Sitting with Paul Gilbert - 'Compassion Recipe'

Paul Gilbert is a British clinical psychologist. The founder of compassion focused therapy, compassionate mind training and author of books such as The Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life's Challenges and Overcoming Depression. Before retirement he was head of the Mental Health Research Unit, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. He remains Professor at the University of Derby.  In 2011 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his continued contribution in mental healthcare. In 2006 Paul and his colleagues founded The Compassionate Mind Foundation https://www.compassionatemind.co.uk Compassionate Mind Training helps us to understand, and work with, our tricky brains. It builds our abilities to use our bodies to support our minds, and develop the courage and wisdom to address our life difficulties and flourish. The compassionate mind tries to live to be helpful not harmful. We discuss how Compassion gives courage and wisdom to descend into our suffering.  We talk about the fear of compassion scale https://global-uploads.webflow.com/5eb3b31b67bd4cf198cee794/602247ec5e2efa1026d13d49_fears-of-compassion-scale.pdf which looks at 1. Expressing compassion for others 2. Responding to compassion from others 3. Expressing kindness and compassion towards yourself. When people have suffered a lot with trauma and abuse they can find it difficult to practice compassion in the beginning. It takes time to activate the soothing system and to go towards suffering. He breaks down many myths: - about compassion fatigue this does not exist, it is more empathy burnout. You cannot have compassion fatigue. - you do not need to like or love someone to practice compassion. - you do not need to like or love yourself to practice compassion. - you do not have to be self-compassionate to practice compassion. We get really practical to go deep to listen to the inner critic, the inner voice that is critical. He talks about the importance of tone voice. Not just the words, also the way we talk to ourselves, is it in a hars