Over several years we had talked of how formal training for Psychological therapists while structured, rigorous and comprehensive nonetheless may still not be enough to fully prepare practitioners to effectively manage and so respond helpfully in the face of client anger and high levels of emotional distress.
We noted this point has also been made by several others over the years (e.g. Safran & Muran, 2011) and our conversations regularly turned to the benefits of Martial Arts training in helping manage our own responses to adverse life events and, in particular, how the benefits of this might apply to the skilful management of anger within the therapy space (or indeed any encounter with strong emotion as a health care professional).
Our AIM
Our aim has therefore been to develop a program/series of workshops which expose participants to Martial Arts inspired skills and practices to further help develop their distress tolerance and compassionate resilience, so as to stay fully present and emotionally available in difficult client/patient encounters.
“I would like to offer praise for Syd and Neil’s Fierce Compassion concept. As therapists and clinicians engaging in this demanding work it is so helpful to understand that compassion is not only gentle but also tough and fierce and comes with immense power. Combining the ancient wisdom of using the breath and movement to stimulate compassion across the flows can be instrumental in self practice.
I would recommend exploring the resources Fierce Compassion Martial Arts has to offer. ”
how we do it
We run a series of one and three day workshops
We emphasise current research findings relevant to anger, martial arts and compassion
We use didactic teaching
We demonstrate solo training drills
We employ partner training
We use a range of sensitivity drills
We focus on compassionate de-escalation, self-management and fence work
Our series of techniques and exercises are designed to encourage your further personal development over time