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Tag: self-compassion

  • Compassionate Leadership Training programme shows great promise in delivering meaningful changes

    Compassionate Leadership Training programme shows great promise in delivering meaningful changes

    Robert Marx, Sussex Mindfulness Co-Lead, and Arden Boucher, Psychology Undergraduate, share some encouraging findings from an evaluation of the Compassionate Leadership Training course developed and led by Professor Clara Strauss and Robert Marx.

    We’re so pleased that our Compassionate Leadership training has taken off and has been met with an enthusiastic response from senior nurses nationally, managers in a Talking Therapies service, NHS leaders in our own organisation and individuals wanting to use the ideas and practises in it. We developed this training to be rather different from some other comparable programmes because although we value giving useful information, we also believe that it is through personal engagement that lasting change really happens. So the training has a lot of experiential exercises and practices, with recordings to keep listening back, and real life scenarios and role plays of challenging situations. This makes sure that participants come away not just with good ideas for generating a compassionate culture in their workplace but an internal experience of having practised doing it in the training, and access to the resources to keep practising afterwards. This way, participants can keep developing and drawing on their experience, and not just their knowledge, in an organic way. They can apply what they learn in all of their relationships, including with themselves.

    We rigorously evaluate everything we do and so asked participants to complete a survey with various measures before and after the training to assess its impact. We used five measures: wellbeing, self-compassion, compassion for others, compassionate leadership, and work managed on days bothered by health problems at work.

    We found significant improvement across most measures, with participants particularly improving in wellbeing and self-compassion. Participants said they appreciated “understanding the benefits of taking a step back” and gaining “skills in how to approach some of the difficulties in [their] role and how to support others that [they] lead”. Participants reported that “there was so much wisdom to borrow”.

    I do highly value the opportunity for our team to attend together – and think the material is invaluable for our own development and perspective and lived experience of leadership, as well as for the joint work of the leadership group.”

    Another participant commented, “I will continue to attend Sussex Mindfulness Centre courses as I find them deeply nourishing and enriching.”

    We also did not want to just offer something and then leave people wondering how to continue to apply it. So everyone who completes this training is invited indefinitely on a monthly drop-in session with one of the teachers of the programme. In these sessions leaders can bring inspirations and challenges and continue to connect with the growing community of people who are using this approach. This way, we also get to hear how the ideas in the training are being implemented. We can see from this that the impetus from the training is not just a flash in pan, but is helping to bring about lasting change.

    You can find out more about our Compassionate Leadership Training and upcoming dates for courses here.

  • Learn to be kinder to yourself in three easy steps

    If you struggle with the concept of being kind to yourself, consider these questions. When you’ve made a mistake do you find that you turn on yourself? Do you reprimand and blame yourself perhaps muttering sentiments such as “I’m no good at this,” or “I’m out of my depth.” So now apart from the actual problem, you have added another layer of distress by being unkind to yourself. We often don’t notice when we are attacking ourselves, as it happens so automatically. Nevertheless, the relentless self-criticism does make us feel even worse. 

    Now consider this scenario. Your close friend tells you they made the very same gaffe and they’re feeling bad about it. What do you do? You probably show understanding and love, and perhaps you reassure them. Funny that. So, we generally treat other people with much more compassion than we do ourselves. 

    So, why not try self-compassion for a change, and learn to be kinder to yourself. Self-compassion is not to be confused with self-pity, self-esteem or being selfish. “When we learn to love, understand and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person,” explained the much-revered Buddhist monk, Thich Naht Hahn. Even if it feels odd at first, we can develop a healthy habit of being kind to ourselves and that’s good for our wellbeing.  

    Here’s some ways to try out self-compassion.

    1. Next time you’re feeling blue treat yourself the way you’d treat a friend.
    2. Read and follow the practices in the Mindful Self Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer, pioneers of self-compassion.
    3. Secure a place for yourself on the Mindful Self-Compassion workshop led by the two authors (above) in Brighton on 2-3 July 2022. You can find out more and get your tickets here. 

    Like many others, you may discover that self-compassion opens you up to deeper, warmer connections with others. 

    This article first appeared in the Brighton & Hove Independent to coincide with Valentine’s Day. The author, Julia Powell is an associate mindfulness teacher at the Sussex Mindfulness Centre, a part of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The Centre brings together mindfulness practice, research and training to help people improve their mental health and wellbeing. 

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