of the subscales of the childhood trauma questionnaire, receiving psychotherapy and starting pharmacotherapy in the last 2 months, Psychotic symptoms, personality disorder, substance, and alcohol-related disorders, and severe suicidal ideation. Intervention groups: In the experimental and control group, the compassion-focused therapy protocol developed by Gilbert will be used in 12 sessions. The two groups include people who have at least subclinical depression symptoms or who have scored medium to high scores in the Beck Depression Questionnaire. Still, their difference is that the experimental group members must have medium to high scores in at least one of the subscales of the childhood trauma questionnaire. In contrast, the control group includes people who did not get a mild high score in any of the subscales of the childhood trauma questionnaire. The questionnaires will be completed in a pre-test, post-test, and follow up after 2 months. Main outcome variables: Depressive symptoms