The Neurobiology of Compassion
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with Paul Gilbert, PhD;
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with Paul Gilbert, PhD; Kristin Neff, PhD; Jack Kornfield, PhD; Kelly McGonigal, PhD; Christopher Germer, PhD; Dennis Tirch, PhD; Emiliana Simon-Thomas, PhD; Ruth Buczynski, PhD and Ashley Vigil-Otero, PsyD
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The idea of self-awareness as a healing process is interesting.
As a therapist and parenting coach focused on parenting in the age of technology, compassion plays a huge role in my work with individual and group clients. Without experiencing compassion for ourselves and others first, we can’t really move into changing our relationship with technology. I appreciated Dr. Kelly McGonigal explaining how the first stage of compassion is essentially a stress response – I think that’s a really important realization to make both as a client and therapist. Thank you for another great video!
I will use the 3 circles theory.
Three circle modele was great compliment to the beginning brain specification. Resonated with courage and hope circuitry. Appreciated guidance how to work with a client stress filled presentation. The information can help therapists stay grounded while providing less distressed, compassionate, sustainable regulation with a client. Great coordination of information. Presentation was well thought out and caring.
I work with sexual assault and this training brings a lot of knowledge to my practice. I love the way you explained neurobiology of compassion and 3-Circle Model. The cases and ways to apply compassion with clients were so helpful. Also, I am wondering about how culture plays a role in compassion. Thanks so much to all the presenters!.
Thank you so much for this. I enjoyed it very much. As a non-clinician, I won’t be able to afford the other modules and that saddens me.
I am a disabled woman, 57 years old who has just been diagnosed with coronary artery disease and it’s inoperable. I have other comorbidities that make it too dangerous for surgery. I have been stymied by the reaction of friends and family. Rather than rally to me, they displayed anger, dismissive behavior and avoidance. The online friends refuse to use phone or video chat as I understand and have communicated my need for true human contact. I feel that I suffer from Failure to Thrive. If it were not for the love of my service dog I’m not sure if I would still be here. I have spoken with my case manager regarding this and am being referred for therapy. I also suffer from complicated grief as well as attachment fears.
I believe compassion is largely gone from society. I also believe there is a loss of humanity.
I wish this would not stop with clinicians but could be distributed to the public. If more people could hear how compassion affects their own reward system, many would be willing to change.
Thank you so much.
Hi, I’m so sorry that you’re experiencing so much ill health and isolation in dealing with that. May I suggest that if you found this video helpful, go with the list of presenters here, to the library and find more reading material (either online, or in the actual books), and work just one small thing into your own daily routine to help you. Jack Kornfield has a written a number of books and his work is really beautiful. I think you will resonate a lot with it. I will share this from my experience with illness and feeling at times very alone despite having caring family and friends …… It seemed to be an opportunity for me to turn the isolation into solitude so that I could go more and more into my meditation practice and I did a mixture of ‘depth meditation’ (so in the tradition of Vedanta(Yoga training), Zen, Vipassana or/ and Tibetan), visualizations and listened to online webshows that interviewed energy healers. There are two really important, free energy medicine & energy psychology schools that you can follow too: Donna Eden and anyone that has videos demonstrating Tapping (EFT). Do small things on this level to begin with and see if they can help to shift some of the heaviness that you are presently carrying. It is so hard to be in this space, and I would say it’s taken a huge amount of courage to write up your story……. hang onto that, however small it seems now. I wish you more energy and healing so that you may get to sharing your courage in the future with others. It’s people like yourself that so often inspire others. Thank you for the sharing and best best wishes.
I’m a “client” with a huge ‘threat circle’ but am using my ‘drive circle’ (seeking learning to help myself) and today’s session to flag up the importance of growing/developing my ‘soothing circle’ – realising that soothing is not a negative self-centred act(!!). It has always been natural for me to be compassionate towards others but not towards myself. From this session I will try a) feeling moved by my distress, traumatic experiences, suffering, b) seeing this as important to focus on, c) deciding how I can support myself, and then d) taking action. This might, as you have explained, according to the neuro-biology, get my amygdala to stop overly firing – it goes into overdrive all too quickly due to that small ‘soothing circle!’ Thank you, a very clear and informative session.
Really enJoying the usability of this training. My work is mostly donation based so can’t afford to purchase just yet.
Thank you for an excellent presentation. Not working with live clients right now, will apply the three circles to myself and people around me for trial.
Amazing content. The research is affirming of the work I do. I lead groups of moms to describe feelings and the bodily sensations from them. Then I teach them to have healthy, helpful responses to feelings (instead of hurtful ones). It works. And I speak compassionately to them like a friend would. I work with moms who lose their temper, but I got help and now I help others. They can feel the compassion I have for them (and for myself). It helps them let go of shame and fear, and it gives them courage to make the shift and stop yelling at their kids. Compassion increases emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence in the home is my ultimate goal for the families I work with.
Thoroughly enjoyed this course while a bit overwhelming. I’m not a therapist/psychologist but went through a double-trauma the end of 2016. Part of that trauma was caused by a long-term therapist who did not understand I was already in a state of trauma therefore mistakenly evaluated what happened. I have not been able to find help in the area where I live (Midwest) and have not yet recovered from the loss of the therapist that I had developed a very strong attachment to. I am very intelligent but have “emotional challenges” as I call them. He was the most compassionate person I’d ever had in my life and I am still suffering from that abrupt loss. I continue to search and learn on my own in an effort to heal. I’m hoping these courses will provide that help. Thank you for this opportunity!!
Excellent session, well delivered and well worth getting up at 3:45am in the morning for. I witness a significant lack of self compassion in the majority of my clients, particularly those suffering with anxiety. I started introducing some aspects of CFS in my work over the past 4 months and have found it extremely useful. I will certainly be implementing the 3 circles with my clients today and beyond – Thank you :o)
I am working with a number of children, teens, and adults who have been through traumas and are suffering from symptoms of PTSD. In fact, I have a teen coming later today for trauma focused CBT with whom I will use this. Within the structure of TF-CBT, the next step we will be doing today is affect regulation and I can guide her through the process of learning/applying self-compassion to herself. I’ll provide an explanation about writer’s plan for the session, psycho-ed. about the the brain (more about the Amygdala and Pre-frontal Cortex and add info. about the other two key brain parts), psycho-ed. about the three circles, explore what she’s feeling today about the trauma, ask her where in her body she notices the feeling(s), ask her maybe to describe more about that emotion/body sensation, give some empathy, ask if she would put her hand on her body in that location, ask her if she can allow it to soften, ask what she would say to a friend who has the same emo./body feeling and then if she can say that to herself, ask her if she can make room for the feelings, affirm her work, maybe add some normalization and more psycho-ed. such as about building compassion for self being like muscle building, etc. I have some other clients to whom I’ve been explaining about the importance of developing self-compassion with whom I can also start doing more interventions like this. Thank you so much for educating me/us about this! I think these ideas could be combined with other therapies as well, such as Internal Family Systems Therapy developed by Dr. Schwartz.
Seems like learning compassion has a high price tag to it. It was an incredibly useful tool to have when working with difficult to reach clients due to their experience of trauma, shame, guilt and resentment. I use CBT and often these clients are hardest to engage. I have attended Prof Gilbert’s lecture and have been using compassion is my work
I am a lay person, and retired nurse, but I work with youth and I find this topic fascinating. I have my own struggles with my sister (a psychologist) and her behavior within our family. When I heard that low self compassion is associated with parental rejection, stress, etc., a light bulb went off.
I’m done trying to fix her problems, but at least I can better understand why she is the way she is (overly reactive, emotional, confrontational, mean, and self-centered). These behaviors are only exhibited within our family dynamics and as far as I know, professionally she is successful.
Thanks for shining a little more light on the importance of compassion.
In my next life I want to be a neuroscientist!
So amazing to learn about the neurological workings behind a phenomenon that I used to only look at from an ethical perspective.. Thank you!
Thank you for such a comprehensive yet digestible session. I’m looking forward to the next sessions.
I will try using the 3 circle model to help my clients gain some perspective into how unbalanced they may be, and how important soothing is.
Thank you for a great programme.
I already had a good overview of the areas in the brain, but today’s session help me understand the systems and their functions. I also learned ideas of how to soften, soothe and allow difficult emotions or distress. How important it is to build tolerance and strength through compassion training.
This was brilliant! I have many take-a ways but I really was inspired with the 3 circles Model of Emotional Regulation. This would really help clients see their responses as natural and develop motivation to increase their window of tolerance.
VERY helpful material. Not unlike the ‘caring loving presence’ in Gendlin’s Focusing.
Very well presented – Thank you all.n
Learning that one can deliberately engage compassion, not as a reflexive, inadvertent reaction, but a conscious decision is very exciting! It can give clients hope that they can apply compassion towards their own distress, as well as in other relationships to alleviate pain, and bring healing. Thank you very much for this wonderful information!
-Christine
Thank you so much for this. I found the 3 system model very interesting and visual which helps me understand the process. This is something I could use with clients. I also liked the description of the four parts of the brain and how they link together sequentially.
Thank you for this valuable information! I am not a clinician, but have joined this in order to try to help my brother, 51, who has been recently diagnosed with BPD1 with psychotic tendencies & CPTSD. No insurance, and desperate to be productive for his family, but unable to function, due to severe manic and depressive episodes. His son, 16, is showing signs of mental illness and I’m trying to help however I can. This session was very insightful and helpful. Thank you again! Looking forward to the remaining sessions.
I did find the 3 Circle idea to be very helpful, and will try using this model to communicate with my brother and his son.
Loved the idea of compassion as a stress response.
Thank you for offering such a robust workshop. I plan to incorporate the 3 Emotion Regulation Systems Model into my practice and look forward to exploring that more in depth as well as the Heart Breathing technique which I particularly enjoyed. Loving the multiple approaches to such a broad and complex topic. Something that often comes up which I believe is vital and I hope will be discussed in this series is the difference in compassion and empathy. Many thanks for all the wonderful information and resources.
I’m going to try the three circle explanation with so many of my clients who don’t know how to self-soothe and would definitely benefit from an ability to self-soothe. Thank you so much for this interesting workshop!
Very helpful. Confirmed many things I have felt for a long time. Great to hear professionals using this method of “healing” to help people. Great to hear how the body all works together. It all makes sense. Thank you for providing this service. I have been looking for something like this for a while now.
The applied heart meditation from Dr. McGonigal as well as the 3 circles information from Dr. Gilbert and the language of soften, soothe and allow will further assist my current work in CBCT (cognitively based compassion training) transdiagnostically with patients. I also learned more deeply about neurobiology and exactly what happens and how it is redirected, most specifically about the temporal/parietal junction versus the midline area to further help me to explain what is happening to patients. Thank you for compassionately offering these seminars for free! Pollyanna Casmar, PhD, HS Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UCSD.
Thank you, its good to explain it from a brain perspective, I feel it would take the shame out of the work, I love the soften, soothe and allow, the process of slowing down really works, while engaging the client in the therapeutic relationship.
Thank you i found the 3 circle model very helpful. will share this as it helps clients to become aware that they are not helpless in situations but possibly need to activate another part of their brain. empowering!
Thank you so much for this training. I loved it and it has really helped me create a framework to use with my clients. It clarifies and solidifies what I know but sometimes struggle to articulate to clients.
I really appreciate you sharing this with us for free.
Thank you so much! Understanding the neuroscience and physiological effects of compassion (or lack of) is so crucial for clients and clinicians. The more informed we are the better our decision making. I look forward to next weeks!
I work with clients who experience trauma and self compassion is often missing, so this is great to use with my clients. Thanks
Many thanks this is such a useful resource as I develop my work. X
Absolutely loved the 3 circles. Really I formative and based on great research thank you.
Thanks so much for sharing this! There were many helpful frameworks, research, and ideas! I appreciated the three circle model and think that can really create buy in to therapy not being about making things go away, but learning to feel and relate to themselves kindly. Great workshop!
Thank you for this course! Namaste. x
Prof Paul Gilbert’s 3 Emotion Regulation Systems Model will be particularly useful to engage clients’ awareness of where they’re at, so that they can gradually develop tools to take themselves forward through the soothing system. An excellent model for primary and secondary prevention for carers too. Thank you very much to each of the speakers for painting the whole(-some) landscape of the Neurobiology of Compassion with such smooth transitions.
Especially appreciated the 3-Circle Model.
thank you i really enjoyed this session. I am half-way through a MAPP and as an intervention, I am doing The mindful self-compassion workbook and practising MSC or LKM every day for six weeks. I am very eager to get trained in this area as soon as I complete my masters to help clients and students. I have been teaching teenagers in Ireland for 25 years and see first hand the increasing need for this work.
I am unfortunately not in a position to increase my workload for the moment but plan to follow up on this as soon as my masters is complete.
I thought this was so well delivered, easy to follow and very interesting. I loved the variety in the presenters and the emphasis on the science and empirical evidence behind the valuable practical information and tips on use.
thank you so much,
Siobhan Connolly-Hogan
Thank you!! Wonderful program, informative and very useful. I am waiting for the next one! I am already using mindfulness and locating emotion in the body. In a state of deep relaxation, I ask them to think of the opposite emotion and find it in the body as well. And then they hold both emotions in the mind and body. Clients find it very powerful and effective.
I have a question – I hoped you’d mention this in your program. Do you recognize a difference in compassion and empathy… and if so, what is it? I am asking this in relation to burn-out some people experience… as a yoga therapist I can use yoga tools to rejuvenate myself but a lot of people suffer professional burnout…
My understanding is that empathy is a feeling response whereas compassion often includes thoughtful reasoned action. What begins as empathy, can move into caregiving and nurturing.
Thank you so much! The whole program today was first class. I especially love Dr. Gilbert’s three emotional systems. I know they will be valuable in helping clients, and myself for that matter, navigate negative and distressing emotions. Once again you have found the top experts in the world to explain the concepts. So excited to hear more!
I found the three circles very valuable as a way to engage a client in the understanding of the importance of soothing emotions. They are so understanding-valued in our society. Balancing the three circles as an exercise is a pragmatic way to allow more self compassion.
I also loved the Soften, Soothe and Allow tool and can see myself using and providing that with clients.
Thank you. Great session!
A very interesting and comprehensive session. Using the circles as motivational tool to encourage re-prioritization of daily activities seems especially helpful. One question: how do dissociative aspects fit into this neurological framework of compassion?
Very useful reinforcement of tools I have I’m my skills box. Too early to say how it will change my communication package.. ie need to give it a try
I am definitely going to share the mechanisms for self-compassion and the three circle model with my clients; the logic will help them overcome their sense of guilt and shame which can get in the way of self compassion.
I do not like the hard sell approach throughout the training to buy, buy, buy/gold package/gold package/gold package. Having said that, I do believe it is a good value. I liked the information, how it was presented, and I look forward to the next modules. Thank you!
I’m afraid I have to agree with this. A brief mention once would have been enough, I understand it’s difficult finding the right payment models, but few of us stop during sessions to remind our clients that agreeing to stay longer in therapy for more money will bring additional benefits.
Providing all 4 sessions at zero charge is incredibly generous. But look at the number of people involved in these webinars, the graphics, titles, planning the script, editing the content, the high production values in every way — how can that possibly be offered at zero charge for everyone? The ratio of what’s offered at no charge (over an hour) compared to the time promoting the purchase of this excellent product (maybe a total of 5 minutes, if even) is reasonable and fair. If people didn’t purchase this series, it wouldn’t be available at no charge for others who can’t afford to pay.
great training session – most important takeaway for me is that self compassion buffers trauma and is a core capacity for recovering from setbacks. thank you!
Loved the description of the different parts of the brain and how they are involved in compassion!