Hello!
Welcome to 2020 and the CMA Summer newsletter.
At a time of environmental catastrophe in Australia it is hard not to reflect on the year just gone, and on the new decade ahead. Surely, compassion for each other, our natural world and ourselves is even more needed. And, as we enter the 20's of 21st century, it is with awe that we recognise how far the scientific evidence for compassion has come in the past decade. Kristen Neff began publishing research on the benefits of self-compassion in the early 2000's. It wasn't until 2009 that Paul Gilbert published his seminal paper "Introduction to Compassion-Focused Therapy" in the journal Advances in Psychiatric Treatment.
Since then, compassion and self-compassion have become almost house-hold terms with scores of articles, blogs and celebrities discussing the benefits of holding oneself in mind, compassionately. Compassion based approaches are no longer considered the kooky cousins of the mainstream therapies but have a legitimate and robust evidence base of their own. Where might we be in another year, or ten?
Here at CMA we have been reflecting too, on how we can best support the Australian compassion community. The overwhelming majority of emails and messages sent to us seek information on how to locate clinicians, supervisors and trainers knowledgeable in compassion-based approaches. Our major focus for 2019 was identifying how best to manage this demand whilst also recognising our values and mission with the constraints of being a small, volunteer based organisation. We don't have the details to meet your requests just yet, but we are closing in on some big developments so watch this space!
In the meantime, we remain dedicated to supporting the study and application of compassion based approaches, and supporting local clinicians and enthusiasts throughout Australia. If you have a research project or event coming up, please contact us to discuss how we may be able to help spread the word. If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to contact us on info@compassionatemind.org.au. Don't forget to check our Events page regularly to stay updated regarding upcoming trainings and workshops.
Finally, if you haven't already, please head over to our Facebook page and like us to keep updated with new research, resources, events and news related to compassion focused approaches. We hope to see you there!
Until next time,
The CMA team
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The following is an edited extract from the eagerly anticipated book
The Power of Suffering (Simon & Shuster, March, 2020)
by David Roland, Executive Committee member and one of the founders of Compassionate Mind Australia
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Trauma inflicted by another adds an extra dimension to our recovery. If we react in an eye for an eye manner we become what we abhor. When the action of the perpetrator is criminal, the law of the land replaces the immediate vengeful response and passes judgment and rectification in a more considered way. But, the actions of the law do not necessarily liberate those who feel wronged from feelings of personal vengeance. It is up to the person to find release. I am reminded of the story of Mary Johnson, an African American, from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Mary lives in the apartment adjoining the home of 34-year-old Oshea Israel and they share a porch. She assisted him to become her neighbour. In February 1993, the then 16-year-old Oshea shot Mrs Johnson's son, Laramiun Byrd, 20, in the head after an argument at a party. Laramiun died as a result.
Mary wanted justice. "He was an animal. He deserved to be caged," she said at the time. Oshea served 17 years in jail for second-degree murder before being released.
However, before his release and ten years after the murder Mary, at her Pastor’s suggestion, began to pray for Oshea like she prayed for herself. Her Pastor said, ‘Every time his name comes up, every time you hear it within yourself, say, ‘I choose to forgive.’
Mary did this and she began to change. Oshea, maturing, also changed. In 2005, Mary contacted the Department of Corrections requesting a face-to-face meeting with Oshea. The meeting lasted two hours and they learnt a lot about each other. At the end of the meeting they hugged.
‘I instantly knew that all that hatred, the bitterness, the animosity, all that junk I had inside me for 12 years, I knew it was over with. It was done. Instantly, it was gone,’ Mary has said.
Thich Nhat Hahn, the Buddhist monk and Noble Prize nominee, has said, ‘When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity for accepting and having compassion is there.’
‘Unforgiveness is like cancer,’ Mary has said. ‘It will eat you from the inside out. It's not about that other person, me forgiving him does not diminish what he's done. Yes, he murdered my son - but the forgiveness is for me.’ This is a deeper level of connection with oneself, posttraumatic growth; I think. Mary and Oshea now travel the country speaking about the power of forgiveness.
Research has pointed to forgiveness of a personal transgression requiring a spiritual element, a going beyond of how we ordinarily think. Dr Fred Luskin, a psychologist and director of the Stanford University’s Forgiveness Project has said that this level of forgiveness, like Mary’s, is more common than most people would imagine and that those who have long practised a forgiving attitude are more likely to be able to forgive.
The Forgiveness Project has developed a nine-step secular training using proven psychological techniques. One of the steps is described as, ‘Remember that a life well lived is your best revenge. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, and thereby giving the person who caused your pain power over you, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you. Forgiveness is about personal power.’
But we don’t need to experience the degree of trauma that Mary Johnson lived through to benefit from forgiveness. We can engage it in more generally. During my recovery from stroke and PTSD, I had hard feelings towards those whose actions I found harmful. But, after a time, I realised that focussing on these feelings fed more resentment and hindered my progress, sucked on my personal power.
I turned to a loving-kindness meditation drawn from Buddhist practices. First I cultivated loving-kindness for someone I easily felt love for, usually my daughters, then I focussed the loving-kindness on myself, then on a neutral person and then a difficult person. I did this practice daily for months. I didn’t understand it then, but I would now explain it as cultivating the affiliative/soothing system.
Remarkably, my resentment towards difficult people softened, without altering the details and import, in my mind, of their transgressions. It didn’t change them directly, but it changed me. This is forgiveness for oneself, I think.
Forgiveness for the other, as Thich Nhat Hahn describes it, requires seeing the other’s suffering. Early in my career my work as a prison psychologist had caused me to wonder many times, if I had grown up in the circumstances the prisoners had, would I have ended up in prison? A child or young person doesn’t get to choose their parents or their life circumstances and we don’t get to choose the upheavals that life unexpectedly throws at us but we do get to choose what we do with them.
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Compassion Interest Groups
CMA is excited to pass on the information for a number of peer interest groups popping up around Australia. If you are interested in learning more about the groups below, or joining, please contact the organiser directly via the contact details listed.
Brisbane - Rhonda Stanton (cftigbrisbane@gmail.com)
Sunshine Coast - Lisa McLean - (kindmind@bigpond.com)
Gold Coast - Marie Bloomfield and Rebekah Doley (marie@bloomfieldpsychology.com.au)
Cairns - Cheryl Cornelius (ccpsych@bigpond.net.au)
Perth - Helen Correia and Karee Stewart (Helen.Correia@murdoch.edu.au)
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A Practice for Honoring the Transition to a New Year
Anne Alexander reflects on the end of the decade and the start of a new year.
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Sit comfortably, relax your body, and close your eyes.
Slowly, gently, breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth.
Now, imagine that you are breathing in all of 2019 and what transpired for you, bringing the whole year into your lungs with each breath.
Survey your memories as they come in on your breath and fill your lungs, catching glimpses of the year’s high and low moments.
Allow yourself to feel the good, bad, disappointing, marvelous, wondrous - thanking everything that life brought to you this year.
Feel the fullness of the year, savoring these moments of reflection.
Let it all go. With a few deep, long exhales, let it all go.
Experience the tides of your breath a few times, in and out, and then rest, sensing the air coming in through your nostrils and flowing out.
Let your breath flow naturally, effortlessly.
Next, imagine a field of snow, freshly fallen all around you, pure, expectant, inviting.
Allow your heart to swell and your ears to attune: What is calling to you this year? Where does your heart long to go? Feel and sense deeply.
When you are ready, let your eyes flutter open: Welcome to a new beginning.
Take some time to take note — and ideally, write down — some of what came up for you during your meditation. What thoughts and memories burbled to the surface? What feelings came up for you? What made you smile? Feel calm or nourished? Are there things you feel relieved to let go of and leave in the past?
...
This article has been reproduced from mindful.org. The original piece can be found here.
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Join the CMA team and come along to this free online event -
"Each day of the Radical Compassion Challenge brings you:
- A teaching session and guided meditation on core topics such as embodied presence, self-compassion, self-forgiveness, seeing goodness, releasing blame and conflict, and living with the world in our hearts
- A daily compassion-in-action assignment, giving you the chance to contribute to a more loving world in a grounded and practical way
- Interviews with 10 thought leaders and visionaries, sharing their insights on cultivating mature compassion, the power of mercy, opening our hearts to "the enemy," making mindfulness sacred again, finding our common ground in the political landscape, and much more"
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International Presenter - Paul Gilbert with Hayley Quinn
Paul Gilbert (OBE) is returning to Aus in 2020, and hosting 2 workshops with our very own Hayley Quinn!
Introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy
19th - 21st Feb 2020
3 days
Herston QLD
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Compassion Focused Therapy Masterclass
Thurs 27 Feb 2020
Limited Spaces
Brisbane QLD
Paul Gilbert is the founder of Compassion Focused Therapy and the Compassionate Mind Foundation (UK), with over 40 years clinical and research experience. Dr Hayley Quinn PhD is an experienced Clinical Psychologist and the current President of Compassionate Mind Australia. |
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International Presenter - Tobyn Bell with James Bennett-Levy
Another duo of local and international legends in compassion are joining forces to bring 3 experiential workshops to our Eastern shores in 2020, across one action-packed week.
The Underpinnings of Compassion Focused Therapy
Mon 10 Aug 2020
Byron Bay, NSW
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Experiencing Compassion Focused Therapy for Ourselves: a 2-Day Self-Practice/Self-Reflection (SP/SR) Workshop
11th - 12th Aug 2020
2 days
Byron Bay, NSW
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Byron Bay, NSW
Tobyn Bell and James Bennett-Levy co-authored "Experiencing Compassion from the Inside Out: A Self-practice/Self-reflection Workbook for Therapists" (Kolts, Bell, Bennett-Levy & Irons, 2018). More recently Bell has published A definite feel-it moment: Embodiment, externalisation and emotion during chair-work in compassion-focused therapy.
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Tina Gibson & James Bennett-Levy
The Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) Program, designed by Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff, has rapidly gained acceptance internationally as a profound way to learn to cultivate the skills of self-compassion – for therapists and community members alike. MSC is an empirically validated program.
Mindful Self-Compassion Skills: A 5 day Self-Experiential Training21st - 25th Sept
5 days
Byron bay, NSW
Tina Gibson is an experienced and passionate Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) teacher, and is the only certified MSC Teacher Trainer and Mentor in Australia.
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Do you have an upcoming workshop or training? Contact us at info@compassionatemind.org.au to find out about our very affordable advertising packages, which include advertising in upcoming newsletters, on our website and on our facebook page.
Don't miss out!
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