Foundations of CFTp – Mar 2026

The Foundations of CFTp workshop provides a basic overview of the application of CFT to individuals experiencing distressing voices and extreme beliefs. This workshop is open to all individuals interested in learning more about this approach. The workshop will outline Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) psychoeducation and how evolution has set humans up with a tricky brain that has a natural threat bias that can incline towards dissociating, problematic attention, and over-estimating threat, using ‘better safe than sorry’ algorithms. It will guide participants through the CFT formulation of voice-hearing and delusions, which focuses on their (protective) function for people, particularly in the context of interpersonal threat and trauma. Building on these de-shaming foundations in psychoeducation and formulation, workshop participants will learn how to support their clients in developing a ‘compassionate self’ identity and how to switch into compassionate mind states that organize multiple physiological processes differently from that of threat states. This training is open to all individuals regardless of experience or role.