Episode 8: Compassion and Forgiveness

Welcome to our podcast series which aims to explore how being Useful and kind to yourself, to others and to the world can make things better. Today our theme focuses on ‘Compassion and Forgiveness’. Paul Gilbert is the poster boy for Compassion. His iconic book The Compassionate Mind is a definitive and wide-ranging exploration of the theme. Paul is a British clinical psychologist and founder of compassion focused therapy compassionate mind training (CMT) and author of over 18 books and hundreds of papers. Before retirement, Paul was head of the Mental Health Research Unit, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and he is a Professor at the University of Derby.  He is a fellow of the British Psychological Society and was president of the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapy. He has served on government committees. Paul is passionate about not just researching but helping folk in compassionate ways to understand who they have been, who they are and who they can be. Marina Cantacuzino is an award-winning journalist who in 2003, in response to the invasion of Iraq, embarked on a personal project collecting stories of people who had lived through trauma and injustice and sought forgiveness rather than revenge. As a result, Marina founded The Forgiveness Project and started speaking widely about forgiveness and restorative storytelling. Her outstanding book: The Forgiveness Project: Stories for a vengeful age is a must-read for all of us involved in the knotty and complex issues involved in change and making the world a better more forgiving place.