Continuing & Professional Studies, Palo Alto University

This self-paced training on Introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is presented by Yotam Heineberg, PsyD.

It is well-known that shame and self-criticism can be difficult problems to treat in a range of psychological problems and may even prevent people from seeking help. Compassion Focused Therapy was developed by professor Paul Gilbert. CFT was specifically developed with and for individuals with these difficulties, in part by helping them develop a compassionate orientation to themselves and others by elaborating on cognitive behavioral strategies. CFT is an evolutionary and neuroscience-based approach to psychotherapy that articulates how the evolution of attachment and affiliative emotion regulates threat-processing and the emergence of our self-identities. CFT integrates evidence-based therapies with the basic insight that our emotions serve an evolutionary function, and that recognizing this can help de-shame and de-pathologize painful symptomatic experiences, towards greater engagement in therapy. CFT has a growing empirical evidence to support its efficacy in a broad range of complex cases, including trauma and rigid personality structures. The course will cover the basic concepts of CFT and various experiential practices with demonstrations of emotion focused, cognitive behavioral and imagery practices. This course will assist professionals in improving their clinical understanding of the best methods for treating shame and self-criticism.