FREE !

COMPASSIONATE MIND TRAINING

An 8-week online course for early career & newly qualified Clinical Associate Psychologists (CAPS)

‘Helping you quieten your inner critic so you can be the psychologist you want to be’.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR INTEREST .

THIS GROUP HAS NOW COMPLETED (SORRY), BUT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE CONTACTED ABOUT FUTURE OFFERS, PLEASE FILL OUT OUR SIGN-UP FORM

Does this sound familiar?

 
 

  • You’re a total expert at putting the needs of other people before your own.

  • Even though you seem confident & competent to the outside world, you still compare yourself negatively with other people & feel you’re never quite good enough.

  • Despite all you’ve achieved, you still tend to criticise yourself.

  • It’s sometimes hard to take care of yourself with compassion or to allow others to support you.

  • You know just how overwhelming & exhausting the working life of a psychologist may be & you're concerned about how best to look after yourself moving forward.

  • Some days you feel like an imposter & that you really shouldn’t have got this far.

  • Deep down you feel compassion is more for other people than yourself.

If it’s a ‘yes’ to any of these, you're not alone!

We get it…

You had to dig deep at times to get through your CAPS training. Let’s face it - it was tough. You know it’s going to be important to continue developing ways of looking after yourself as you move forward in your career.

Learning compassionate mind training has helped us through the tough times & we’ve seen the difference it can make for other people too. We only wish we’d learned these skills earlier in our careers & are passionate about sharing this training with you.

- Dr Becky Chasey, Chartered Clinical Psychologist & Founder of Sustain Psychology

- Claire Turner, Professional Singer, Level 2 Qualified Breath-Body-Mind Teacher & Founder of Compassionate Voice

 
 

~What if you could quieten your inner critic?

~Have the support & encouragement you need to sustain yourself always on hand.

~Build your capacity to feel better in yourself.

~Strengthen your ability to cope through the ups & downs of working life?

Join our free 8-week online live Compassionate Mind Training programme.

Exclusively for newly qualified & early career CAPS

Weekly beginning Wed 24th January 2024, 6.30pm- 8.30pm

Based upon the highly respected work of Professor Paul Gilbert & Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), this successful programme has been developed by Dr. Chris Irons & Dr. Charlie Heriot-Maitland, Clinical Psychologists & Directors of Balanced Minds

We aim to help you to build your self-compassion & learn how to better support yourself ~

So that you can feel better, lead a more balanced life, & be the psychologist you want to be.

What do the 8 weeks involve?

With a mixture of live taught content, discussion & experiential exercises, (e.g. mindfulness, imagery, and compassion) you’ll learn proven ways of developing your inner compassion. We’ll explore some of the blocks that many of us have to self-compassion & practice ways of working around these. This is a skills-based programme rather than a therapy group, so although there will be space to discuss the topics covered, you are not required to discuss personal issues.

 

Each of the 8 sessions is 2 hours (approx). In between sessions, you’ll have access to guided audio & reading material to support your home practice in cultivating your ‘compassionate mind’. As the sessions progress, you’ll learn how to use this to reduce self-criticism, balance your emotions & become more compassionate to yourself alongside your compassion for other people. These are skills you can carry with you for life.

You’ll get support & resources:

 

01

Live Online Learning

02

Exercises & Audios

03

Handouts

 

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to take part in a course that normally retails at £250 -

FREE on this occasion only!

Numbers are limited to 15 so don’t miss out

 

AN 8 WEEK JOURNEY OF SELF DEVELOPMENT

 
 

You’ll be guided in learning how to develop your ‘compassionate mind’

 

  • Explore what self-compassion means, what it is & what it is not.

  • Practice how to build the foundations of self-compassion.

  • Find out how to develop & grow your Compassionate Self.

  • Develop your capacity to direct this to yourself.

  • Learn why self-compassion can be so hard & how we can work with our resistance & blocks to this.

  • Explore how imagery & self-compassion exercises can help you to become more caring & supportive of yourself.

  • Gain skills in strengthening your compassionate mind & practice bringing self-compassion to the day-to-day challenges of life.

Compassionate Mind Training has been shown to have multiple benefits:

 

Get reductions in:

  • SELF-CRITICISM

  • PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS

  • SHAME

  • RELATIONSHIP INSECURITIES

Get positive gains in:

  • Self-compassion
  • Positive emotions
  • Wellbeing

  • COMPASSION FOR & FROM OTHERS

    (see Matos et al, 2017 & Kirby, Doty, Petrocchi, & Gilbert, 2017 for a review).

Meet Your Trainers:

Dr. Becky Chasey

Hi, I’m Becky. I’m a chartered clinical psychologist specialised in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) & Compassionate Mind Training (CMT). I have completed advanced training in CFT & have been providing this along with Compassionate Mind Training to individuals & groups for over a decade. I am now additionally a Certified Facilitator of the 8-week CMT programme. I’ve had the pleasure of presenting compassion-focused approaches at national & international conferences & delivering teaching on CFT to psychologists & other health professionals.

I currently facilitate reflective practice groups for clinical associate psychologists & trainee clinical psychologists. My experience supervising early career psychologists has made me acutely aware of the challenges encountered during training & practice. 30 years of working in the NHS taught me the importance of developing self-compassion in the face of the ever-growing pressures of work. Practicing compassionate mind training has helped me immensely through tough times in my life & work & I’m passionate about sharing these skills.

Becky is the Founder of Sustain Psychology

 
 

Claire Turner

Hi, I’m Claire. I’m a professional singer, with a passion for compassion-informed teaching of Singing & Breathwork to help support Mental Health. I studied at the Royal College of Music, graduating with Distinction &, alongside my performing career, I have over 20 years of experience teaching singing, developing a compassionate & gentle teaching style.

I have both a personal & professional interest in Compassion Focused Therapy & Compassionate Mind Training & have completed a number of CFT training courses. In my current MA studies in Voice Pedagogy (Singing for Health specialism), CFT & CMT form the theoretical underpinnings of my research into building a model of practice that is centred around compassion, specifically developing, & implementing breath-based one-to-one singing sessions for females with Anxiety. I am a qualified Level 2 Breath-Body-Mind (BBM) teacher; developed by Dr Patrica Gerbarg & Dr Richard Brown, this Breathwork modality is underpinned by Polyvagal Theory & aligns with the elements of breathing practice used in Compassionate Mind Training. I also work as a Research & Evaluation Adviser for the Singing for Health Network.

Claire is the Founder of Compassionate Voice

 

Our offer to you:

We’re delighted to offer you our combined knowledge & training in compassion-focused approaches, bringing together the benefits of our rich & complementary experience working with mind, body & breath.

Claire & Becky have both completed all four parts of the Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) Facilitator Training Programme, developed by Dr Chris Irons & Dr Charlie Heriot Maitland, equipping us to deliver this evidence-based programme to you.

Want a taster?

Here’s a short recording of just one of the Compassionate Mind Exercises that you’ll have access to.

 
 

Why build your self-compassion as an early career CAP?

  • Self-compassion is associated with positive mental & physical health.

  • Self-compassion is important in the well-being & practice of other psychological therapists including trainee clinical psychologists, novice therapists & trainee counsellors.

  • Compassionate Mind Training has proven beneficial to other psychological therapists & health professionals.

  • If you’re interested in CFT training, personal practice is important both personally & professionally.

    See the research behind this here.

“Compassion is…

a sensitivity to suffering in self & others with a commitment to try to alleviate & prevent it.”

— Professor Paul Gilbert, O.B.E., founder of Compassion Focused Therapy.

PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS HAVE SAID:

  • “I would not hesitate to recommend this course. There is a fantastic balance of psychoeducation, experiential practice, & discussion & signposting to the evidence-base. I can confidently say I have benefitted personally & professionally in attending this course”

  • “Becky & Claire were very kind and encouraging. They made the environment feel very safe to share information & experiences”

  • “I don’t think I can fully recognise to name just how helpful this course has been yet, as each day that passes since the course ended I am noticing more & more how impactful this course has been ”

  • “ We all have tricky brains, including CAPs, give it a go and see what you learn”

FAQS

 

How does self-compassion help?

Multiple studies show that higher levels of self-compassion are associated with benefits such as higher levels of happiness, well-being & positivity, as well as lower levels of self-criticism, shame, anxiety & depression. See the evidence here

I’ve already done some training in Compassion-Focused Approaches - will this still be of benefit?

There is good research to suggest that even for those familiar with CFT, developing a personal practice can be very personally beneficial & also bolsters your ability to work with clients with this approach.

What if I miss a session?

If you miss a session you’ll still have access to the slides, audio & recordings & we will encourage you to access these in order to catch up before the next session. Since this is a free offering, & anticipated to be oversubscribed, if you do join we strongly encourage participation in all sessions please.

Why should I choose this particular Compassionate Mind Training programme?

Evaluation of this 8-week programme shows good efficacy. You can read about this here

When & how often will it run?

The group will run on a Wed evening, weekly, 6.30pm to 8.30pm over 8 weeks.

Will sessions be recorded?

No, this is a live online course & due to the nature of discussions & to protect people’s privacy we’re afraid we are not able to provide recordings.

So how does compassionate mind training help with imposter syndrome?

This article from the creators of this compassionate mind programme explain this here

What will I need to take part?

We ask that you commit to attend all 8 sessions & to be willing to engage in home practices to get the most benefit from the programme.

For each session you’ll need a quiet personal space, good internet access, & a charged laptop using Zoom.

Isn’t self-compassion weak & self-indulgent?

These are common myths about self-compassion. The research actually shows the opposite – the more compassionate you are towards yourself, the more able you are to deal with life’s difficulties in life, & more likely to take responsibility for your mistakes & failures.

How long will I have access to the self-compassion course?

You will have access to the course materials for 6 months from the end of the course.

Please do get in touch if there’s anything else you want to ask.

 

Yes I’d like to join the training