The document discusses three emotional systems: the threat system, the drive system, and the soothing system, each playing a vital role in survival and emotional balance. It highlights how threat emotions can dominate our attention and thought processes, while balanced emotional systems contribute to goal orientation and feelings of safety. Strategies are suggested for fostering self-compassion and addressing self-criticism to activate the soothing system.

1. CFT: Session 3

2. Home work check in:
 Practice SRB twice per day last week….

3. This session:
 3 Types of emotional systems
 1. Driven, excited, vital
 2. Contented, safe, connected
 3. Anger, Anxiety, Disgust
 All are normal, all helped us to survive, we all
have them…

5. The Threat system:
 Make us pay attention to threat: things that
might harm us…
 Emotions: Anger, fear, anxiety, disguist
 Activates powerful bursts of emotion that
activate our survival response:
 Fight
 Flight
 Freeze/submit

6. Threat emotions are pushy…
 We have evolved to pay more attention to
threat:

7. Better safe than sorry….
 Threat emotions are very efficient (fast and
automatic)
 Kept our ancestors alive
 Threat based learning can persist very
strongly from one incident (imagine what
happens after repeated incidents??)

8. Keeps going and going:

9. How?
 New brain (ability to think about the future,
worry, create imagery) feeds the initial fear,
keeping it going, sometimes for a lifetime (e.g.
worry and rumination)
 When it’s balanced with the other systems, it
can keep us safe
 But.. it often takes up more than it’s fair
share of brain space.. Not in balance.

10. The Drive System:
 Our ancestors needed to acquire things to survive
and prosper: food, shelter, comfort, mates, social
position
 Feelings: Excitement, lust, ambition
 Actions: wanting, pursuing, achieving, consuming
 Activates Dopamine (related to addiction),
continual pursuit of pleasure rushes…
 When balanced, keeps us goal-oriented

11. The Soothing System
 Associated with feelings of safeness, calm,
peacefulness, contentment
 Associated with experiences of kindness,
affection, acceptance and connectedness
 During this state, our attention opens,
becomes reflective, relaxed.
 We want to explore, be curious, giving to
others, and social

12. Safeness and Social Connection:
Disrupted attachment histories,
interpersonal trauma causes
closeness to be associated with
threat instead of safety

14. Dilemma?
 What do we do when experience has taught
us to fear the very connections that we need
to feel safe?

15. Getting the safeness system
“online”
 Different systems “organize the mind” in
different ways:

16. In a dark alley
Someone begins to follow you

17. Fear
Attention
Thinking
and
Reasoning
Motivation
Behavior
Images
Emotions:
Mind and
Body

18. Relaxing at the
beach
With a good friend…

19. Safe and
Soothed
Attention
Thinking
and
Reasoning
Motivation
Behavior
Images
Emotions:
Mind and
Body

20. Summary:
 The three circles allow us to shift from,
“there’s something wrong with me” to we all
have these feelings because they helped our
ancestors survive
 We see that self-attacking continues to
activate the threat system, compassion gets
the safeness system working

21. Homework:
 Complete the self-critical vs self compassion
thought record
 Catch, Challenge then Change!