Compassion-Focused Therapy | CFT Course

Free Course by Everything IFS Academy | Therapeutic Modalities Series

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Welcome to Compassion-Focused Therapy | CFT Course

Welcome. This free course is a complete, plain-language introduction to Compassion-Focused Therapy, the approach developed by the British clinical psychologist Paul Gilbert to help people meet their own suffering with warmth instead of harshness. CFT was built especially for those weighed down by shame and self-criticism, the people for whom kindness never quite seems to land, but its tools are for anyone with a human brain and a hard inner voice.

A word about what this is, and what it isn't. This is not a collection of lovely thoughts about compassion. It is a working toolkit. CFT treats compassion not as a soft feeling that either shows up or doesn't, but as a trainable skill and a genuine form of strength, and every lesson teaches a real technique you can recognize and use: ways to calm the body, steer attention, picture safeness, become your own compassionate self, answer the inner critic, and think and write with warmth. By the end, you'll know not only what these skills are, but which one to reach for in a difficult moment.

The course moves in three stages. It begins by orienting you to the landscape and the person who built it, then teaches the practical skills one at a time, and closes by showing how they fit together in real life. Each lesson stands on its own, so you can work straight through or dip into whatever you need most. And each lesson ends with a practice, so you can begin applying the skill rather than only reading about it.

Course Outline: Simply click any module title below to open that lesson and begin. Orientation

Module 1 — What is Compassion-Focused Therapy?

Module 2 — Who is Paul Gilbert?

Module 3 — The Three Systems and the Tricky Brain

Core Skills

Module 4 — What Compassion Really Is

Module 5 — Soothing Rhythm Breathing and the Body

Module 6 — Compassionate Attention and Appreciation

Module 7 — Compassionate Imagery: The Safe Place and the Ideal Compassionate Other

Module 8 — The Compassionate Self

Module 9 — Self-Criticism and Shame

Module 10 — Multi-Self and Chair Work

Module 11 — Compassionate Thinking and Letter Writing

Module 12 — The Three Flows and Overcoming the Blocks

Closing

Module 13 — Using CFT in Everyday Life