Blog
Clinical tools, research updates and reflections on shame, self-criticism and compassion — 113 posts since 2014.
-
January 2017 Tool of the Month: 18 + 9 Science-Based Reasons to Try Loving-Kindness Meditation
Lovingkindness meditation (LKM) is an effective way for highly self-critical people to engage their social safety system. LKM helps highly self-critical clients put a brake on the…
-
December 2016 Research Roundup: Viva las Vagus
Unfortunately there often seems to be a wide chasm between what happens in the research lab and what happens on the front lines of clinical work. On the one hand, researchers need to listen…
-
Working with Clients to Identify Personalized Lovingkindness Phrases
In addition to the sequence of lovingkindness meditations we have created for use with highly self-critical clients, we have found that it is often powerful for the phrases used in…
-
December 2016 Tool of the Month: Assessing Fear of Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is great. It feels all nice and warm and fuzzy, right? Actually, maybe not, at least not for everyone. In fact, for a lot of folks, particularly those who struggle with…
-
November 2016 Shame and Self-Compassion Research Update
Every month, we scour the scientific literature for interesting studies that have practical implications for therapists working with shame, self-criticism, or compassion. Below are a few of…
-
Now and Then: Using temporal framing to facilitate more flexible, compassionate perspective taking
One of the core processes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is “self as context” work, or, as we prefer to call it, flexible perspective taking . In our work with those struggling…
-
November 2016 Tool of the Month: Empathy Exercise to Help You Prepare for Sessions
Do you ever have times, maybe at the end of a long day of seeing clients, that you feel disconnected or apathetic? Of course you do; we all do. It’s tough to remain present to suffering…
-
October 2016 Shame and Self-Compassion Research Update
Every month, we scour the scientific literature for interesting studies that have practical implications for therapists working with shame, self-criticism, or compassion. Below are a few of…
-
1,000 Likes and a summary of our most popular content to date
We are grateful and humbled that last month we reached 1,000 likes on Facebook ! As we celebrate this milestone, we wanted to take a moment to thank all our supporters over these last few…
-
October 2016 Tool of the Month: Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness Scale
In a recent post, we wrote about how the absence of criticism in a person’s history is not the same as the presence of warmth . It is not necessary for clients to have a history of extreme…