External Resources

Following up from one of my previous posts, here is a video of a presentation given by Dr. Victoria Sweet, author of the book, God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine. In the video, Dr. Sweet shares some content from the book, talks about the concept of veriditas, the “efficiency of inefficiency”, and of the power of utilizing both fast medicine and slow medicine. Read more ›

In the book, Mindful Compassion, you will find an important sub-heading: “Mindfulness of the Chaotic Mind, Not Just the Still Mind” (see chapter five). The book is written by psychologist, Paul Gilbert, and mindfulness and compassion meditation instructor, Choden. The 10-word sub-heading is so important, containing a key concept, practice, and lesson in and of itself. Read more ›

I am currently reading the biography, God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet (copyright 2012). From this reading, I have learned many things not limited to but including

1. the word, viriditas
2. that viriditas comes from the Latin word for green, and
3. that one meaning of viriditas that was used by Hildegard during a period of premodern medicine is “the analogous power of human beings to grow, to give birth, and to heal” (p. 86).

Read more ›

You can sign-up for this course on the Coursera website. It looks interesting and began last week. The course includes information from evolutionary psychology (a branch of psychology that influences compassion-focused therapy). Read more ›

Compassion-focused therapy aims to help us cultivate certain skills, qualities, feeling states, and motivations (e.g., skills and qualities compassion, feelings of safeness, the motivation to show care and to alleviate suffering). These we can then use to help work with particular difficulties or situations such as shame, self-criticism, or difficult emotions. Compassion-focused therapy also aims to help address and alleviate the fears and blocks we may have to experiencing compassion Read more ›

The e-book, Compassion: Building Practice and Science, edited by Tania Singer and Matthías Bolz is hot off the press! You can learn about and download the e-book  here. The 531 page book is divided into four main sections: experiences with training compassion, concepts of compassion, science of compassion, and training programs of compassion. Read more ›

The Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery (formerly The Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behaviors) launched their great new name this month along with a redesigned website that is amazing! This is an excellent resource for learning about self-injury, finding links to other resources, and for the on-going research the team conducts in the field. Check it out by clicking here.

My congratulations and appreciation to the CRPSIR team!

I pledge to spend the rest of my life focused on developing and promoting ways to increase compassion among millions of people worldwide.
—Dr. Yotam Heineberg (May 2013)

Here is a recording of a short presentaiton given by Dr. Yotam Heineberg, “The Future of Psychology: Compassion-Focused Outcomes” (May 2013). I watched it this morning and  thought to myself, “What an awesome way to start the day”. Read more ›

Free the Mind is a documentary film exploring the influence of aspects of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga on children (one child in particular is featured) and veterans. I watched it recently at the Screening Room in Kingston and see that it will be back for encore shows there next week on Wednesday and Sunday. Read more ›

Early summer greetings! I received information this week on a soon to be occurring research study that has room for more participants. The study is on the effectiveness of an online education program for parents who have children between the ages of 12 and 20 who have engaged in self-injury within the last year. It is being conducted by Cornell University and the 3-C Institute for Social Development in Cary, NC.

Below is the call for participants Read more ›