The Compassion PDA is a intervention that we can use in CFT to help people tackle upcoming situations that they are likely to get caught in their threat systems about. 

PDA stands for Pre, During and After, and gets people to consider across three different time periods – pre to a difficult situation, during a difficult situation and after a difficult situation – what might be happening in their threat system if it were in control.

After that, we look to the idea of pattern switching – of helping people to move from their threat mind to the support and wisdom of their compassionate minds. Here, after engaging with the compassionate self, we get people to consider the three time  zones again – pre to a difficult situation, during a difficult situation and then after a difficult situation – but this time considering how the compassionate self would deal with each instead. 

Taken from The Compassionate Mind Workbook, you can download a blank version of the form here (or look at it below), and also look through a completed example here or below 

If you’d like some help to work with gaining confidence with self-compassion practices, try some of our self-compassion courses here