Deborah Lee, PhD
Deborah Lee, PhD, is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Head of Berkshire Traumatic Stress Service and OPCOURAGE Integrated Services for Veteran Mental Health for the South East of England. She is also an honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at University College London. Dr. Lee has worked in the field of trauma for 32 years and specializes in the treatment of PTSD and Complex PTSD. Her clinical and research interests include working with shame and self-loathing in the context of interpersonal trauma. She has pioneered the development of compassion focused therapy for trauma and complex PTSD and authored the best selling self help book, The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Recovering from Trauma and PTSD: Using Compassion-Focused Therapy to Overcome Flashbacks Shame, Guilt, and Fear (2013). Dr. Lee is also interested in using her model to enhance existing exposure-based trauma memory techniques such as EMDR, prolonged exposure, enhanced reliving, imagery rescripting. More recently she has developed a group-based intervention called “compassionate resilience” to be delivered as part of phased based treatment approaches for CPTSD. The approach is being used as part of a current RCT treatment trial evaluating phased and non-phased cognitive therapy for CPTSD. Dr. Lee has widely contributed to the dissemination of her clinical program through writing and delivering clinical workshops, keynote addresses, and podcasts in North & South America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.
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Profound and informative .
Language of compassion is a state of mind resonates in me
Thank you
Thank you Deborah! Jam packed with helpful content
Waaa this is so reach. Compassion in therapy is not about may people feel better is about developing capacity to be able to navigate through fear ager and sadness, and so many things I have learned in this session.
Thank you so much Deborah.
I am listening from Gombe state northeast Nigeria
I am intrigued by the information given here. She is a great teacher
Thank you for a very informative and well structured presentation!
Thank you for this insightful and detailed lecture.
Thank you for this detailed and insightful lecture. I will definitely be looking at your books.
Thank you so much for this beautifully structured and very informative lecture!
Thank you for your lecture. It has helped me tremendously. You are so clear in explaining.
Thank-you so much for this presentation. It has given me lots of useful information to use going forward and how to take amore compassionate stance.
Thank you, I found this presentation really interesting and informative, I will certainly use some of these techniques in my practice. I like the smoothie to fruit salad analogy! Thanks again.
Absolutely, “I hope my family & friends receive wonderful teachings that open their minds to become better.”
“Thank you very much for the lectures given. They have been a great blessing and encouragement to me. Even though my flesh and my heart may fail, God is the rock of my salvation, as well as the amazing people like Alex Howard & team and all the speakers. And for me.. ‘It’s not my fault!’ There is still hope…”
Thank you for such an in depth presentation about trauma, compassion and the complexities of the human mind and behavior. As a patient, having experienced PTSD from my husband’s sudden death in my arms, reframing my mind around the thought of “it wasn’t your fault” and exercising self compassion has been challenging. My mind keeps replaying that terrible and painful event. Not to mention grief it’s very isolating and misunderstood. Your presentation has been helpful and insightful.
I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. Very insightful and practical.
This lecture was very informative and I learned a lot of techniques on how to implement a compassion-focused space for clients with trauma.
I found your lecture very helpful, it explains so much, it has help me make sense of so many things.
Wonderful session/lecture. I personally most enjoyed Deborah’s specific clearly stepped discussion about supporting the traumatised person back to the trauma and how to make the rewrite of the ‘traumatic event’ a rehabilitative, emotionally effective and safe. Very powerful for me
Very clear COMUNICATION skills
Amazing resource.
Thank you so much for this talk – it helped me to learn a lot more about why I have been the way I have been. WHAT is that self-help book that you recommended? Grateful!
This is an extraordinary presentation, and I have watched alot. Thank you so much.
I found this very informative and very well done. I have been working on the mind since I was about 6 and a half years old with on going learning and growing and overcoming. I am always learning more information and very thankful for all who add to the knowledge and skills to heal from serious trauma, or any trauma. Thank you.
thank you
Wow as a trauma survivor I got so many aha’s with ‘get safe’ responses and the journey to be taken to bring deeply rooted compassionate care so there can be an internalised sense of safety. Thank you for your wisdom and work.
Excellent presentation reflecting the strong connection between the mind & the physical part of the body.
Thank you for an interesting lecture. I have some quite extensive trauma from CSE by my parents and I am also autistic. I would struggle with certain elements of CFT. Social connection is different in autistic people. Typical sociality is somewhat torturous. I am isolated but never lonely. I thrived during lockdown. Grounding is difficult when tied to senses because I am constantly suppressing input from the environment. To call attention to that makes fear/anxiety worse. I have a hard time using imagery because it’s simply not real and I cannot convince my brain to go along with it. Rescripting is the same. For me it would feel immoral and meaningless to make up an untrue story and pretend that it is true. I also don’t feel shame when with others. I just have anxiety because I don’t know how to respond to people/I have no intuitive social knowledge. It is the same with all modalities. The underlying assumptions about what is ‘correct’ or desirable would have to be modified.
Thank you. /
I realised it may be helpful to post what I found did work too.
In case it is useful, I did these things:-
• I found an autistic community to belong to. It is mostly online, but I can now feel comfortable in social situations, at least to some extent. I do have capacity for social connection but it is an autistic social connection. This means I can set reasonable goals and have alternative suggestions for things that are difficult.
• I ditched grounding entirely for complete removal of sensory input, including people. There is a tendency to approach when I am in distress and I need the exact opposite. I have multiple types of synaesthesia, so my sensory experience is intense and complex. I cannot be reached through top-down methods. I experience distress as a physical assault rather than an emotional thing, even though it is fuelled by emotion. I sit on my own in the dark in silence. In daily life, I use regular sensory breaks so I can withdraw to regulate on my own.
• Instead of imagery and rescripting, I learnt what was going on at a psychological, emotional, somatic level in past experiences. If there’s one thing autistic people are good at, it’s detailed research. Once I understand everything I need to about a past experience, I can recognise it and choose how I act now. This avoids the feeling that I’m somehow denying what happened was real. Psychoeducation was key for me.
• Autistic people are usually very generous with potential workarounds, so I have improved my ‘ordinary’ social skills through connecting with other autistic people. I do experience some shame in specific typesof interaction, but the not knowing what to do is the worst part, worse even than fear from trauma stuff. It’s a constant ‘I don’t know how to be.’ The lack of a connection with myself is worse than the difficulty of connection between myself and others who are around me. Structured activities are much better than purely social activities because they give a framework for being, through the rules or sequencing.
I hope that this is a little more constructive than just saying what doesn’t work. There are workarounds. I am loving the conference.
“It’s not your fault”, that’s very powerful and beautiful.
“It’s your fault” your mind say, not you. Just don´t believe it.
thank you. For me as patient quite overwhelming, I confirm the states of mind are always present in the background, that´s why it´s more needed than mindfulness and CBT. Fear of judgement, abuse, rejection are the driving forces for me. I never had anybody accept me or my traumas, foreign ppl rather humiliate and blame me for their actions ongoing(mother was a narcissist). I do protection imaginary with shamanic work I can´t say it helps, but the fact I get angry and am able to be assertive instead of having an emotional reaction or numbing out, saying nothing when abused, it´s good. Anger, grief moves away from self-blame, I was also scapegoated by my both parents, I guess I take it on me as nobody ever is accountable for their actions and insults towards me. I agree that self-regulation via breathing exercises is needed here daily and meditation, that´s why I don´t react. Most ppl I know like me are still unable to self-regulate, they act like small immature kids. The challenge here is, there are many parts at the same time which need to happen in order to feel safe. It´s not just done by meditation or rescripting, it´s all together. Same as those who go to therapy but aren´t able to stop reacting, same. In my opinion, it´s all steps in a change. Only with a regulated nervous system I am able to stand triggers, not engage but defend myself or stop taking the blame on me. That with rescripting I think I do already, the shamanic work suggerates to imagine another outcome, another higher self of me and what would I say to that person. It´s like the chair exercise, why these are so effective I can tell, we victims never get the chance to speak our truth entirely, the society silences us, by get over it once, judging, avoiding us or blaming victims(especially of sexual abuse). We can´t find closure as we can´t say how it affected us to the perpetrators and give the responsibility back to them. So, that´s way more powerful than being expressive in a self-helping group. When you bring up the courage to speak up to the abuser even in your mind, you no longer stay the victim, you regain the power over you and your life.
It is very profound and educational. Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you for a thoughtful, well prepared and relevant presentation. I gained several “nuggets” that I can use for case conceptualiztion and with clients directly in session. Well done!
Thank you so much! Excellent reminders of how we can work through some of these steps
You have given me the best and most comprehensive understanding of what my Complex PTSD is. I started therapy a year ago, but don’t feel I am getting far in it. At age 7 I was kidnapped along with sister & brother in Mexico during the revolution. Subsequently there were three additional kidnappings/held against my will in my teen and early 20’s years. How I have survived is beyond me. But your talk really opened my eyes to my reactive behavior and why all the inflicted trauma by other people shaped me in my life. I turn 78 yrs old in November. I hope now I can begin to let go of the shame/blame I have inflicted on myself all these years at the hands of others, and find some peace and joy. Thank you Dr. Lee, S. Sheppard
Wow this was a great lecture. Thank you
Thank you, this was very informative and I hope to incorporate your suggestions and lead with more compassion within my scope of practice as an RN.
excellent presentation !
Is this the self-help book your were discussing: “The Compassionate Mind Guide to Recovering from Trauma and PTSD”
I could resonate with the grieving. In our work with survivors of the Indian School. We have a grieving ceremony for the child who was abuse and traumatized. Then, they know they feel listen and now have a choice in their healing is within them. Thank you for sharing and plan to get your book.
That quote is from Michael Brown’s book “The Presence Process”. I love that quote.
This is so true, thank you for your important work, and the way you explain the impact of internal compassion to deal with trauma. I felt supported in my healing work after an upbringing and marriage, both living in psychological violence, for almost six decades. I am finally healing with conscious compassion.
Mam, Can you kindly share the slides about which you were talking about. my email- sharmeen.farzan@gmail.com
Hello! So sorry about that. We are uploading a new version of the video with the slides included now. It should be available within a couple hours.
Hello, how do we access the slides ? I only see a youtube video.
Hi Sharmeen, I wanted to confirm that the slides are up now. Thank you for your comment and my apologies for the trouble!
The “get safe” mentality and what a powerful driver it is of both emotion but alkso human behaviour, especially maladaptive behaviours. Thank you for this.
Is there a way to see the slides?
Hello! So sorry about that. We are uploading a new version of the video with the slides included now. It should be available within a couple hours.
Hi Jennifer, I wanted to confirm that the slides are up now. Thank you for your comment and my apologies for the trouble!
Thank you.