Compassion Focused Therapy Facillitator: Tammy Kontuk M.Sc. R.Psych

Session 1 Welcome and overview

Welcome.. We are so glad you are here… Goal of CFT: To develop a new type of

strength within.. The strength of compassion

Overview of CFT Getting to know each other:

Say a bit about yourself What you hope to get from the program

How do we work together? Guidelines for group safety, treatment agreement Things to consider for group readiness

Behavior that disrupts the group Expectations about whether it will help Ability to participate and share

Can opt out if this is not the time

You are always welcome back

Measuring success: Questionnaires

Self-compassion measure Compassion toward others measure Patient Health Questionnaire (for

depression) Generalized Anxiety Questionnaire (for

Anxiety)

CFT: Core Ideas Shame and Self-Criticism can be life-

long and crippling What is Shame?

“The painful emotional state related to thinking of the self as bad, undesirable, defective and worthless”

It can become central to our identities It can prevent us from contacting our

emotions

Core Ideas Shame can get in the way of other

treatments, and can result in more “stuckness”

Shame makes other emotional problems worse

Shame causes a “threat response” in the brain (more on this later)

Core Ideas: An example Father yelling at his children: Sees fear on faces of kids

Feels shame Focuses on his own inadequacy instead of

learning new ways, feels threatened Avoids the shame by becoming angry,

rationalizing his behavior (secondary emotion) blames his children

The cycle continues… sometimes for generations

Goal: Compassionate Self-correction Self-compassion doesn’t mean we don’t self

correct…. Example of self-compassion: “It makes sense I would struggle with parenting,

because of my own experiences, but it’s not the sort of parent I want to be, it’s time I committed to interacting with my kids differently.

Notice when you do something wrong.. Feel guilt, not shame, and turn the focus on doing better in the future

Compassion: The Strength to Move Toward the Pain Shame causes people to shut down and

turn away from the struggle Compassion help people to move

toward their pain and work through it in helpful ways

Compassion: Sensitivity to notice suffering and Motivation to help alleviate it

Moving toward the pain.. Instead of avoiding the pain we

maintain a warm, forgiving approach to suffering

CFT teaches us to be able to tolerate suffering (distress tolerance)

CFT teaches us to be skillful in order to be helpful to ourselves

We will develop the “compassionate self” our most wise, kind and confident selves

Shifting from Judgment to Understanding Instead of self-attacking, we try to

understand what has lead us here “it’s not about who you are, but what

has happened to you” We set the stage for compassion to arise

through understanding our journey, how we got here

Judgment to Understanding Our struggles are rooted in things that

we did not Choose or Design Move from blaming and shaming to

understanding and helping the self

The Evolution of our Brain… Emotions are grouped into three types,

according to their function in evolution: Threat (identifying and responding) Reward (pursuing goals and rewards) Safeness, contentedness, peace,

connection Behavior makes sense when we see how

it meets evolutionary needs i.e. Sweet, salty fatty foods…

Evolved brains… Our brains are old and tricky… they

work in ways that we didn’t choose or design Make quick connections Future and past focused Attention to threat or danger dominates

We want to move from something is wrong with me to I understand this is how my brain works

Early life experiences Early experiences shape how well we

can regulate our emotions and to help ourselves feel safe

Early environments can teach us to fear the connection with others that we need to feel safe and worthy

The way we learn to respond to early environments is Not our Fault.

Learning to Feel Safe… Learning the “how and why” of emotions

helps us to make sense of them Compassion allows us to approach our

difficult emotions and work them out instead of avoiding them

Compassion allows us to begin to form warm, nurturing relationships with others: the foundation for feeling safe in the world