Mental health charity boss praises academic’s compassion guide
Tuesday 3 October 2017
THE BOSS of a mental health charity has praised a guide written by a University of Salford psychotherapist aimed at helping people become more compassionate to themselves.
Dr Beaumont explained: “Cultivating a compassionate mind can help people cope with that bully we all have within us at times. Learning how to avoid being too self-critical, and to care about yourself, may sound straightforward but it’s an essential skill that people need to spend time practising.”
It follows a study the Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy team carried out looking at the effects of compassionate mind training – a system developed to help people create ‘self-supporting’ internal voices – on the University’s own student psychotherapists, who were likely to be more vulnerable to stress and self-criticism due to their work with distressed clients on placements.
The study, published in the Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice found that introducing students to compassion training had huge benefits on the students, reducing their levels of self-criticism and stress while also boosting their self-confidence.
Learn to be kinder to yourself
Nicky Lidbetter, Chief Executive of Anxiety UK said: “This is a much welcomed book and one that is will inevitably prove to be a valuable resource for our clients and stakeholders.
“Learning to be compassionate and kind to oneself is not something that is usually associated with those that have personal experience of anxiety, stress and anxiety based depression.
“This book provides an easy to read overview of self-soothing techniques and strategies and is an essential read for those with emotional wellbeing issues that want to be firmly positioned in the self-care driving seat.”
Dr Beaumont said: “We all have moments of suffering and distress but if we can learn to be kinder to ourselves and cultivate a compassionate mind this can have a positive impact, which is important as there’s increasing evidence suggesting that concerns about inferiority, shame and self-criticism have a negative impact on our physical and mental health.
