Upload
kelvin
View
68
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
The Contextual Science of Compassion in ACTion Components June 20, 2014 Association for Contextual Behavioral Science World Conference 12 Minneapolis, MN. Dennis Tirch , Ph.D. The Center for Mindfulness and Compassion-Focused Therapy Russell L. Kolts, Ph.D. Eastern Washington University. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
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