Dennis Tirch , Ph.D. The Center for Mindfulness and Compassion-Focused Therapy

Dennis Tirch, Ph.D.The Center for Mindfulness and Compassion-Focused Therapy

Russell L. Kolts, Ph.D.Eastern Washington University

*Kind of soft, fluffy, and pink

*“airy-fairy”

*Being nice all of the time

*Always giving people exactly what they want.

*Two psychologies at work: sensitivity to suffering, and motivation to help.

*Compassion begins by approaching suffering…which is why the CFT-anger group is called True Strength.

*Emphasis on mindful awareness (awareness and sensitivity to suffering) combined with workable action (helping and motivation to help).

“Hope Comforting Love in Bondage” courtesy of the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery Collections, Birmingham, UKArtist: Sidney Harold Meteyard, 1901

*Our brains are brilliant but problematic ‘patchwork quilts’ of evolved structures and functions.

*Tricky dynamics between “old” emotional brains and “new” brains

* “We all just find ourselves here…”

* Emotions as evolved capacities with specific purposes (3 Circles)

* Emotions not as isolating, but as common elements that unite us.

* Mindful observations of threat emotions as prompts for compassion.

*Old, emotional brain is very powerful, not very clever.

*Threat emotions narrow our attention, lower our cognitive flexibility, and strongly influence the contents and process of our reasoning.

*Emotional inertia via the interplay of emotional “old-brain”,“new brain”, and body

Understanding our Motives Understanding our Motives and Emotionsand Emotions

Motives evolved because they help animals to survive and leave genes behind.

Emotions guide us to our goals and respond if we are succeeding or threatened.

CFT focuses on three types of emotion regulation system:

1.Those that focus on threat and self-protection

2.Those that focus on doing and achieving

3.Those that focus on contentment and feeling safe

Types of Affect Regulator SystemsTypes of Affect Regulator Systems

Incentive/resource- Incentive/resource- focusedfocused

Wanting, pursuing, achieving, consuming

Activating

Non-wanting/Non-wanting/Affiliative focusedAffiliative focused

Safeness-kindness

Soothing

Threat-focused Threat-focused

Protection andProtection and

Safety-seekingSafety-seeking

Activating/inhibitingActivating/inhibiting

Anger, Anxiety, Fear, Anger, Anxiety, Fear, DisgustDisgust

Drive, Excitement, Drive, Excitement, VitalityVitality

Content, Safe, Content, Safe, ConnectedConnected

The Threat SystemThe Threat System

Threat-focused Threat-focused

Protection andProtection and

Safety-seekingSafety-seeking

Activating/inhibitingActivating/inhibiting

Anger, Anxiety, Anger, Anxiety, DisgustDisgust

Our Old/Emotional Brains Our Old/Emotional Brains are Biased toward are Biased toward Processing ThreatProcessing Threat

In species without attachment, typically only 1-2% make it to adulthood to reproduce. Threats come from ecologies, food shortage, predation, injury, disease. At birth individuals must be able to ‘go it alone’, be mobile and disperse. Survival depends on efficiently detecting and responding to threat.

AttentionAttentionThinkingThinking

ReasoningReasoning

BehavioBehaviourur

MotivationMotivation EmotionEmotionss

Imagery Imagery FantasyFantasy AngeAnge

rr

Threat-focused Threat-focused

Protection andProtection andSafety-seekingSafety-seeking

Activating/inhibiting

AngerAnger

Body/feelings

Tense

Heart increase

Pressure to act

Anger

Attention/Thinking

Narrow-focused

Transgression/block

Scan – search

Behaviour

Increase outputs

Aggressive displays

Approach

Dissociate

Threat-focused Threat-focused

Protection andProtection andSafety-seekingSafety-seeking

Activating/inhibiting

AnxietyAnxiety

Body/feelings

Tense

Heart increase

Dry mouth

“Butterflies”

Afraid

Attention/Thinking

Narrow-focused

Danger threat

Scan – search

Behavior

Passive avoidance

Active avoidance

Submissive display

Dissociate

The Drive and Resource Acquisition The Drive and Resource Acquisition SystemSystem

Incentive/resource- Incentive/resource- focusedfocused

Wanting, pursuing, achieving, consuming

ActivatingThreat-focused Threat-focused

Protection andProtection and

Safety-seekingSafety-seeking

Activating/inhibitingActivating/inhibiting

Anger, Anxiety, Fear, Anger, Anxiety, Fear, DisgustDisgust

Drive, Excitement, Drive, Excitement, VitalityVitality

ExcitedExcited

Body/feelings

Activation

Heart increase

Pressure to act

Disrupt sleep

Attention/Thinking

Narrow-focused

Acquiring

Explorative

Behaviour

Approach

Engage

Socialise

Restless

Celebrating

Incentive/Incentive/

resource-focusedresource-focusedWanting, pursuing, achieving,

consuming Activating

The Safeness SystemThe Safeness System

Incentive/resource- Incentive/resource- focusedfocused

Wanting, pursuing, achieving, consuming

Activating

Non-wanting/Non-wanting/Affiliative focusedAffiliative focused

Safeness-kindness

Soothing

Threat-focused Threat-focused

Protection andProtection and

Safety-seekingSafety-seeking

Activating/inhibitingActivating/inhibiting

Anger, Anxiety, Fear, Anger, Anxiety, Fear, DisgustDisgust

Drive, Excitement, Drive, Excitement, VitalityVitality

Content, Safe, Content, Safe, ConnectedConnected

Well-being

Body/feelings

Calm

Slow

Well-being

Content

Attention/Thinking

Open-focused

Reflective

Prosocial

Behaviour

Peaceful

Gentle

Prosocial

Non-wanting/Affiliative-focusedSafeness-kindness

Soothing

AttentionAttentionThinkingThinking

ReasoningReasoning

BehavioBehaviourur

MotivationMotivation EmotionEmotionss

Imagery Imagery FantasyFantasy CompassiCompassi

onon

Why a Compassion Focus?

People with chronic problems often come from neglectful or abusive backgrounds, have high levels of shame, and are often self-critical, self-disliking, or self-hating.

Live in a world of constant internal and external threat.

Have few experiences of feeling safe or soothed and are not able to do this for themselves. Often do poorly in trials.

Soothing system poorly developed and will often say, “I understand the theory but do not feel relieved or safe.” This makes sense if that system is not working or developed.

*Blaming and shaming ourselves and others keeps us locked in threat-based emotions, fueling our problems.

*Shame-based pain/distress fosters avoidance.

*Warming things up can help us feel safe, balance emotions, and skillfully approach difficulties rather than avoid them.

“There’s something wrong with me.”*We have unlimited access to our

own internal experiences, and very limited access to those of others. (“I feel like a wreck, but they seem to be doing alright!”)

*Evolution shaped us to be very concerned about how we exist in the minds of others, and how we compare to them.

*Compassion - “Being moved by suffering and motivated to alleviate it”

*Compassion involves approaching and working with suffering.

Introducing Compassion-Work via Perspective

Taking*The two-teachers metaphor:*Critical teacher vs Compassionate teacher

*Which teacher would you want your child to have?

*Which would help your child learn & progress?

*When you observe yourself struggling or feeling threat emotions, which teacher does the voice in your head sound like?

Compassionate Self Work

*The goal is to help our clients cultivate qualities that will help them to effectively work with difficult emotions and situations:

*Compassion

*Mindful awareness

*Courage and Confidence

*Kindness

*Wisdom

Method Acting + Imagery

*Imagining how we would think, feel, behave, appear, experience, and understand if we had these compassionate qualities.

*Imagining the compassionate self in action:*From this perspective, how would you understand this situation? Feel? Think? Work with it?

Halfway between Self-as-context and Self-as-content

*Emphasis on awareness, mindfulness – cultivating qualities that facilitate open awareness and reflectiveness.

*However, knowing that we often will relate to ourselves in terms of a narrative, compassionate self work enables clients to cultivate an adaptive, value-driven version of the self.

Exploring Emotions: The 4 Square/Multiple Selves Exercise

Bring up a challenging situation.

Focus on bodily feelings, thoughts, motivations, and fantasized behaviors.

What does this self feel like, think, say, want to do?

- Angry Self

- Anxious Self

- Sad Self

- Compassionate Self – the “Captain of the Ship”

AttentionAttentionThinkingThinking

ReasoningReasoning

BehavioBehaviourur

MotivationMotivation EmotionEmotionss

Imagery Imagery FantasyFantasy AngeAnge

rr

The Four-Square Exercise*A lot going on here:

*Increasing awareness of various threat emotions that may be avoided.

*Gives a window into the dynamics of self-criticism.

*Exploring different emotional perspectives and how they organize the mind.

*Learning to shift in and out of different emotions – and building confidence that they can do this without getting stuck.

*The Compassionate-self in action – ability to have compassion for these emotional selves.

Significant Group X Time Interaction: STAXI Anger Expression Index – F (1,10) = 7.06, p = .024 (Blue line = CFT group).

Significant Group X Time Interaction: MAI Anger-Out scale – F (1,14) = 5.85, p = .03.

Significant Group X Time Interaction: MAI Anger-In scale – F (1,14) = 7.08, p = .019.

Except for decreases in fears of expressing compassion to others, the Group X Time interactions for changes in measures of compassion were generally not significant.

*Fear of Compassion Scale

*Expressing to Others F (1,12) = 8.43, p = .013*

*Receiving from Others F (1,13) = 4.30, p = .058

*Compassion to Self F (1,11) = .858, p = .374

*IRI Empathic Distress - F (1,13) = .311, p = .59

*Self-Compassion Scale Total – F (1,13) = 1.83, p =.20

(the CFT-group within-group changes and main effects of time were quite significant)

Example non-significant finding for Group X Time Interaction: IRI Perspective Taking – F (1,13) = 3.80, p = .073.

FOC Scale – Fear of Expressing Compassion to Others

FOC Scale – Fear of Receiving Compassion from Others

FOC Scale – Fear of Self-Compassion

Self Compassion Scale Total Score

Correlations between change scores for anger and compassion measures within

CFT GroupAnger Measure

FOC– Compassion for Others

FOC – Compassion from Others

FOC – Compassion to Self

Self-Compassion Scale total score

MAI – Anger In

.63

n = 9

.73*

n = 9

.72*

n = 8

.87**

n = 9

MAI – Anger Out

.64n = 9

.69n = 9

.62n = 8

.37n = 9

STAXI – Anger Expression Index

.77

n = 7

.72

n = 7

.49

n = 6

.24

n = 7

*p < .05 **p<.01