© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Introducing compassion-focused therapy
Paul Gilbert is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and consultant psychologist at Derbyshire Mental Health Services NHS Trust. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and has been actively researching shame-related processes in mood disorders and compassion as a focus for therapeutic interventions. He is currently seeking research monies for appropriate trials.
Correspondence: Correspondence Professor Paul Gilbert, Mental Health Research Unit, Kingsway Hospital, Derby DE22 3LZ, UK. E-mail: p.gilbert{at}derby.ac.uk
Shame and self-criticism are transdiagnostic problems. People who experience them may struggle to feel relieved, reassured or safe. Research suggests that a specialised affect regulation system (or systems) underpins feelings of reassurance, safeness and well-being. It is believed to have evolved with attachment systems and, in particular, the ability to register and respond with calming and a sense of well-being to being cared for. In compassion-focused therapy it is hypothesised that this affect regulation system is poorly accessible in people with high shame and self-criticism, in whom the ‘threat’ affect regulation system dominates orientation to their inner and outer worlds. Compassion-focused therapy is an integrated and multimodal approach that draws from evolutionary, social, developmental and Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience. One of its key concerns is to use compassionate mind training to help people develop and work with experiences of inner warmth, safeness and soothing, via compassion and self-compassion.