Compassionate Mind Foundation (Charity)
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| Compassionate Mind Foundation | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Founded 📆 | 2006 |
| Founders 👔 | Prof Paul Gilbert, Dr Mary Welford (Chair), Dr Deborah Lee (Board Member), Dr Chris Irons (Board Member), Mrs Jean Gilbert (Trustee), Mrs Diane Woolands (Trustee), Dr Tom Schroeder (Trustee) |
Area served 🗺️ | |
| Products 📟 | Compassionate Mind Foundation |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | www |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
The Compassionate Mind Foundation (registered charity No. 1120364) was set up in 2006 by Professor Paul Gilbert (OBE) and collaborators. The organisation aims to promote wellbeing through the scientific understanding and application of compassion. Although much of the Charities initial work involved the training of therapists in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) more recently it's work has also focused on the promotion and enhancement of compassion within private and public sector organisations, within the armed forces and with veterans, and within schools. The impact of such work is currently being evaluated.
Main article[edit]
The Compassionate Mind Foundation was set up to help promote the scientific study and the application of compassion to a range of human problems. A guiding principle of the Foundation is that our human potentials for creativity, love, altruism, compassion, but also for selfishness, vengeance and cruelty are all linked to the way our brains have evolved to solve various challenges to survival. For example, parental love and care – so vital to the survival of many mammalian offspring evolved as solution to a range of threats (e.g., predation, lack of food and harsh ecologies). Hence there are systems in our brain that evolved to be attentive and take an interest in offspring, recognise and respond to their distress calls and behave towards them in nurturing ways. These systems form the bedrock for later evolved extensions of caring behaviour and enable us to have concerns for others and want to care for them. As we will see later these are key systems from which the various attributes of compassion can emerge.
However, residing in the same brain are systems that are concerned with self and kin survival, and seeking out things that we see as necessary for our own prosperity or those close to us. Threats and harms to ourselves or those we love, and blocks to the things we are seeking/wanting can activate a range of defensives responses that can include; fear, sadness, despair, frustration, rage and violence. When the brain is in the mode of ‘self protection’ other of its potentials (including those for compassion) can become less accessible. It is difficult to feel kind to people we are very angry with. So the brain is full of a mosaic of potentials that create patterns of activity. We know that is operates via generating patterns because if we use techniques that allow us to see how the brain operates when engaged in various tasks or experiencing different emotions, these variations are associated with different patterns of activity in different brain areas. So our motives, feelings, thoughts and behaviours arise from the activation of different patterns in the brain. Also of course, when we experience brain patterns associated with anger or anxiety we think and feel differently than when we experience brain patterns associated feeling safe, cared for and compassion. Note also something that is implied here. The evolution of our capacity for care and love for some people (e.g., our families or friends) can turn also fuel aggression to those who might or have hurt them.
Modern research is beginning to illuminate the genetic basis of these dispositions and the way our social relationships, from the cradle to the grave, shape our brains and value systems, and thus dispositions to create different patterns of activity in our brains. The more we understand these processes the more we can understand how different patterns in our minds are created. This knowledge allows us to stand back and explore ways to ‘manage the potentials in our evolved brains’ such that we can advance certain dispositions and potentials over others. We are something of a tragic species because our minds are easily taken over by ancient brain systems that give rise to fears, passions, and desires for self enhancement and self protection – including the protection and enhancement of others we are close to. Although these potentials have had evolved functions, they can also be the sources of the best and worse in us. If fact we suggest that cruelty can flourish when compassion falters.
Aims[edit]
To promote wellbeing through the scientific understanding and application of compassion via:
- Helping to identify researchers and others who have a specific interest in the scientific study of compassion and its underlying processes, and facilitate communication and interchange between them.
- To support research and teaching of the compassion focused approach to human difficulties.
- To facilitate open discussion on how to further promote a compassionate focus in many domains of human activity.
- To engage in activities and raise funds to support the work and aims of the Foundation.
International Conferences[edit]
The Compassionate Mind Foundation's main event has been annual since 2012 at the following locations in England:
- 2012 Manchester Conference Centre, Manchester
- 2013 Mary Ward House, London
- 2014 The Studio, Birmingham
Official Training[edit]
All workshops are found on the Compassionate Mind Foundation's website
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- Gilbert, P The Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life’s Challenges
- Gilbert, P Compassion Focused Therapy
- Gilbert, P., & Choden Mindful Compassion
- Lee, D., & James, S The Compassionate Mind Approach to Recovering from Trauma
- Welford, M The Compassionate Mind Approach to Building Self-Confidence
it:Compassionate Mind Foundation
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