The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy

The current findings support the use of a trauma-informed, compassionate care approach when working psychologically with fathers following perinatal death, with additional considerations for themes such as isolation.

“The current findings thus support the use of a trauma-informed, compassionate care approach when working psychologically with fathers following perinatal death with additional considerations for themes such as isolation (Evans et al., 2021;Gilbert, 2014).”

Compassion-focused and mindfulness-based approaches may help reduce self-criticism and facilitate emotional regulation.

“while compassion-focused and mindfulness-based approaches may help reduce self-criticism and facilitate emotional regulation (90, 91).”

Compassion-focused therapy relies on the same evolutionary stress systems as PVT, helping people to reduce their own stress levels and experience (self-) connection, warmth, safety, and reassurance by developing a supportive inner voice.

“Compassion-focused therapy (CFT; Gilbert, 2009, 2014), for example, relies on the same evolutionary stress systems, helping people to reduce their own stress levels and experience (self-) connection, warmth, safety, and reassurance by developing a supportive inner voice.”

CFT highlights the importance of developing people's capacity to access, tolerate, and direct affiliative motives and emotions, for themselves and others, and cultivate inner compassion as a way for organizing our human 'tricky brain' in prosocial and mentally healthy ways.

“CFT therefore highlights the importance of developing people’s capacity to (mindfully) access, tolerate, and direct affiliative motives and emotions, for themselves and others, and cultivate inner compassion as a way for organizing our human ‘tricky brain’ in prosocial and mentally healthy ways (Gilbert, 2014).”

Humans need to feel content and safe.

“As Gilbert argued, humans not only have the need to acquire new things and to protect themselves from harm, they also need to feel content and safe—a need that self-soothing touch can ease [52].”

As humans, we need to be touched from the moment we are born to fulfill our need to feel content and safe.

“As humans, we need to be touched from the moment we are born to fulfill our need to feel content and safe [52,55].”

The ACT enriched with CFT treatment framework was prepared based on therapeutic guidelines and its validity was confirmed by four expert university professors.

“The general framework of the treatment sessions based on ACT was prepared based on the therapeutic guidelines of Hayes et al. (1999), Tuohy (2007), and Gilbert (2014), in addition, four expert university professors confirmed its validity.”

These findings align with Gilbert's (2014) theoretical framework, which proposes that self-compassion enhances emotional regulation by reducing an overactive threat and drive system and activating the affiliative system.

“These findings align with Gilbert's (2014) theoretical framework, which proposes that self‐compassion enhances emotional regulation by reducing an overactive threat and drive system and activating the affiliative system.”