The Compassion Initiative: Just Two Guys in Brisbane talking Compassion. www.thecompassioninitiative.com.au

"When I work with kids, I see that goodness. The first question when a child comes into my office, I go, 'Tell me what your superpowers are. What do you love? What is the stuff you can do without anyone even teaching you?'"

Chris Fraser is the Co-founder of the Compassionate Mind Collaborative and the owner of Positive Path Counseling based in Dublin, Ohio. He is also the author of Freedom: How Teens Can Use Mindful Compassion to Thrive in a Chaotic World and Grow a Purpose-driven Life.

Since 1996, he has served a variety of individual clients, couples, and families in both public and private settings. Chris has a passion for and an expertise in helping children, teens, and adults develop compassionate mind skills and how to use these skills to be the best versions of themselves.

Time Stamps:

5.03 Tell us a bit about yourself, your work, your life.

9.01 "When I work with kids, I see that goodness."

11.31 The insights of Buddhism.

13.24 Starting on the journey of compassion for self and others.

17.26 Becoming a therapist.

24.13 Bringing life experiences to working with others who are suffering.

28.57 The minds of others.

32.24 The mind is a shit magnet armed with a shit stick.

36.16 Most of the time, other people aren't watching and judging us.

39.44 Being active when working with adolescents.

41.52 Bringing the psychoeducation of CFT to life with activity and embodiment.

47.08 What are three tips you would offer others who are making their way on their own compassionate journey?

49.58 How can people find you and engage with you and your work?

Website:

https://www.cmcollab.com/

Book:

https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Mindful-Compassion-Chaotic-Purpose-driven/dp/0578526956/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Freedom%20by%20Chris%20Fraser&qid=1613411966&sr=8-1

"All things start with small steps, and that's a learning in compassion; great things come with small steps."

Dr Clodagh Dowling is a practicing Clinical Psychologist and Director of Psychology at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services. She has learned a great deal from former and current colleagues who introduced CFT to St Patrick’s Mental Health Services where a vibrant array of CFT programmes are now delivered.

In 2014 the Psychology Department introduced a general CFT programme delivered to service users with mental health difficulties. This programme is now in its 30th cycle. Specialist CFT programmes for psychosis, eating disorders and complex trauma were also developed. Clodagh’s clinical work and research are with these latter two programmes. She regularly trains other professionals. She is a committee member of the Irish Branch of the Compassionate Mind Foundation.

Time Stamps:

3.17 Tell us a bit about yourself, your work, your life.

12.24 What is some of the history of St Patrick's Mental Health Service?

15.34 Tell us about your early exposure to compassion focused therapy.

17.53 How do you balance the three flows of compassion as a therapist?

23.23 What are some of your insights from running CFT groups with people suffering from eating disorders?

30.48 What sort of work do you do with multiple selves?

34.44 What has been your experience with the CFT groups for trauma?

43.13 Working with self-criticism and shame in CFT groups.

45.42 Enhancing engagement with CFT groups.

48.11 What are three tips you would offer others who are making their way on their own compassionate journey?

50.43 How can people find you and engage with you and your work?

Websites:

St Patrick’s Mental Health Services - www.stpatricks.ie

Walk in My Shoes - www.walkinmyshoes.ie

Compassionate Mind Ireland - https://irishcentreforcompassionfocusedtherapy.com/compassionate-mind-ireland

Social Media:

Twitter - @stpatricks

Facebook - @StPatricksMhs

Instagram - @stpatricks_wims

YouTube - St Patrick’s Mental Health Services

LinkedIn - St Patrick’s Mental Health Services

Journal Articles:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/capr.12283

Other services in Ireland:

Katie Baird's practice

https://irishcentreforcompassionfocusedtherapy.com/

Roisin Joyce’s practice

https://www.ebtc.ie/compassion-focused-therapy/

"If I can help other people who are interested in the model understand it and then transfer that to then being helpful to other people or enhancing their already wonderful skills...then I feel like I have done something of value."

Greg Samuelson is a registered nurse and registered psychotherapist in Ontario, Canada. He works with individuals and groups, including from a CFT perspective, as well as providing clinical supervision to other therapists. He is co-founder of the Canadian Network of Compassion Focused therapy, aimed at bringing people together across Canada to facilitate the learning and dissemination of CFT. He is a practitioner and teacher of Zen Meditation in the Ganhwasoen tradition, and has trained and taught marital arts of 20 years.

Fierce compassion, radically embodied compassion, and drawing on martial arts to practice stability, groundedness, flexibility and distress tolerance for therapists.

Dr Syd Hiskey has an academic background in trauma psychology and more recently compassion based therapeutic approaches. He has worked in the NHS as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, with adult and older adult clients in secondary and tertiary mental health settings in North Essex (UK). He is currently in full-time private practice. He has practised a wide range of martial arts for the last two decades, originally focusing on Wing Chun Kung Fu (in which he has a black sash) and Mixed Self Defence/Martial Arts (Hybrid Defence).

Time Stamps:

2.36 Tell us a bit about yourself, your work, your life.

12.25 Your journey into compassion and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)

20.33 How do you use Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) in your work?

27.26 What are some of the biggest challenges working with Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)?

33.52 Fierce compassion and radically embodied compassion through martial arts.

47.46 What are three tips you would offer others who are making their way on their own compassionate journey?

51.15 How can people find you and engage with you and your work?

Websites:

https://www.sydhiskey.com/

https://www.fiercecompassionmartialarts.com/

Journal Articles:

Clapton, N. & Hiskey, S. (2020) Radically Embodied Compassion: The Potential Role of Traditional Martial Arts in Compassion Cultivation. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.555156, 1-5.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.555156/full

Hiskey, S. & Clapton, N. (2019) Rolling with the punches: The martial arts as a vehicle for personal and therapist self-development. Private Practice, September, 6-9.

Hiskey, S. & Clapton, N. (2019) The martial arts and embodied distress tolerance in psychological therapy. International Journal of Martial Arts, Volume 5, Article 4.

A 10 minute compassionate-self practice

Happy New Year from The Compassion Initiative Podcast! Episode 1 for 2021 features Stan without James (who is busy writing grants!), talking about compassion and compassionate action, motivation and motivational interviewing, working with fears, blocks and resistances to compassion, and evoking compassion motivation language and wisdom talk--all in preparation of commitment and action, bringing compassion to the world!

After a rather long hiatus, James and Stan are back together to discuss the dissemination of CFT, through YouTube, social media...and new polo shirts! Oh, and Stan teases his new book...The Gifts of Compassion...coming out soon!

After the assessment, case formulation and treatment planning of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), the CFT therapist often moves onto introducing compassion, the definition of compassion from the CFT perspective, and the multidimensional model of the compassionate mind. In this video, Dr Stan Steindl introduces these concepts, the CFT definition of compassion, and the attributes and skills of the compassionate mind, all of which become the basis of CFT treatment.

While compassion focused therapy, or CFT, is concerned with psychoeducation and skills building, an essential aspect to it is the therapeutic relationship. It’s so important for the CFT therapist to listen well, and create a relationship where the person they’e working with feels heard and understood, and feels safe. Certain key listening skills help to facilitate guided discovery, helping people feel safe enough to explore and understand themselves, the way their minds, and the minds of others, work, and to start to relate to themselves and others in a way that’s motivated by compassion. Guided discovery is at the heart of CFT. In this video, Dr Stan Steindl discusses some of the finer points of the therapeutic relationship in CFT, and the listening skills that can really help with that. The original YouTube video can be found here: https://youtu.be/RLXy0GDjGYE

In this video, Dr Stan Steindl explores how to construct a CFT case formulation, incorporating historical influences, key fears, safety strategies and defensive behaviours, unintended consequences and relating to self and others. An important part of CFT is to collaboratively create a case formulation with the person they are working with to develop mind awareness and understanding, and to help de-blame and de-shame right from the start. The original video can be found here https://youtu.be/Sw_2yeNsfVU