The Emotion Behind the Thought: Introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy

About The Event

Join the Santa Clara County Psychological Association for the The Emotion Behind the Thought: An Introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy workshop with Yotam Heineberg, Psy.D., psychologist, clinical faculty at Palo Alto University, and research fellow at CCARE.

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 (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 affiliative emotions regulates threat-processing and self-identities. CFT integrates evidence-based therapies with the basic insight that the emotions activated during change processes are as important as processes themselves. CFT has a growing empirical evidence to support its efficacy in a broad range of complex cases, including trauma and rigid personality structures.

The workshop will cover the basic concepts of CFT with PowerPoint presentations and experiential practices with the use of emotion focused, cognitive behavioral and imagery practices.

Objectives

By the end of the workshop participants will have the ability to:
– Use perspectives from the evolutionary model that underpins CFT towards psychoeducation, by offering clients insight into the three types of affect regulation systems (threat, drive and soothing), as well as insight insight into the complexities and conflicts within the threat system processing.
– Use the Fears of Compassion Scale and framework towards assessment, psychoeducational, experiential and behavioral treatment goals.
– Use perspectives from the multiple-self framework, and learn how to orient clients towards the cultivation of their compassionate self, through psychoeducation, as well as archetype-based cognitive behavioral experiential exercises.
– Work with self-criticism and the the inner critic, apply the distinction between shame- and threat-based self attacking cognitions, and soothing-based compassionate thinking.

About Yotam Heineberg, Psy.D.

Dr. Heineberg earned his doctorate at the PGSP-Stanford consortium at Palo Alto University. His interests focused on the cycle of violence, trauma and aggression, which led him to seek out solutions to address these fundamental human problems through the vehicle of compassion. He went on to pursue post-doctoral training at Stanford’s CCARE (Center for Compassion and Altruism, Research and Education). He trained in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) with Professor Paul Gilbert, who developed the approach in the UK. He is a faculty member at Palo Alto University’s Gronowski Center, where he offers supervision, clinical and didactic trainings in CFT, and compassion-focused approaches to healing. He continues to collaborate with the Compassionate Mind Foundation, UK, and is a research fellow at Stanford university with CCARE. His other professional interests entail using the internet towards compassion-focused interventions for both clinical and non-clinical populations.

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