In Episode 5, Paul talks about the inhibitors to compassion, the fears, blocks and resistances. As Paul says, in compassion focused therapy working with fears, blocks and resistances is the work!

_____

Professor Paul Gilbert, OBE, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby, Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland Australia, Founder of the Compassionate Mind Foundation, and recently retired Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Derbyshire Health Care Foundation Trust.

Professor Gilbert has worked extensively as both therapist and researcher, and his experiences in both led him to develop compassion focused therapy, an evolutionary and bio-psycho-social approach to psychotherapy. He has published extensively, including numerous research articles, academic texts and self-help books.

One of his many considerable contributions to the science of compassion and compassion in therapy is the notion of fears, blocks and resistances to compassion, the inhibitors, or things that get in the way. He has written extensively about this concept, most notably in a 2011 paper where he and colleagues developed the Fears of Compassion Scale (see link below).

_____

Fears of compassion: Development of three self-report measures

by Paul Gilbert, Kirsten McEwan, Marcela Matos, Amanda Rivis (2011)

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1348/147608310X526511