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

"I am a human like you." Ross McIntosh is an organisational and coaching psychologist in the UK. He focuses on cultivating psychological well-being and flexibility in organisations and individuals. He’s worked for over 20 years senior HR roles in government, and now consults with organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as well as researching and lecturing at City, Universi...

"Compassion, not just for ourselves and those around us, but for other living creatures and the planet itself!" Dr Tara Hickey is a clinical psychologist in private practice at Victorian Counselling and Psychological Services (VCPS), as well as an adjunct research fellow at Monash University and University of Sydney. She recently completed her PhD on mindfulness and compassion, piloting and evalua...

“Compassion brings light and it brings hope into the darkest of stories.” Dr Mats Hogmark is a medical doctor specialising in general medicine at Darlana County Council in Sweden. He is also a motivational interviewing trainer and member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). He runs training and seminars on motivational interviewing and communication skills with professional...

“Music is a part of my identity, my work, my leisure, my humanness.” Matt Le Mare is a British Association of Music Therapy (BAMT) registered music therapist presently working with elders with dementia and a variety of private clients. Matt also trains music therapists at Derby University where he encountered compassion focussed therapy (CFT) and trained as a CFT practitioner with Paul Gilbert. Ma...

"Practicing and cultivating compassion throughout our whole lives." Dr Julia E. Wahl, PhD, psychologist, mindfulness and compassion trainer, lecturer, director of the post-grad studies in mindfulness and compassion at the Social Sciences and Humanities SWPS University in Poznań; director of the Mind Institute, Warsaw; Proactive Leadership Training Programme; CFT/CMT Poland; Professional Training P...

"The shame is not for survivors to carry." Dr Lisa McLean is a psychologist in private practice at Ocean Psychology, Sunshine Coast, Australia who provides support to adults across a wide range of mental health and other life concerns. Lisa offers a safe, warm, and compassionate space where clients are empowered to create positive change. Lisa has over twenty years’ experience working across priva...

"The suffering will be relieved and from this comes joy." Dr Isabelle Leboeuf is a psychologist and psychotherapist in France. In her clinical work, she integrates hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and compassion-focused therapy in working with people with a wide range of mental and physical health distress. She has a private practice in the North of France. Her PhD research proje...

Curiosity as an antidote to fearful imagining and an antidote to need for control. Natali Gumiy is a psychologist in private practice, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She specialises in mindfulness and compassion-based approaches, and works with individuals and families, as well as running group programs, including work with teachers and schools. Along with colleagues, she has established Motivación Comp...

"I'm trying to help people connect with their caring part, their caring motivation. 'I want to try this because it is going to help me, or help me to be with others,' rather than, 'I need to get rid of my anxiety.'" Elli Tholouli is a psychologist specializing in compassion focused therapy and compassionate mind training at www.compassioncentre.gr in Athens, Greece. She is an active member of the...

In this practice we work with 1) posture, 2) soothing rhythm breathing, 3) developing compassionate self. There is more space and less spoken word to the previous track I uploaded

"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 Te...

"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...

"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 a...

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 a...

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 co...

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...

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...

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...

In this video, Dr Stan Steindl discusses CFT assessments and offers tips regarding three things the CFT therapist keeps in mind while having that first assessment conversation with the person they are working with, as well as some suggested questionnaires the CFT therapist might use to inform their case formulation. The original video can be found here: https://youtu.be/gEYHY1ErnNY

In the last video from Compassion in a T-Shirt, Dr Stan Steindl discussed What is Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)? In this video, he explores this question further by outlining an example session-by-session CFT therapy plan, divided into four phases and 12 sessions. The original video on YouTube can be found here: https://youtu.be/JA-jYu9YDOU

Compassion-based interventions have been found to be very effective in enhancing compassion, self-compassion and mindfulness, reducing depression, anxiety and psychological distress, and increasing wellbeing. One such approach is compassion focused therapy (CFT). In this video, Dr Stan Steindl will briefly describe CFT, its origins and theories, as well as some of the practical components that CFT...

Having explored the semantics of Compassion Versus Kindness, and Compassion as a Form of Kindness, Dr Stan Steindl returns to a more practical focus in this video, discussing kind and compassionate well-wishes. The foundations of these well-wishes are "May you be happy" (sending kind wishes) and "May you be free from suffering" (sending compassionate wishes). But we can create whatever kind and co...

In a previous video, Dr Stan Steindl discussed Compassion Versus Kindness, how they are defined and how they are different. This video goes further, suggesting that perhaps kindness, referring to actions intended to benefit others, is the overarching construct while compassion is simply a form of kindness in the context of suffering.