Introducing Kirsty's Compassion Corner

Placing compassion at the centre of psychotherapy through sharing, curation and collaboration

Photo by Jovan Vasiljević on Unsplash

“Kirsty’s Corner”

I miss my old team meetings. There was such a nice vibe; a mixture of catching up with our personal lives, exploring dilemmas and sharing our wins. In the group, I had a reputation for being the nerdy one. I would get excited about CBT, CFT and anything remotely linked to therapeutic intervention. We used to have a little section at the end of the meeting called “Kirsty Corner” where I would excitedly tell people about all the cool podcasts and books I have gotten obsessed with that month.

I would also host a peer supervision group where we would get together and bounce ideas around. It was a lovely space without judgement or a sense of competition. (We’ve all been to those peer supervisions were your heart races and you don’t know what to say - it was the opposite of that!) People would share ideas, role play interventions and talk about things that kept us stuck.

What I was most known for in the meetings and supervision was my love of Compassion Focused Therapy and Professor Paul Gilbert. I can’t stress this enough - I even have a mug with Paul’s face on it.

Since going solo and working fully in private practise I really miss my team. Talking about these things and swapping recommendations with colleagues kept me excited about therapy when things felt hard and learning from others helped to keep my skills feelings fresh. I love to bounce off people. The sense of collaboration was an important part of my therapist identity.

Over the holiday period whilst reading “How to build a world class substack” there was a little section about writing curation posts and it hit me. This could be a digital version of Kirsty’s Corner! A place to share interventions, some curated recommendations for resources and invite people to join in too.

And so this space was born.

Scroll down to my first curated list of things I love - I think you will love them too.

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

”Putting Compassion at the heart of psychotherapy”

I was recently doing some end of year reflection when I stumbled across a scrappy little notebook that I used a few years back to create my vision of what I wanted my business to be. It was a reminder that who I am as a therapist is rooted in my love for Compassion Focused Therapy.

I want to share some random quotes from the visions of past Kirsty.

“I will make a difference in the world by helping people to flourish through compassion and connection. Putting compassion at the centre of psychotherapy and promoting compassion as both a motive and a process within therapy.”

“I believe that putting compassion at the centre of therapy helps people not only heal, but also to live with more purpose, intentions and connection in the world”.

“My hope is that CFT becomes as recognisable as other forms of therapy - a stable in any therapy room.”

My main hopes for starting this project are:

• To support my vision of celebrating and spreading CFT within the wider world of therapy. There are many fantastic practitioners in this space. I hope that I can make my own contribution to the field buy working with others so that, together, we can feel more confident in integrating compassion within clinical work.

• To find ways to satisfy my need to be creative

• To lean into my geeky side and get stuck into reading the wisdom of others

• To find community and connection with other psychotherapists and people who are interested in mental health and compassion.

• To have a space that would allow me to reflect on both my clinical practice and my personal compassion practice.

This seems like a lovely values based way to start my writing journey.

For any of you that subscribed when I was called “A tea break for therapists” this will explain the name change. This feels like coming back to my core vision and values.

Team work makes the dream work

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

I want to experiment with creating different types of posts to get a feel what I like, and what you want to read.

Here are some ideas of what to expect:

• Listicle curated posts with simple recommendations for books, podcasts, substack articles and anything else that I’ve been into recently.

• Story telling posts where I share a little more about myself with links to curated resources as part of the story.

• Intervention and clinical practice posts where I share things that I have been trying out recently and reflections on what has gone well and ways of incorporating compassion into therapy.

I would love this space to become collaborative hub and would invite you to connect and share with me your insights and recommendations too.

The Curation Bit

For my first curation post I wanted to give a shout out to some other substack creators, one thing for personal practice and one thing I use for clinical work with clients.

Substack reads

I’ve found a few people on substack who are writing about compassion, I’m excited to get stuck into their back catalogue. Here are a few interesting posts you may enjoy.

Dr. Stan Steindl - Dr Stan Steindl’s Substack
Dr. Stan Steindl is a Clinical Psychologists with a thriving YouTube channel (click here) called “Compassion in a T Shirt” (which you can also catch here on Substack and as a podcast). Stan talks about the science and practice of compassion by interviewing leading researchers and experts in the field.

Here’s a link to a recent post which gives a great introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy.

Discover the Power of Compassion Focused Therapy

Chris Winson - Compassionate Nature
Chris is a writer and researcher, he has a project called 365 days of compassion over on flipboard (click here) and Facebook (click here). On substack Chris has a beautiful publication that explored compassion, nature connection and compassion within communities. Chris is a true researcher, he brings together findings from different studies and presents that in an easy to understand format. His work demonstrates admirable depth, is inspirational and you could get lost in marvellous rabbit holes with his work.

Here’s a link to a recent article about bird song. Reading this inspired me to take out my headphone on my journeys to work in the morning. Despite being in Manchester walking along busy streets, being able to recognise the blackbird that sings around the same time every day at the top of my road fills me with joy.

Birdsong

Dr Hannah Tayor - Inner Pages Journalling Club

Hannah is clinical psychologist who hosts a beautiful community promoting the power of therapeutic writing. Within her community she kindly shares journalling prompts and compassionate mind practise. I was delighted to hear that she has a book coming soon! Delve into her archive and consider joining her community.

Here’s a link to a recent article with some lovely prompts to get you started.

Starting small with self-compassion

Personal and Clinical Practice

Today I wanted to share a book that I have found valuable for my own personal practice outside of being a therapist. The book is also special to me because I bought my copy on the final day of my CFT diploma. I had the wonderful pleasure of participating in skills work with Professor Paul Gilbert himself - he really is a wonderful man!

Paul Gilbert and Choden - Mindful Compassion

This book is for you if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the link between mindfulness practice and compassion. The book brings together the science of CFT and Buddhist philosophy and practice. In part two “The Practices” each exercise builds on the previous one, taking you from the basic “recognising the unsettled mind” through to acceptance and difficult emotions, into developing “the compassionate self” and “widening our circle of compassion”. Even though I have guided clients through similar exercises many times, reading this book alongside my own practice has deepened my connection and understanding of these processes.

Audio & Video Content

There are lots of wonderful audio guides available, many of which I would highly recommend. For today, let’s start with something from the man himself, listen to Professor Gilbert guiding you through some Compassionate Mind Training (CMT).

The Compassionate Mind Foundation has a wonderful selection of audios.
They can be found here.

The one I am recommending focuses on posture, face and voice tone.

I use a variation of this practice with all clients near the start of therapy. I think it’s important to ‘feel it’ for yourself not just here an explanation when it comes to CMT. When doing this simple practice you can adapt it so that clients experience a demonstration of the power of a ‘brain state’ and how we can use our bodies to support the mind without talking too much about compassion. For many clients talking about building compassion can feel too much in the early stages and they may need something to ‘buy-in’. This is a great way for clients to feel the difference and understand why it may be useful.

When looking for this link, I’ve realised that The Compassionate Mind Foundation have recently added some new recordings, I’ve yet to check those out, so for now here is the one I have used. Let me know what you think and how you may use this in your practice.

Posture, Face and Voice Tones - with Professor Paul Gilbert

Share the love

If you found these resources helpful please share with others who may like them too.

It would make my day if you were to consider checking out some of the people I’ve mentioned.

My dream is to make this a collaborative space. In the comments I would welcome any reflections on what I have shared or recommendations for anything you think I would like too.

Take care folks

Kirsty