ONLINE: Applying Compassion Focused Therapy to Physical Health Problems

Timings and Registration‍

This workshop will be 14 hours towards your CPD, and you will receive a certificate of attendance shortly after the workshop via email. Handouts will be sent via email to be brought to the workshop. There will be no formal registration. You will be placed in a waiting room once you click on the link and the CMF Team will add you to the meeting.

This workshop is priced at a flat rate of £239.00. For those in difficult financial circumstances, who may struggle to afford this price, please contact hello@compassionatemind.co.uk

Dates

2nd and 9th July 2025

09:30 - 16:30 each day - All timings are according to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Level: Intermediate

About this Course

This two-day intermediate workshop is aimed at psychologists and therapists with some CFT knowledge and/or experience of working with physical health problems. We will explore how Compassion-Focused Therapy can help us to understand the distress and disability caused by long-term physical health symptoms, such as pain and fatigue.

We will explain how to use the 3 systems model to formulate health-related distress, using case examples and providing opportunity for participants to bring their own cases for discussion.

We will introduce the concept of “striving,” which evolved to help us to function in times of feast and famine, but can drive overactivity and exacerbate physical health symptoms.

This workshop will consider different levels of application of CFT in physical health. We will cover Compassionate Mind Training to support self-management of physical symptoms and Compassion Focused Therapy to understand and change long-standing barriers to self-management. We will introduce the use of Multiple Selves formulations for understanding critical self-talk and the unintended consequences of long-standing ways of approaching physical health problems. We will also provide examples of CFT group work for physical health conditions and use of CFT in multi-disciplinary teams and healthcare systems.

There will be opportunity for guided practice of compassion-based exercises and techniques.

Key learning points

· Using CFT theory to understand and formulate difficulties with adjustment and self-management for people with physical health problems

· Understanding the role of striving and self-criticism in maintaining distress and disability

· Application of CFT to enhance self-management of physical health problems

Key References

Armitage, L & Malpus Z (2019) Compassion Focused Therapy for Strivers in Pain: Pain and Rehabilitation Journal of Pain Physiotherapy Association: Issue 47 p6-11

Austin J, C. Drossaert C, Schroevers M, Sanderman R, Kirby JN & Bohlmeijer ET (2020): Compassion-based interventions for people with long- term physical conditions: a mixed methods systematic review, Psychology & Health 36(1):16-42.

Malpus, Z, Smith, C & Armitage L (2022) Compassion Focused Therapy for Pain Management: The ”3 systems approach” to understanding why striving and self-criticism are key barriers to regulating activity and improving self-care for people living with persistent pain British Journal of Pain 17 (1) p87-102

Workshop Leader(s):

Dr Zoey Malpus is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist based at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. She has been working in the NHS for over 25 years and she currently works full time in Heart / Lung transplant, working alongside the surgeons to help people to prepare for and live well after such life-changing surgery. Zoey has been using Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) in her physical health work since 2011.

The CFT approach is a new development in physical health because it specifically addresses “striving” an area that had not previously been addressed by more traditional “fear-avoidant” models. Zoey worked in pain management for over 20 years and she developed this work into CFT for Pain Management groups. Zoey will share the outline and the content of those eight week groups. She has run 36 CFT for pain groups now with statistically and clinically significant outcomes and highly encouraging patient feedback.

Compassion-based approaches are also highly relevant to understanding shame in all medical settings. Many people with long term conditions report that they have experienced iatrogenic distress, caused by health professionals either not believing their symptoms or making them feeling judged and as though “your suffering is your own fault”. CFT can help us to understand this very normal trauma response to such invalidation and offers more non-judgmental and courageous ways to respond self-assertively to this unfairness.

Zoey is currently chair of the Physical Health Special Interest Group of the Compassionate Mind Foundation, UK. She was previously an elected Council Member of the British Pain Society (2016-19) and she has contributed to numerous national guidelines and core standards for Pain Services in the UK.

Dr Lesley Armitage has worked with physical health problems since qualifying as a counselling psychologist in 2009. Her experience includes pain management, weight management, spinal cord injury rehabilitation and major physical trauma. Lesley is the author of a book chapter entitled “Opposites Attract? Counselling Psychology in Medical and Physical Health settings” (in: Best, Nicholas, & Bradley, (Eds), 2022). She began using Compassion Focused Therapy in 2013 and has a special interest in the application of Compassion Focused Therapy for physical health problems and for staff working in healthcare. Lesley has developed and delivered compassion-focused groups for pain management in primary and secondary care. Lesley and Zoey have written two papers together outlining their work using CFT with “strivers” in pain management (Armitage & Malpus, 2019; Malpus, Nazar, Smith & Armitage, 2022). Lesley has also developed a therapist-guided self-help programme for overeating, based on Ken’s book “The Compassionate Mind Approach to Beating Overeating” and is currently writing the Clinicians’ Guide to accompany the second edition of this book. Lesley is Principal Psychological Therapist in the North East and North Cumbria NHS Staff Wellbeing Hub, where she is currently developing a compassion-focused group for health and social care staff who are struggling with menopause symptoms.