8-week evening course, London: Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) with Chris Irons

An 8-week Monday evening course, 6.30pm-9.00pm, on the following dates:
7th Jan; 14th Jan; 21st Jan; 28th Jan; 4th Feb; 11th Feb; 18th Feb; 11th Mar

During this innovative 8-week course, participants will be guided in learning how to develop their ‘compassionate minds’. Each session will involve a mixture of taught content, experiential exercises and practices (e.g. mindfulness, imagery, compassionate mind skills development), group discussion, videos and written work. As the sessions progress, participants will learn how to develop and access their ‘compassionate minds’, and how they can use this to reduce self-criticism, balance strong negative emotions (e.g. anger, anxiety, shame), and become more compassionate to themselves and other people.

During the course, participants will learn:
• how our minds are naturally susceptible to getting caught up in to negative thinking-emotion ‘loops’
• about the ‘three emotion systems’ model, and how many of us can get stuck in emotional imbalance
• what compassion is, what attributes help to facilitate it, what can block it, and how we can train our minds in it
• that compassion can come in three different ‘flows’ – to others (compassion for others), from others (compassion from others) and to ourselves (self-compassion)
• Develop skills to balance their emotions by developing skills in mindfulness and compassion

Participants will have the opportunity to develop skills in:
• Mindfulness – we will explore the power of attention and awareness, and practice a variety of mindfulness exercises that can help people to develop greater attentional stability
• Breathing – practicing how certain types of breathing rhythm help to sooth and calm the body, and consequentially, the mind
• Compassion – we will explore how to develop your ‘compassionate mind’ through a variety of practices, including those involving memory, imagery, embodied action, emotion and thinking.

Participants will be asked to do in-between session skills training practice, guided by audio files and written material.

This 8 Week Compassionate Mind Training programme is adapted from the groundbreaking work of internationally renowned psychologist and creator of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Professor Paul Gilbert. Chris Irons has almost 20 years of working with compassion, shame and self-criticism, much of this alongside and in collaboration with Professor Gilbert. He is the author of bestselling book “The Compassionate Mind Workbook”, and is an experienced trainer and teacher in helping people develop skills in mindfulness, self-compassion and compassion for others.