Compassion Focused Therapy at Combat Stress Part 3

At Combat Stress, we use Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) to help veterans who experience strong feelings of shame or guilt linked to military trauma and violence, or who hold negative views about themselves such as thoughts that they are worthless, useless or bad. They may also have had experiences in the military that affected their sense of who they are and went against their deeply held morals and values.

Our CFT group developed specifically for veterans, Be Your Own Ally, was created to help veterans understand the impact of early experiences, traumatic events and the possible impact of military culture, and to explore where feelings of shame and guilt can come from and how they develop. Veterans learn how to use self-compassion to manage anger, shame, guilt and avoidance, and to respond to difficult situations in a healthy, wise and balanced way. The compassion veterans learn during Be Your Own Ally improves their ability to respond to their own distress with care and understanding and has a wider positive impact on their relationships, parenting, hobbies and work.