This workshop will be 7 hours towards your CPD, and you will receive a certificate of attendance shortly after the workshop via email. Handouts will be sent via email to be brought to the workshop. There will be no formal registration. You will be placed in a waiting room once you click on the link and the CMF Team will add you to the meeting.
This workshop is priced at a flat rate of £115.00. For those in difficult financial circumstances, who may struggle to afford this price, please contact hello@compassionatemind.co.uk
All timings are according to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT): 09:30 - 16:30
This intermediate workshop is aimed at therapists who have already have experience of applying CFT in clinical practice. However, we would also welcome therapists with experience of working in pain services or applying CFT to similar clinical populations. Please feel free to email to check course requirements.
Compassion Focused Therapy for Pain Management
Psychological approaches to Pain Management have been well-established for over 50 years and there is strong evidence that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is effective in treating pain and pain-related distress. The main CBT model of pain is the “fear-avoidance model” (Vlayen et al 2012) and this is the basis of currently recommended combined physiotherapy and psychological treatment, ideally delivered in a group setting as Pain Management Programme (PMP).
The CBT-based fear avoidance approach focuses upon stress-related reactions to pain, involving “threat” system responses similar to the red circle of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). However, this model fails to address the very common problem of “striving” or “boom and bust” approach to activity, that occurs when people tend to make the most of a good day but this serves only to exacerbate their pain, leading to “flare-ups’ caused by over-activity.
This is the main new development that CFT can bring to pain management, helping people to understand their “striving” reaction to chronic pain, which involves the “drive” reaction or blue circle of CFT.
CFT helps people to understand this urge to engage in over-activity with unintended consequences, CFT encourages them to develop soothing rhythm breathing and wiser, more compassionate coping strategies, encouraging them to believe that they deserve to be happy and free from suffering.
Ultimately, the CFT approach to pain management helps people to formulate the origins of their own self-critical thoughts and striving behaviours, allowing them to make better choices about how they want to live their lives, to regain their confidence and feel proud of themselves again. Whilst individual goals will differ, most people are keen to have a life that is worth living again even though pain is likely to still be there in the background.
Key learning objectives
- Compassion Based Approaches to Pain Management: 3 systems model of chronic pain, understanding both threat and striving as “boom and bust” exacerbating factors
- Opportunities for personal practice of the compassion-based exercises
- CFT for Pain Management – understanding shame as a driver for over-activity; how to use multiple selves formulations to understand unhelpful reactions to pain: how do we develop a Compassionate Self to work with our anxious, angry and critical responses to pain
- Opportunities to practice formulating multiple selves, Lesley and Zoey will role play a case and ask you to formulate in breakout groups
- Opportunity to bring your own pain cases and apply CFT to them
- To use CFT model to consider your own and your team’s reactions to this case and the unintended consequences
- Supporting other members of the team to apply compassion-focused approaches within an MDT setting
- CFT for Pain groups: Sharing outcomes and discussion of how to set up your own CFT for pain management group within your service
Online over Zoom
Armitage, L & Malpus Z (2019) Compassion Focused Therapy for Strivers in Pain: Guest Editorial in Pain and Rehabilitation Journal of Pain Physiotherapy Association: Issue 47 p6-11
Malpus, Z, Nazar, Z, Smith, C & Armitage L (2022) Compassion Focused Therapy for Pain Management: The ”3 systems approach” to understanding why striving and self-criticism are key barriers to regulating activity and improving self-care for people living with persistent pain British Journal of Pain 0(0) p1-16
Parry S & Malpus Z (2017) Reconnecting the mind and body: A pilot study of developing
compassion for persistent pain Patient Experience Journal 4(1):1: p145-153
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Yes, towards the bottom of the page under the 'prices' section you will find a link to download a booking form for this workshop. Please fill this in and email to Binita.Shah@compassionatemind.co.uk
All attendees will received a certificate upon completion of the course. This will be emailed to you, so please ensure that your details are correct on registration.
Our staff will take a register on each day of the workshop and any non-attendees will not receive a certificate. If you are unable to attend for any reason, please get in touch at hello@compassionatemind.co.uk
All delegates signed up to the workshop will receive the joining links, instructions, handouts and any extra resources and information via email. We send these roughly a week before the workshop start date.
Yes, this workshop will be recorded on zoom. Once the workshop has finished all delegates will receive a follow-up email with the links to view these along with any extra resources. These will be available to view for around 3 months post-event. The recordings are edited, so will be made available roughly a week after the workshop has finished.
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All places booked for our event, must be paid for prior to attending the event unless pre-agreed with management. Please note that we cannot confirm your place until we have received payment.
Should you be unable to attend the event, please contact our admin team as soon as possible via hello@compassionatemind.co.uk. Refunds, less the Eventbrite administration fee, will be made if cancellations are received in writing up to one month before the event. Any cancellations received after this time will not be eligible for a refund, although we will consider exceptional circumstances. While refunds for failure to attend cannot be made, you can transfer your event fee to a future event that will take place within 12 months of your booking without an additional penalty.
Please note that information about the event and venue are subject to change and cancellation. Occasionally, an event may have to be cancelled or postponed. We will endeavour to inform you of any changes and cancellations as soon as possible via email. We cannot take responsibility for any resulting costs you may incur for travel, accommodation, any other related goods or service or other compensation should an event cancellation occur.
For all face-to-face events, lunch provided at the event will be vegetarian and will include eggs, but no meat or fish (though vegan options will also be made available). However, please advise us of any dietary requirements in the notes section whilst booking online and we will do our best to accommodate your request.
Established as a charity in 2006, The Compassionate Mind Foundation (CMF) is the home of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Compassionate Mind Training (CMT), and the leading provider of trainings and research.
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