Q&A
Integrating Compassion in Therapy

Acclaimed psychologist Paul Gilbert, the developer of Compassion Focused Therapy, answers questions about the importance of compassion towards oneself and others for emotional healing.
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What is your view on the idea that rumination has an evolutionary function in motivating an individual to make necessary changes in their life?
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How specifically do you work with clients who believe that self-criticism works for them?
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What is the evidence on using CFT for complex PTSD?
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Can you speak about doing assertiveness training within a CFT framework?
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Can CFT be combined with EMDR?
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How does CFT view alexithymia?
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What are some common un-compassionate behaviors that you notice people exhibiting in practice?
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Is there much literature to support the use of Compassion Focused Therapy in cases of paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis?
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What do you love about CFT?
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Can CFT be used alongside DBT? I'm particularly interested in the idea of integrating chain analysis alongside CFT.
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Is there empirical support for using CFT with adolescents? What particular exercises would you recommend to use with teens?
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What should I do with clients who struggle to use imagery?
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What's the evidence on using CFT for anger?
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Do therapists use CFT as a stand-alone therapy or mostly combine it with other approaches? Which ones?
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Has anyone utilised compassion focused therapy with sex offenders?
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Any advice for defining compassion with clients? Especially if they are particularly self-critical and struggle with any sense of kindness or warmth towards themselves?
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Dear Paul, I work in health psychology and work with people who experience a lot of shame, disgust and guilt and grief about their health condition e.g., cancer, type 2 diabetes, STIs. How can CFT help them?
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Have you used the compassion approach with PTSD and developmental trauma?
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Is Compassion Focused Therapy considered an evidence based intervention?
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How does Polyvagal Theory fit with CFT? Did this theory inform your work?
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Hi Paul, can you talk about compassion fatigue, especially in the context of health professionals?
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How does CFT work with grief, especially complex grief?
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What is the difference between compassion and empathy?
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Does the attachment style of therapists using CFT matter? What about the attachment style of clients?
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Why has chairwork been neglected so much?
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Is there a CFT protocol for working with guilt?
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What adaptations need to be made in CFT (if any) for autism/neurodiversity?
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Hi Paul, I feel as if my training lacked a model/intervention for emotion regulation and distress tolerance. How does compassion focused therapy conceptualise and target these?
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How can compassion focused therapy be integrated with CBT?
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What does Compassion Focused Therapy have in common with ACT?
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Would you categorize Compassion Focused Therapy as being an effective short term intervention?
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What is compassion?
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What's the best approach for working with young (5/6yo) children using Compassion Focused Therapy?
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I'd love to hear about your thoughts on utilizing Compassion Focused Therapy in a palliative care context.
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What's your view of self care? How does self care relate to compassion?
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What's a common misconception you encounter around the idea of compassion?
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