Compassion is good for your body and brain. Caring for and collaborating with others is also key for a healthy future. In this episode, Dr. Paul Gilbert, founder of Compassion Focused Therapy, offers some wisdom and action steps to harness your compassionate mind and get through this pandemic, cooperatively.
Listen and Learn
- How our brains evolved to cooperate
- How you can use your compassionate mind to regulate your threat system
- What is the “Flow of Compassion” and how can we use it to navigate COVID-19 and beyond
- The science behind compassion for others/cooperation
- Tips to not let the psychology of entrapment get the best of us in quarantine
- A heartening take on the impact of social distancing on our children
- Ways to harness our drive system to strengthen immune function
About Dr. Paul Gilbert

Paul Gilbert, FBPsS, Ph.D., OBE is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and honorary visiting Prof at the University of Queensland. Until his retirement from the NHS in 2016 he was Consultant Clinical Psychologist for over 40 years. Dr. Gilbert has researched evolutionary approaches to psychopathology with a special focus on mood, shame, and self-criticism in various mental health difficulties for which Compassion Focused Therapy was developed. He was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 1993, president of the BABCP 2002-2004, and was a member of the first British Governments’ NICE guidelines for depression.
Dr. Gilbert has written/edited 21 books and over 250 papers and book chapters. In 2006 he established the Compassionate Mind Foundation as an international charity with the mission statement: To promote wellbeing through the scientific understanding and application of compassion. Dr. Gilbert was awarded an OBE by the Queen in March 2011 for services to mental health. He established and is the Director of the Centre for Compassion Research and Training at Derby University UK and has written and edited many books on compassion. His latest Book is Living Like Crazy.
Resources
- The Compassionate Mind Foundation
- Living Like Crazy, by Paul Gilbert, PhD
- The Compassionate Mind, by Paul Gilbert, PhD
- In the Battle Against Corona Virus, Humanity Lacks Leadership by Yuval Noah Harari
- 144. Healing Racial Trauma with Dr. Kristee Haggins (Re-Release from June 2019)
- 89. A Gift For You. Soothing Rhythm Breathing
- 90. Dr. Paul Gilbert on Tricky Brains, Caring, and Living Like Crazy
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