Compassion-Focused Programs.

Find Inner Strength! Find the Friend Within!
Self-compassion for better self-care!

“Compassion is the courage to descend into the reality of the human experience”. Paul Gilbert

The power of a compassion-focused approach
Mindful Self-Compassion, Compassionate Mind Training and Compassion-Focused Therapy are empirically validated approaches to reduce stress, burnout, anxiety and depression while increasing resilience, well-being and better relationships. It consists of learning mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion practices to use in daily life, to calm, to soothe, to turn to difficulties to promote more balanced and satisfying relationships.

Our Mission
MindfulPath is committed to offering compassion-focused training programs, that are presented either live online or face-to-face workshops/retreats in Australia to psychologists and other health professionals. We wish to support their personal and professional journey in mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion. We bear witness to the balance, strength, and resilience that those practices have to offer, especially, in times of crisis so we can live more in line with our values to be helpful and not harmful.

We have presented over 50 workshops since 2014 in Australia and overseas.  Our teachers are highly experienced Clinical Psychologists who are enthusiastic and specifically trained in Mindfulness, Compassion and Self-Compassion. They have extensive professional training, with each having many years of personal practice in Meditation, Mindfulness and Self-Compassion. The approach is secular and provides evidence-based clinical skill-building programs to reduce burnout and promote better self-care for therapists, as well as improve therapeutic clinical outcomes for clients.

What is compassion?
Compassion is defined as a sensitivity to the suffering of self and others, with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it (Gilbert, 2017). Compassion-focused approaches involve the practice of mindfulness along with the notion of common humanity. We all have a tricky brain that we did not design or program which creates difficulties for us as we navigate our relationships and meet challenges in our lives. It is not our fault but we are responsible!   We learn to deal with our physiological and psychological conditionings so as to better support the mind. The motivation for compassion is to soothe and calm, to balance the autonomic nervous system, so we can turn to difficulties, to bring about better resolve to our challenges.  We learn those skills for ourselves, so we can teach them effectively to others. Everyone will benefit!

The practice of compassion, mindfulness and self-compassion has transformed millions of lives. It is redefined as the ability to care, to comfort, but also to strengthen the self as needed. It is revolutionising self-care and emotional coping skills in behavioural medicine and psychology. Compassion is a way to courageously attend to inner difficulties with understanding and wisdom to empower the self. Developing compassion is to acquire an attitude of goodwill towards the self and others, to be able to skillfully attend to challenges. We learn to be aware in the present moment of difficult feelings (mindfulness), to bypass negative thinking bias or default mode, to support ourselves, and to respond in line with our values.

Compassion is not sainthood, self-indulgence, narcissism or self-pity but a way to relate to shame, inner criticism, anger, anxiety and distress by reconnecting with the self and others to ease pain and gain greater emotional strength, resilience and well-being. Training in the practice of compassion can create dramatic shifts psychologically and behaviourally.

Can we have too much compassion?
Even though the practice of compassion is a powerful source of strength and healing, we have many misgivings about it. Many fear that compassion is about pity, indulgence, weakness, too much empathy or undermine motivation. Research shows that individuals who are naturally compassionate or have learned to cultivate compassion are not affected in this way. Rather than criticising themselves harshly for making a mistake or indulging in pity when they fail, they can adopt a kind but realistic view of their experience and are more open to exploring ways to improve. They find a healthy balance between self-acceptance and self-improvement. Compassion provides inner emotional resources, fostering a sense of connection with others, promoting genuine caring behaviours for ourselves and others, with the courage and motivation to meet our goals, and acting on our values of being helpful, not harmful.
 

Better relationships at home and in the workplace
Compassion fosters a positive relationship with ourselves as well as with others, at home and work. In the various programs, we will explore how to be a better partner,  better parent, better therapist but also how to be a more effective carer, co-worker, manager and leader in the workplace. Health professionals find new resilience to prevent burnout and caregiver fatigue.  When we become more self-compassionate, the people around us also gain. We become more understanding and compassionate with others. Everyone benefits!

Mindfulness, Compassion and Self-Compassion aim to:
•    Reduce stress burnout, anxiety, depression and caregiver fatigue
•    Calm and soothe so we can turn to the difficulties
•    Motivate with courage
•    Improve performance
•    Manage difficult emotions
•    Enable effective problem-solving in line with our values
•    Be more confident and successful
•    Promote positive relationships
•    Access intuition, inner wisdom and creativity

Your most important relationship is with yourself!
When we have a good friend to support us unconditionally, we are happier and stronger. When the friend is within this is even more true. In these programs, we learn to become our own best friend by being kind to ourselves in bad and good times, in sickness and in health, when we make mistakes and when we succeed. We are in a relationship with ourselves for the rest of our lives, so we cultivate it to make it a good one! When we gain an ally in our own mind, we have greater resilience and capacity for wellbeing. We can re-parent ourselves and transform our attachment style by gaining a secure attachment to ourselves. 

How is Compassion helpful?
In the last fifteen years, research has shown that mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion promote psychological and physical well-being for everyone (Bluth and Neff 2018, James Kirby et al 2019), but also for health care workers (Ciro Conversano et al. 2020). Mindfulness alleviates stress and assists in preventing burnout, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue, while compassion promotes resilience and satisfaction. The practice of compassion-focused approaches reduces anxiety, depression and loneliness promoting the experience of greater social connectedness, optimism, emotional intelligence, happiness, resilience, better relationships and overall life satisfaction. Being compassionate to ourselves helps us to carry this compassion towards others, so we can have more healthy balanced relationships.  
 

Who is it for?
Our compassion-focused training programs target psychologists and other health professionals such as social workers, school teachers, counsellors, nurses, medical practitioners, lawyers, occupational therapists, mindfulness/yoga teachers, coaches, managers, and students. We welcome anyone in the caring profession who wishes to integrate mindfulness and self-compassion in their personal life as well as in their work.

We have seen how much this program helps professionals in every field, by improving their relationships (with clients, patients, consumers, students and colleagues) as well as alleviating empathetic distress, fatigue and burnout while increasing their resilience, satisfaction and well-being.

Live your life fully!  Live Compassionately!