Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)

Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), as an evidence-based approach, can genuinely be of significant help in restoring emotional safety, self-worth, and resilience in cases of troubles with such aspects as shame, self-criticism, trauma, or overwhelming feelings. Our licensed therapists apply CFT to assist people in learning to be mindful of themselves, overcome the damages of the past and become in control of their emotional issues at Palm Coast Treatment Solutions.

In our center, we are adding Compassion-Focused Therapy to our addiction and mental health treatment model to help you:

• Reduce harsh self-judgment

• Heal from shame and guilt

• Create a more supportive inner voice.

• Enhance long-term recovery.

You do not need to continue to fight with yourself. CFT provides a fresh perspective on relating to your thoughts and emotions, daring, wise, and loving.

Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is employed to assist with addiction recovery by training individuals to be more loving to themselves, which is useful to minimize shame, self-criticism, and guilt that usually come along with addiction.

What is Compassion-Focused Therapy?

The compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is a treatment modality that assists the person to practice self-compassion to counteract self-criticism, shame, and uncomfortable feelings. It combines the ideas of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with the evolutionary psychology, neuroscience and Buddhist philosophy to develop a more compassionate approach to self and other people. CFT involves the application of different exercises, which assist the clients in calming down and bringing their systems of emotional regulation into balance.  

CFT teaches you how to:

• Know the development of your brain and emotions.

• Be aware of your threat, drive and soothing systems at work.

• Learn to be compassionate with yourself and others.

• Develop inner resources to cope with pain without resorting to destructive coping mechanisms.

At Palm Coast Treatment Solutions, you will be equipped with CFT to be able to stop attacking yourself and being ashamed and begin understanding and developing yourself.

How Compassion-Focused Therapy Helps in Addiction Recovery

The addiction usually flourishes in the conditions of:

• Shame (“I’m a failure”)

• Self-devaluation (“I do not deserve to receive better treatment)

• Hopelessness (I will never change)

• Emotional avoidance (I can not deal with the feeling I am getting)

CFT directly aims at treating these patterns by:

• Minimizing shame and self-accusation experiences of the previous use and relapses.

• Making you realize that addiction is a behavior in response to suffering, rather than being a sign of personal vulnerability.

• The development of self-compassion means that you will be able to take care of yourself rather than blame yourself.

• Getting more empowered to meet cravings, urges and triggers with more calmness and clarity.

• Compassion-focused therapy exists as an evidence-based treatment to aid in providing profound, lasting recovery at Palm Coast Treatment Solutions.

Key Principles of Compassion-Focused Therapy

Our discussion of the short circuit of quickly activating emotional regulation in the brain includes three systems:

Threat System

• Concerned with safety and survival.

• Associated with fear, aggression, shame, and self-demonstration.

• Excessive in most cases of addicts and trauma.

Drive System

• Achievement-oriented, exciting, and reward-oriented.

• Commonly associated with the pursuit of substance use/compulsive behaviors.

Soothing System

• Concerned with protection, love and satisfaction.

• Helps to establish relaxed, self-accepting, and safe relationships with others.

• A good number of individuals with addiction possess strong threat and drive systems and have weak soothing systems. CFT can enable you to build the calming system and thus feel safe, grounded, and attached without having to use the substances.

Compassion-Focused Therapy for Addiction at Palm Coast Treatment Solutions

We use CFT in all our programs on the treatment of addiction to enable you:

• Know how shame, trauma and self-criticism contribute to the use of substances.

• Learn how lab affects sympathetic skills in coping with triggers and cravings.

• Get back on track without descending into self-pity and surrender.

• Develop a steadier and benevolent association with yourself.

The Applicability of CFT in Addiction Therapy

In Palm Coast Treatment Solutions, Compassion-Focused Therapy is usually used along with:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - To alter the ways of thinking and behaviors.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) - To enhance emotion regulation and distress tolerance.

Trauma-informed therapies - To heal past experiences that lead to present pain.

Group therapy - To establish community and diminish shame through experience.

Compassion-Focused Therapy assists you in remaining in treatment and meeting with honesty as well as establishing resilience, all of which are essential to lifetime sobriety.

Who Can Benefit from Compassion-Focused Therapy?

Some of the situations when CFT is effective include:

• Too much focus on oneself is never good enough

• Difficulty with guilt, self-dislike or loathing.

• Possess some trauma, neglect, or criticism history.

• Does not feel at ease receiving kindness or support.

• Something or other actions are used to avoid painful emotions.

• Suffer from depression, anxiety, eating problems or personality problems with addiction.

At Palm Coast Treatment Solutions, we adjust CFT to every story, culture, and value in you.

What to Expect in Compassion-Focused Therapy Sessions

At CFT sessions within Palm Coast Treatment Solutions, you will be held to:

A Nonjudgmental Space

Our therapists do not stand to greet you with a cold perception but rather with a curious and respectful thought. You are not bad or broken; you are a suffering human being.

Understanding Your History

We speak about the way your childhood life experiences, relationships and environment influenced you to develop a pattern of self-criticism, fear and coping mechanisms.

Learning in the Brain: Courteousness and Emotions.

We also teach you the operations of your throat, digestive and circulatory systems so that you can know what is being done in you and why.

Sharing Knowledge of Companionship.

You will get to be acquainted with concrete support systems, such as breathing, imagery, self-talk and mindfulness, to respond quite differently to unpleasant feelings.

Applying CFT to Recovery

These include our work with cravings, triggers, relapse risk, relationship conflict, and life stressors; we work with them using compassion-based methods.

Some clients will, in the long run, notice:

• Growth of the feeling of less shame and self-incrimination.

• Vast emotional stability.

• Improved relationships

• Less reluctance to protect their future and health.

Levels of Care Offering Compassion-Focused Therapy

At Palm Coast Treatment Solutions, Compassion-Focused Therapy is applied on more than one level of patient care, which includes:

Inpatient/Residential Treatment:

Vigorous, organized setting with CFT alongside actual therapy and care.

Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP):

Day treatment consists of practicing CFT in real time as you resume your normal daily activities.

Outpatient rehabilitation:

 ICU, intensive outpatient units are home-based services offering the most convenient and economical delivery of services (Nutting, 2002)

Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP):

Commercial and flexible care in which CFT assists you in working, studying or taking care of your family.

Outpatient & Aftercare:

Ongoing CFT-based therapy is ordered to sustain the progress and avoid relapses.

Why Choose Palm Coast Treatment Solutions for CFT & Addiction Recovery?

We will ensure that at Palm Coast Treatment Solutions our motto will be:

• Respecting, dignifying, and being compassionate to you.

• Treating addiction and treating emotional pain.

• Giving evidence-based, trauma-informed care.

• Experiencing a secure location where you can recover from your self-shame and criticism.

We do not simply watch the substances we help free our lives from but rather create a life that is worth staying sober in, you know, in compassion with oneself and others.