Video production team

Project leads:

• Shaun Brown, Teacher & Programmes Director at The Difference education charity (www.the-difference.com)
• Charlie Heriot-Maitland, Clinical Psychologist & Director at Balanced Minds (www.balancedminds.com)

Animator:

• Joel Cooper, Illustrator (www.joelcooperillustrator.carbonmade.com)

About the video

This cross-disciplinary collaborative partnership between Shaun Brown (education sector) & Charlie Heriot-Maitland (health sector) created this short animated video to help educate the parents of school children about ‘tricky brains’, ‘multiple selves’, and the role of compassion in helping to resolve parent-child conflict and other difficulties. This video draws from the science and practice of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), founded by Paul Gilbert and developed by the Compassionate Mind Foundation (www.compassionatemind.co.uk).

The video formed the basis of a new training programme for school teachers, created by Shaun and Charlie, called Developing a Compassionate Mind for Parents (DCMP, launched in 2020). This programme trained teachers in how to have supportive conversations with school parents about difficult experiences and conflicts they may have had with their children. In the programme, teachers received an introduction to the key priniciples of CFT, and then watched 3 short video clips of Shaun and Charlie role-playing a parent-teacher restorative conversation, using CFT techniques, particularly the ‘multiple selves’ technique. Teachers then experienced practicing these 3 elements of DCMP for themselves:

• Introducing your “emotional selves”
• My “emotional selves” in a difficult situation
• How could my “Compassionate Self” respond

For more information about the amazing work of The Difference charity in tackling social injustice by helping schools and school leaders to become more inclusive, please visit their website: www.the-difference.com.