We provide psychological assessment and therapy to adults with a range of psychological difficulties. The Adult Psychological Therapies team consists of a number of dedicated and experienced psychologists and psychological therapists.
We provide a range of psychological therapy options, including access to self-help resources, online therapies, various therapeutic groups, and a range of individual therapies. Within this website we hope you find some useful information and support for you or for someone you care about.
Compassion Focused Group Therapy
We know from the people that attend our service, that often the things that happen to them in life can mean they hold strong negative beliefs, be very critical about themselves and can be fearful and mistrusting of the world. We know that they often feel to blame for their difficulties, but we also know that this is actually not their fault.
Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT) uses theory about how our brains have developed over time, both as humans through evolution, but also through our own life experiences. In CFT we use this knowledge to develop what we call our compassionate system. CFT is an evidence based psychological therapy.
People often think that compassion is simply about being “nice” and sometimes people can hold strong beliefs about what is means to be compassionate. In our group we will explore how compassion is as much about developing the courage and strength to get your needs met, as it is about finding a calmer way to be with ourselves.
In the group we will be developing our skills to understand and manage:
- self-criticism
- our threat system
- feelings of low self-worth
- feelings of shame
- building on our feelings of safeness and trust
CFT works really well in groups, especially for people who have difficulties trusting others. This might seem a bit odd, but through being around others in the group what people can find is that they start to get better at receiving, and giving compassion to others, as well as being less critical and more compassionate towards themselves. The group provides a safe space to practice using skills and being around others.
Resources
Contained within this page you will find a variety of resources we use within the CFT group for your own use and practice.
These resources are designed for people attending our group. Please do not share these exercises with anyone not attending our groups. The exercises will be discussed in the group and specific instructions given about how to use them. If you have any questions about these exercises please speak to whoever is running your group.
The CFT practises use materials developed by leading researchers in the field (thanks to Deborah Lee, Chris Irons, Paul Gilbert and Kate Lucre).