|
Finding an Antidote to Shame & Self-Criticism |
|
All psychotherapies recognize the importance in therapy of creating a sense of safeness and developing a compassionate relationship with their clients. However, recent neuropsychological research, as well as exploration of Buddhist psychologies, have extended our knowledge of the nature and value of compassion. A particularly important development has been an understanding of how self-compassion can act as an antidote to the experience of inner shame and self-criticism.
Many people who experience shame and bitter self-criticism have come from harsh, neglectful, or traumatic backgrounds, where compassion was in short supply. Shame and self-criticism are associated with a range of psychological difficulties, including depression, social anxiety, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) offers a way of working with these difficulties.
This workshop will outline Dr. Gilbert’s three affect-regulation systems model (the “three circles” model), will describe ways of conceptualizing case histories in terms of shame and self-criticism, and will show how to conduct a functional analysis of disorders. Distinctions will be drawn between self-esteem and self-compassion, and between self-criticism and self-correction. Participants will learn a model based on distinguishing compassion attributes from compassion skills, and how to use these skills to develop compassion.
This approach seeks to be an integrated therapy, recognizing the value of and progress in a range of psychotherapies, as well as the need to incorporate our increasing scientific understanding of how our brains and minds work. Dr. Gilbert has worked with chronic mental health problems for over 30 years and has published widely on the links between psychotherapy, neuroscience and evolved mental mechanisms (such as those for attachment). Compassion Focused Therapy evolved from the recognition that some people, who come from difficult backgrounds, cannot self-soothe or feel inner warmth for themselves; it is as if that important affect regulation system within the brain is not accessible to them.
Helping people reduce negative thoughts and feelings does not automatically activate the positive capacities for self-soothing and self-compassion. Dr. Gilbert and his colleagues have been using CFT with a variety of clients with excellent results and continue to conduct extensive clinical research into its application.
In this workshop, therapists will learn about the origins and nature of different forms of shame and self-criticism, and, because they develop as self-protection strategies, how they can be difficult to change. Therapists will learn how to build a compassionate orientation with their clients which allows shame and self-criticism to be re-contextualized and seen and felt in new ways. This enables clients to cultivate positive self-soothing. Rather than focusing on evidence gathering, CFT emphasizes behavioural practice and encourages the client to experience self-compassion, which automatically softens shame and self-criticism. |
|
Workshop Description |
|
The workshop will be conducted using didactic teaching, video demonstrations and opportunities for practice. Therapists will explore the various presentations of shame and self-criticism, different ways that compassion and self-compassion are defined, how to break down the components of self-compassion, and how to weave these components into therapeutic strategies to help the client become empathic to his or her own distress, sensitive to and tolerant of this distress, self-accepting and non-critical, sympathetic and empathetic.
Participants will have an opportunity to practice a variety of skills, including case analysis, compassionate imagery, compassionate letter-writing, and compassionate body enactments. |
|
By the end of this workshop, attendees will have:
¨ Deeper understanding of shame and self-criticism and the different forms they take. ¨ Insight into the safety and protective functions of shame and self-criticism that can underlie resistance to change. ¨ Appreciation of the typical difficulties that people with high shame and self-criticism present with. ¨ Knowledge of the origins of compassionate mind therapy, as rooted in attachment mechanisms and a special kind of soothing positive affect system. ¨ Ways of explaining and forming a therapeutic contract based on compassion development. ¨ Insight into common resistance to developing self-compassion, such as beliefs about not deserving it, or fears that it will be unreliable or potentially harmful. ¨ A range of interventions that are specifically focused on developing self-compassion. ¨ Understanding of the differences between compassionate attitudes and compassionate skills |