Research into the beneficial effect of developing compassion has advanced enormously in the last ten years, with the development of inner compassion being an important therapeutic focus and goal. This book explains how Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) – a process of developing compassion for the self and others to increase well-being and aid recovery – varies from other forms of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Comprising 30 key points this book explores the founding principles of CFT and outlines the detailed aspects of compassion in the CFT approach. Divided into two parts – Theory and Compassion Practice – this concise book provides a clear guide to the distinctive characteristics of CFT. Compassion Focused Therapy will be a valuable source for students and professionals in training as well as practising therapists who want to learn more about the distinctive features of CFT.

Compassion Focused Therapy: Clinical Practice and Applications offers evidence-based guidance and extensive insight into the science behind compassion focused therapy. The first section of the book explores the evolution and physiological infrastructures of caring, and how compassion arises when humans use their complex cognitive competencies to address suffering deliberately and intentionally. With this framework and basis, the next sections of the book explore CFT applied to groups, specific interventions such as chair work, the importance of applying the principles of the therapy to oneself, the CFT therapeutic relationship, and a chapter offering a systematic review of the evidence for CFT. The third section offers a series of multi-authored chapters on interventions for a range of different mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and many others. Being the first major clinical book on compassion focused therapy, with leading international researchers and clinicians addressing central problems, this landmark publication will appeal to psychotherapists from a variety of schools as well as being a vital resource for compassion focused therapists.

Leading depression authority Paul Gilbert presents The Compassionate Mind, a breakthrough book integrating evolutionary psychology, new insights from neuroscience, and mindfulness practice. This combination of techniques forms a new therapy called compassion focused therapy that can enhance readers' lives.

Are you ready to transform your mind and emotions? To cultivate compassion, stability, self-confidence, and well-being? If so, get ready to change the way you experience your life with this highly-anticipated approach using mindfulness and compassion. Therapists have long been aware of mindfulness as a powerful attention skill that can help us live with greater clarity and awareness—but mindfulness alone is not enough to completely change the way a brain works. In order to fully thrive, we require motivation. Compassion, like anger or aggression, is an extremely powerful motivational force that can bring about real, lasting change. Written by the founder of compassion-focused therapy (CFT), Paul Gilbert and former Buddhist monk, Choden, Mindful Compassion is a unique blending of evolutionary and Buddhist psychology. In this breakthrough book, you’ll learn how traditional mindfulness and compassion can work in harmony to offer a new, effective, and practical approach to overcoming everyday emotional and psychological problems. If you are ready to end toxic self-criticism, heal trauma and shame, feel worthy and loveable, and be kinder to yourself and others, this book can show you the way.

For the first time ever, CFT Made Simple offers easy-to-apply tools to help clients develop self-compassion, learn mindfulness skills, and balance difficult emotions for greater treatment outcomes. Created by world-renowned psychologist Paul Gilbert, compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is extremely effective in helping clients work through painful feelings of shame and self-criticism. However, the theoretical aspects of this therapy—such as evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, and affective neuroscience—can make CFT difficult to grasp. This book provides everything you need to start implementing CFT in practice, either as a primary therapy modality or as an adjunctive approach to other therapies, such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and more. CFT has unique strengths, and is especially effective in helping clients work through troubling thoughts and behaviors, approach themselves and others with greater compassion and kindness, and feel safer and more confident in their ability to handle life’s challenges and difficulties. This book articulates the theoretical basis of the therapy in simple, easy-to-follow language, and offers practical guidance and strategies on how to tailor your CFT approach to specific client populations. As a clinician interested in the benefits of CFT but wary of the dense theoretical principles that lay behind it, you need a user-friendly guide that will let you hit the ground running. CFT Made Simple is that guide.

For therapists wishing to build their skills in compassion-focused therapy (CFT), this powerful workbook presents a unique evidence-based training approach. Self-practice/self-reflection (SP/SR) enables therapists to apply CFT techniques to themselves and reflect on the experience as they work through 34 brief, carefully crafted modules. The authors are master trainers who elucidate the multiple layers of CFT, which integrates cognitive-behavioral therapy, evolutionary science, mindfulness, and other approaches. Three extended therapist examples serve as companions throughout the SP/SR journey. In a large-size format for easy photocopying, the volume includes 24 reproducible forms. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print most of the reproducible materials.

Although many people who have survived trauma, abuse, and violent situations understand on a logical level that the traumatic events they experienced were not their fault, shame may still underlie their feelings and fuel post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related psychological difficulties. For example, women who are victims of domestic abuse are often so paralyzed with the stigma of shame associated with their abuse, they don’t seek help. The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Recovering from Trauma and PTSD helps readers reduce the sense of threat they constantly feel and develop a fuller understanding of their reactions to trauma by cultivating compassion for themselves and others. The practical exercises based in compassion-focused therapy (CFT) that are offered in this book help readers gradually confront and overcome trauma-related behaviors. This approach invites readers who have undergone a traumatic experience to develop compassion for themselves and others, a sense of safety, and the ability to self-soothe when difficult memories or emotions arise. Written by an international expert on PTSD treatment, this book will prove to be an essential resource for therapists specializing in the treatment of trauma and anyone in the process of healing from a traumatic experience.