Can our evolutionary past help explain, and offer solutions to the mental health problems we face today?

In this talk, Professor Paul Gilbert OBE – the Founder of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), will discuss the evolutionary sources of common mental health problems.

The talk will explore how our minds have developed to be highly sensitive and quick to react to perceived threats, and how this fast-acting threat-response system can be a source of anxiety, depression and aggression. Professor Gilbert will then discuss the latest scientific research about how purposefully cultivating our evolved capacities for compassion and altruism can offer a solution.

Professor Paul Gilbert OBE is a British clinical psychologist, and the founder of compassion focused therapy (CFT), compassionate mind training (CMT) and author of books such as The Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life’s Challenges and Overcoming Depression.

Before retirement Gilbert was head of the Mental Health Research Unit, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. He remains Professor at the University of Derby. In 2011 Gilbert was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his continued contribution in mental healthcare.