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The workshop will start at 9.30 and finish at 16.30.
To book this workshop, please scroll down to the bottom of our main conference page, and select the workshop option.
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Nearly all therapies recognise that helping clients deal with their fears and resistance to the process of change can be a central part of successful therapy. Freud identified a number of processes while behavioural therapy focuses on experiential and situational avoidance. CFT however also helps clients cultivate and utilise evolved motives for caring that come with particular psychophysiological profiles. These partly evolved out of the evolution of attachment. However, individuals who have come from ‘problematic’ backgrounds may have various trauma memories coded within the attachment system which can be activated through compassion process and needs to be addressed facilitating the big three emotions associated with these difficulties such as anger, anxiety and grief which can be central to the capacity to develop a compassionate mind.
We will explore
· Fears: Feels alien, doesn't feel right, not sure what will happen, makes me sad, could make me weak.
· Blocks: misunderstanding compassion, lack of insight, don't know what to do, lack of support.
· Resistances: too costly, don't deserve, negative consequences.
· Core steps to building a biopsychosocial approach to compassion cultivation.
To have:
· an overview of CFT.
· understand the importance of a biopsychosocial approach to compassion -why is it such a fundamental issue in therapeutic change.
· why compassion is feared.
· how to build a step by step the cultivation of a compassionate mind for self and others.
Gilbert, P. (2022). Formulation and fears, blocks and resistances. In P. Gilbert & G. Simos. (eds). Compassion Focused Therapy: Clinical Practice and Applications. London: Routledge.
Best, T., Herring, L., Clarke, C., Kirby, J., & Gilbert, P. (2021). The experience of loneliness: The role of fears of compassion and social safeness. Personality and Individual Differences, 183, 111161.
Crimston, C. R., Blessing, S., Gilbert, P., & Kirby, J. N. (2021). Fear leads to suffering: Fears of compassion predict restriction of the moral boundary. British Journal of Social Psychology.
Dentale, F., Petrocchi, N., Vecchione, M., Biagioli, C., Gennaro, A., & Violani, C. (2017). Factorial structure and construct validity of an Italian version of the Fears of Compassion Scales: A study on non‐clinical subjects. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 90(4), 735-750.
Duarte, J., McEwan, K., Barnes, C., Gilbert, P., & Maratos, F. A. (2015). Do therapeutic imagery practices affect physiological and emotional indicators of threat in high self‐critics?. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 88(3), 270-284.
Gilbert, P. (2019). Explorations into the nature and function of compassion. Current Opinion in Psychology, 28: 108-114.
Gilbert, P. (2009) Developing a compassion-focused approach in cognitive behavioural therapy. In G. Simos (ed) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: A Guide for the Practising Clinical, Volume Two. Hove, UK & New York, USA: Routledge
Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Catarino, F., & Baião, R. (2014). Fears of compassion in a depressed population: Implication for psychotherapy. Journal of Depression & Anxiety, S2:003
Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Catarino, F., Baião, R., & Palmeira, L. (2014). Fears of happiness and compassion in relationship with depression, alexithymia, and attachment security in a depressed sample. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 53(2), 228-244.
Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Gibbons, L., Chotai, S., Duarte, J., & Matos, M. (2012). Fears of compassion and happiness in relation to alexithymia, mindfulness, and self‐criticism. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 85(4), 374-390.
Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Matos, M., & Rivis, A. (2011). Fears of compassion: Development of three self‐report measures. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 84(3), 239-255.
Gilbert, P., & Mascaro, J. (2017). Compassion: Fears, blocks, and resistances: An evolutionary investigation. In Seppälä, E.M.; Simon-Thomas, E.; Brown, S.L.; Worline, M.C.; Cameron, C.D. & Doty, J.R. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science. Oxford University Press (USA)
Guo, M., Wang, J., Day, J., & Kirby, J. N. (2021). Validation of the fears of compassion scale in a Chinese cultural context. Mindfulness, 12(3), 683-692.
Irons, C., & Lad, S. (2017). Using compassion focused therapy to work with shame and self-criticism in complex trauma. Australian Clinical Psychologist, 3(1), 1743.
Kirby, J. N., Day, J., & Sagar, V. (2019). The ‘Flow’ of compassion: A meta-analysis of the fears of compassion scales and psychological functioning. Clinical Psychology Review, 70: 26-39.
Steindl, S., Bell, T., Dixon, A., & Kirby, J. N. (2022). Therapist perspectives on working with fears, blocks and resistances to compassion in compassion focused therapy. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research.
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Paul is the founder of Compassion Focused Therapy, and is the President of the Compassionate Mind Foundation, which he founded in 2006. He is an internationally renowned Professor of Clinical Psychology, who is particularly recognised for his expertise in the treatment of depression and shame. He has researched evolutionary approaches to psychopathology for over 35 years with a special focus on shame and the treatment of shame based difficulties, for which compassion focused therapy (CFT) was developed. He has written and edited 22 books, including the best selling The Compassionate Mind and Overcoming Depression, and his latest book Living Like Crazy. He was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare in March 2011.
