An Introduction to Theory & Practice of CFT in Manchester (June 2023)

Registration

This workshop will be 20 hours towards your CPD, and you will receive a certificate of attendance shortly after the workshop. Handouts will be emailed in advance for you to print and bring along to the workshop. There will be a formal registration sign-in sheet at the venue, please sign in on each day of the workshop.

Timing

All timings are according to UK BST

Day 1 - 09:30-17:00

Day 2 - 09:30 - 17:00

Day 3 - 09:30 - 16:30

Pricing‍

This workshop is priced as follows:

Early Bird Rate - £415.00 (expires on 1st April 2023)

Student Rate - £385.00

Standard Rate - £475.00

For those in difficult financial circumstances, who may struggle to afford this price, please contact [email protected]

About this Course

Compassion focused therapy is rooted in an evolutionary model of human psychology. Participants on the course will be introduced to the difficulties that the human brain encounters because of its evolutionary history and the way in which old motivation and emotional systems interact with newly evolved cognitive competencies and intelligences. For example, humans are the only species that self-monitor in a particular way and while this has advantages, it is also a source for a lot of shame, anxiety and depression.

Participants will also be introduced to the three affect regulation systems linked to threat awareness and coping, reward and resource seeking, and contentment and soothing -- and how they form complex patterns within the mind. Participants will learn how early life experiences can shape the organisation of our emotions increasing our dispositions towards threat-based emotions that underpin a lot of mental health difficulties.

Additional Information

In the introduction a particular focus will be on a trans-diagnostic problem that sits underneath many mental health problems which is shame and high levels of self-criticism. Shame and self-criticism can accentuate and maintain difficulties and can complicate and undermine therapeutic efforts. These individuals often come from abusive/bullying, neglectful and/or demanding/critical backgrounds, and have difficulties in regulating emotions through affiliative and soothing systems. Compassion Focused Therapy and Compassionate Mind Training were developed with, and for, people from such backgrounds to address chronic problems associated with shame and self-criticism.

This workshop will help participants bring an evolutionary framework to the conceptualisation of mental health problems and their alleviation. This workshop draws on new research on the nature of different types of positive affect (activating verses soothing). Using these insights with an evolutionary and attachment focus the workshop explores the components of self-compassion and how the application for self-compassion can facilitate and promote well-being. The fears, blocks and resistances to self-compassion will be explored.

The workshop covers the following materials:

- Introduction to the evolutionary model of human psychology and vulnerability to mental health difficulties- Understanding an evolutionary approach to affect regulation and affect dysregulation

- The role of attachment and early secure base and safe haven for development and compassion cultivation

- The nature of the two psychologies compassion with 12 constituent elements and their link to the care- giving and receiving motivational systems

- Compassion as flow: compassion to others, been open to compassion from others and self-compassion

- Practices that stimulate compassionate mental states and build a sense of the compassionate self-identity

- How to use compassionate mental states and the sense a grounded compassionate self to address problems such as self-criticism and shame

- Therapy as creating different patterns in the mind conducive to well-being‍

Workshop Leaders

Dr Tobyn Bell is a Compassion Focused Therapy Trainer, Supervisor and Psychotherapist, and is also part of the training committee for the Compassionate Mind Foundation. He is the co-author of the book ‘Compassion Focused Therapy from the Inside Out: A Self-practice/Self-reflection Workbook for Therapists’. Tobyn regularly provides national and international training on compassion and chairwork and conducts research in these areas.

He is a co-founder of Chairwork (www.chairwork.co.uk) - an international provider of chairwork-related training and supervision- and works as a lecturer and operational lead at the University of Manchester.

Dr Ashleigh McLellan is a consultant clinical psychologist with 20 years’ experience in the NHS working with complex mental health presentations.  She was the clinical lead for the Humber Traumatic Stress Service in Hull with a specialism in military trauma, refugees and asylum seekers and a range of cPTSD presentations.  She is involved in teaching on the Hull, Leeds and Sheffield ClinPsyD courses, and has supervised a number of Hull trainee clinical psychologists in CFT research. In 2020 Ashleigh started working exclusively in independent practice using the compassionate mind model with organisations and businesses, working with teams, individuals and delivering training. She is the director of her own company Ubuntu Psychology where she continues her clinical work and co-director of Indigo Talent Development where she is taking the CFT model into the corporate and business world.

www.ubuntupsychology.co.uk www.indigotalentdevelopment.com www.yvmtrainer.com ‍

Host or Publisher The Compassionate Mind Foundation