What is Compassion Focused Therapy?​

 

Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) aims to help promote mental and emotional healing by encouraging people in treatment to be compassionate toward themselves and other people. Compassion, both toward the self and toward others, is an essential aspect of well-being. Its development may often have the benefit of improved mental and emotional health.

Trained mental health professionals may offer CFT in their practice to help and support individuals in treatment who wish to explore ways to relate to themselves and others with greater compassion.​

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Developed in the early 21st century by Paul Gilbert, the CFT approach incorporates theories, principles, and techniques from various schools of psychology, treatment modalities, and religion.

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CFT is grounded in current understanding of basic emotion regulation systems: the threat and self-protection system, the drive and excitement system, and the contentment and social safeness system. Treatment sessions highlight the association between these systems and human thought and behavior. The aim of CFT is to bring these three affect systems into balance.

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What are the Benefits of Compassion Focused Therapy?

CFT can be helpful to people who find it challenging to understand, feel, or express compassion, as therapy can be a safe place in which to discover any reasons behind this difficulty and explore methods of positive change. This type of therapy can also be effective at helping people manage distressing thoughts, behaviors, and feelings of any kind but may be particularly helpful when dealing with feelings associated with self-attack.

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To find out more, simply contact us.