Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) Online

What is CFT?

Compassion focused therapy (CFT) was initially designed to help people who are highly self-critical. A critical inner dialogue contributes to low mood, anxiety and disproportionate amounts of shame and/or guilt.

It was realised that for some people, traditional CBT was not having the full desired effect, perhaps because they unconsciously attributed positives to be self-critical (e.g. being critical of myself motivates me and helps me to excel) and negatives to being more compassionate toward themselves (e.g. if I’m kinder to myself, I’ll be less disciplined).

These people could often recognise alternative ways of seeing themselves, but couldnt feel it on a ‘gut level’. CFT aims to close that gap, to help us not only think differently, but to feel differently too.

CFT holds all humans need to feel loved and accepted, because in our evolved past, our survival depended on it. When this doesn’t happen, we feel threatened, and develop strategies, which whilst understandable, can be unhelpful.

Self-criticism often arises from early trauma, such as abuse, neglect, bullying, a lack of affection or warmth, or parental/peer criticism. This can lead us to develop basic fears about what the outside world can do to us, e.g. reject us, hurt us;  which can cause internal panic, rage, and other ‘uncontrollable’ emotions.

Most of us lack the opportunity to develop healthy or adaptive coping strategies to cope with potential external ‘attacks’ and unwanted emotions, so we develop strategies that seem appropriate given the circumstances. These may include: avoiding certain situations, being overly submissive, and always putting others first. Whilst they seem effective in the short term, they often lead to unwanted consequences.

​The unintended consequences of these strategies may be, for example, that they and we don’t understand our own values/needs. This can cause difficulties being at peace with our self. We may then criticise ourselves over these unintended consequences. So when faced with setback, we experience both our inside and outside world as hostile and rejecting.  

It’s important to realise that these reactions are not our fault, nor are they easily controlled –they arise from evolved learning, modelling and conditioning AND a lack of opportunities to understand the source of distress, and how to self soothe in the context of a setback.

Compassion Focused Therapy has been used effectively with a number of disorders including anxiety and depression.

Counselling Psychology Online are a group of trained CFT Therapists with a vast amount of experience in the field. We’re based throughout the UK in London, Surrey, Kent, Somerset and Stoke, and service clients throughout the UK online.