Compassion Focused Therapy – What It Is, What It Targets, and the Evidence

Abstract

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) was developed by Paul Gilbert to target self-criticism and shame which underpin many clinical disorders. At its core, CFT is an integrated and evolutionary-informed biopsychosocial and contextual model of therapy. It is a form of therapy that has been used with a range of different clinical populations, including eating disorders, trauma, personality disorders, bipolar, anxiety, and depression. The aim of this chapter is to describe the origins of CFT, the definition of compassion used by CFT, and how CFT is proposed to work by targeting specific psychological and physiological processes. In this chapter, we will also describe compassionate mind training, which is a time-limited skills-based programme aimed to address self-criticism and shame. Finally, the chapter will introduce a case formulation of CFT, as well as a new 12 module protocol of CFT, providing an overview of session content.