Compassion Community of Practice
The purpose of the Compassion Special Interest Pod is to provide a secular Compassion Community of Practice (CCoP) as a way of co-regulating and processing difficult emotions that arise within the Ecological Awareness Cycle. The CCoP serves as both an antidote to empathic distress fatigue and climate-related burnout in the coach, and their clients in turn, and also develops qualities beneficial to the coaching relationship and better coaching outcomes.
The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor.
Principles
- Practice over theory
- Guided compassion practice as a foundation for compassionate listening and dialogue
- Consistent format with changing themes
- Be Present: Guided Compassion Practice
- Be With: Attuning to One Another
- Hold Space: For Inquiry & Resonance
- Inclusive and accessible to all
Topics
- Self-compassion
- Embracing shared common humanity
- Cultivating compassion for others
- Compassionate listening to self and others
- Why compassion practice?
- Cultivating qualities beneficial to the coaching relationship
- Compassion practice and better coaching outcomes
- Compassion practice as an antidote to empathic distress fatigue and climate-related burnout
- Coach maturity and vertical adult development
- The neuroscience of compassion
CCoP Meetings
We meet monthly (generally on the third Wednesday) at 4-6pm London time. Please check the Coming Events page to find out more and to register. Calendar for 2025…
12th November
10th December
Get In Touch
Without inner change there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.
Sharing some thoughts from our members ...
How does the Compassion Community of Practice help and support members?
Kate Ensor
"It's a psychologically safe space to experience/process with others whatever emotions are presenting themselves in the moment. It's also a great place to practice compassion as others express their feelings about the climate chaos. It helps our climate work by sensing the connections that bind us all and not feeling so alone in the work."
Anne-Marie Brest
"The Compassion Community of Practice is a very special space. You come along, you settle in, you see welcoming faces. In a way, there's no 'agenda' but you soon realise there is very much an intention, and mindful inputs. Which all in all, create the conditions for you to ground yourself, feel whatever you're feeling, rail against the injustices and messes all around us, and be heard, held, understood. You always leave feeling deeply connected to other human beings who care, you feel grounded, your heart feels less sore."
This separation is a crisis of human consciousness; disconnected from the reality of interbeing and the wider, wondrous field beyond the thinking mind. It is a crisis of heart and soul. As Joanna Macy says - a crisis of spirituality... And the antidote is love.
The CCoP is a community of interbeing…practicing wholeness and love. It offers a space to show up in all your messiness and be witnessed but not fixed, held but not contained... To Be.
A space where in loving community we can listen to what is present, tune into the field, deeply connect, open our tender hearts and co-regulate in the shelter of each other."
What has been the impact of attending and what feedback and reflections can you share?
Kate Ensor
“I look forward to attending as I feel more connected, grounded and centered after the gathering. I wish I could attend more regularly and with more participation from people in the US."
Anne-Marie Brest
"When I think of the CCoP I usually smile to myself, and remember that here is a group of wonderful human beings who deeply love our Earth and all Beings on it. Everything is welcome here, and I know any time I'm here, I will feel held and seen. I will feel deep connection, and huge compassion. And even though the world is still the same when I leave, I feel different. I feel understood, held, grounded; I feel a love energy, a compassion energy."
There is a quote from Yung Pueblo “ If you are wondering who your people are, they are the ones who make your heart feel seen and your nervous system feel calm. Yes, it’s that simple.”
The CCOP are my people. Yes, it’s that simple. I knew this the moment I arrived. From the level of comfort to be in stillness together. The space between words. A homecoming.
We are all called in some way to serve in the world. We all long to give of ourselves fully. And in order to do this we need to cultivate peace in ourselves. The CCOP is a place I go to resource myself to be in service of wisdom and love.
It is soul food, spiritual nourishment, soothing for my jangled nervous system.
In this space I feel connected to a field of love."
Compassion Retreat Spaces
During September and October 2024, we offered a four-session series of Compassion Retreat Spaces. These were designed to help CCA members – and by extension, their clients – turn gently towards where there is numbing, and to kindly meet difficult emotions, wherever participants find themselves in the Eco-Awareness Cycle.
The Spaces were designed to support nourishing, deep adaptive individual and community-based reflection, learning, growth and renewal, and be supportive of conscious intention-setting for the year ahead. Each Space introduced a compassion practice and explored a particular theme. Below you’ll find a link to each session (click on the title) together with a copy of the Resource Deck. Display these by clicking on the image. You can read the resources on here, or you can print or download them.
Creating And Maintaining A Sangha
In society, much of our suffering comes from feeling disconnected from one another. We often don’t feel a real connection even with people we live close to, our neighbours, our coworkers, and even our family members. Each person lives separately, cut off from the support of the community.
Practicing mindfulness (and compassion), we begin to see our connection with other human beings. To flourish in our own practice and to support others, we need a community.
Being with a Sangha can heal these feelings of isolation and separation. The Sangha is a garden, full of many varieties of trees and flowers. When we can look at ourselves and at others as beautiful, unique flowers and trees we can truly grow to understand and love one another. One flower may bloom early in the spring and another flower may bloom in late summer. One tree may bear fruits and another tree may offer cool shade. No one plant is greater or lesser or the same as any other plant in the garden. Each member of the Sangha also has unique gifts to offer the community.
We each have areas that need attention as well. When we can appreciate each members’ contribution and see our weaknesses as potential for growth, we can learn to live together harmoniously. Our practice is to see that we are a flower or a tree, and that we are the whole garden as well, all interconnected.
With the support of the community, we can practice to cultivate peace and joy within and around us, as a gift for all of those we love and care for. We can cultivate our solidarity and freedom – solid in our deepest aspiration and free from our fears, misunderstandings, and suffering.
When you engage in Sangha building, the most important thing to remember is that we are doing it together. The more you embrace the Sangha, the more you can let go of the feeling of a separate self. You can relax into the collective wisdom and insights of the Sangha and see clearly that the Sangha eyes and hands and heart are greater than that of any individual member of the Sangha.
From Happiness by Thich Nhat Hanh (2009)