This is one day HYBRID workshop with Professor Paul Gilbert that will be delivered in Birmingham (and online) on 12th October 2026

This is a one day HYBRID workshop that will take place on 12th October 2026 in Birmingham (with livestream access), and is part of our 15th International Conference.

For more information about our conference program please visit:

https://www.compassionatemind.co.uk/cmf-conference-2026

Timings

All timings are according to UK Time

9.30 to 16.30 BST

Venue

Millenium Point

Curzon St, Birmingham B4 7AP

Pricing Face to Face

Early Bird: £185.00 (ends on the 31st July 2026)

Student Rate: £145.00

Member Rate: £ 175.00

Emerging Country: £105.00

Standard Rate: £205.00

Pricing Online

Early Bird: £125.00 (ends on the 31st July 2026)

Student Rate: £105.00

Member Rate: £ 115.00

Emerging Country: £75.00

Standard Rate: £145.00

For those in difficult financial circumstances, or to pay in instalments or via invoice, please contact finance@compassionatemind.co.uk

About this Workshop

Who for

This workshop is for people who are interested in learning about the applications of compassion focused therapy to the problems of harsh self-criticism.

Scientific background and outline:

Our newly evolved brain, with its multiple competencies, enables us to naturally, consciously and unconsciously monitor many aspects of our functioning and experience. Not only do we monitor them, but we can also judge them. When we judge ourselves negatively, we can become harshly self-critical. That stimulates unhelpful processes in our brain. CFT helps people see important distinctions between compassionate self-correction where we are open and honest about errors and setback but can feel encouraged to make changes. In contrast the motives and emotions of harsh self-attacking undermine us and deplete our confidence, making us more vulnerable to mental health difficulties. Learning how to identify harsh self-critical brain states investigate their underlying origins and functions and switch to compassionate brain states is key to promoting compassionate well-being.

CFT is a brain state theory and therefore therapists can identify the different characteristics of a particular state (e.g. attention thinking behaviour etc) and how to generate alternatives as shown in the diagram.

We will explore

The basic conceptual framework of CFT

Distinguish different types and functions of self-criticism and explore functional analysis of self-criticism.

How and why generating compassion brain states operates his antidotes to our self-criticism

Key references

Gilbert, P & Simos ,G. (2022 eds). Compassion Focused Therapy: Clinical practice and applications London. Routledge (see chapters 'Internal shame and self-disconnnection' and 'From harsh self-criticism to compassionate self-correction and guidance)

Löw, C. A., Schauenburg, H., & Dinger, U. (2020). Self-criticism and psychotherapy outcome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 75, 101808.

Petrocchi, N., Ottaviani, C., Cheli, S., Matos, M., Baldi, B., Basran, J. K., & Gilbert, P. (2024). The impact of compassion-focused therapy on positive and negative mental health outcomes: Results of a series of meta-analyses. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 31(2), 230–247.

Zaccari, V., Mancini, F., & Rogier, G. (2024). State of the art of the literature on definitions of self-criticism: a meta-review. Frontiers in psychiatry, 15, 1239696.

Workshop Leader

Prof Paul Gilbert, FBPsS, PhD, OBE is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and honorary visiting Prof at the University of Queensland. Until his retirement from the NHS in 2016 he was Consultant Clinical Psychologist for over 40 years. He has researched evolutionary approaches to psychopathology with a special focus on mood, shame and self-criticism in various mental health difficulties for which Compassion Focused Therapy was developed. He was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 1993, president of the BABCP 2002-2004, and was a member of the first British Governments’ NICE guidelines for depression. He has written/edited 23 books and over 400 papers and book chapters. In 2006 he established the Compassionate Mind Foundation as an international charity with the mission statement To promote wellbeing through the scientific understanding and application of compassion. A recent major meta-analysis has shown CFT to be a highly effective therapy (Petrocchi et al., 2024).

Description supplied by the event organiser.