I like to think we are entering an Age of Compassion. Sure, there are horrifying developments happening politically around the world, but the heartening thing is that the people are resisting. They are taking action to advocate for and protect others who are suffering. Thousands of people are marching, protesting and taking part.

Many compassion-based interventions have been developed over recent years. Compassion-focused therapy (CFT; Gilbert, 2014), Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT; Jazaieri et al., 2013), and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC; Neff & Germer, 2013) are all approaches to enhancing compassion for others and for oneself. Such programs are vitally important to nurture this growing compassionate movement. The challenge is that all of these programs require people to engage, do self-practice and take compassionate action. They require behavioural change!
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This is where motivational interviewing (MI) can contribute to making the world a more compassionate place. MI has long been used as a prelude to other treatments, including CBT-based interventions, and has been found to enhance program engagement, homework practice and program completion (Burke et al., 2003; Hettema et al., 2005). 

Perhaps MI could be incorporated as a prelude to compassion-based interventions?

In particular, MI could help potential participants to explore and enhance their sense of importance regarding living a more compassionate life, and their confidence in being able to do so. 

​Furthermore, these interventions often include (a) engaging with, and attending, the intervention’s sessions, sometimes 8 weekly 2-hour sessions, (b) to complete the self-practice for homework, especially loving-kindness and compassion meditations, and (c) to take steps towards specific compassionate or self-compassionate actions in daily life. These specific behaviours could be the focus of MI in compassion-based interventions.

The world is facing enormous challenges at the moment. Fear and anger are being used to motivate people to hunker down, self-protect, and exclude and reject others. Ultimately this is causing greater suffering. MI could make a wonderful contribution to helping people to explore more deeply their values and their abilities to take part in making the world a more compassionate place.

​References:

• Burke, B. L., Arkowitz, H., & Menchola, M. (2003). The efficacy of motivational interviewing: A meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 843–861.
• Gilbert, P. (2014). The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 53, 6-41.
• Hettema, J., Steele, J., & Miller, W. R. (2005). Motivational interviewing. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 91–111.
• Jazaieri, H., McGonigal, K., Jinpa, T., Doty, J. R., Gross, J. J., & Goldin, P. R. (2014). A randomized controlled trial of compassion cultivation training: Effects on mindfulness, affect, and emotion regulation. Motivation and Emotion, 38(1), 23-35.
• Neff, K. D., & Germer, C. K. (2013). A pilot study and randomized controlled trial of the Mindful Self-Compassion program. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69, 24-44.

The more I practice MI, the more I research and read about MI the more I am convinced that empathy is both necessary and perhaps at times sufficient for change to occur. I recently facilitated an empathy workshop in my local community in Christchurch. I was inspired by an Amnesty International project in Berlin Germany called ‘Look beyond borders’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XhrXUoD6U.

The project aimed to close the gap between different people. In this case refugees and Berliners. It was based on a psychology experiment conducted in 1997 by Arthur Aron In his study, "The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness," he found that in as little as four minutes of eye contact with a stranger you can develop a bond, a closeness.

I thought it would be interesting to bring a group of about 40 strangers into one place and have them conduct their own four minute experiment, talk about empathy and how to bring down walls between people. I replicated the four minute experiment by asking complete strangers to interact with each other for four silent minutes and to report to each other what they were thinking and what the felt. The results were interesting. Some cried, others laughed, some were silent. Many new friendships were born. I can’t report on every outcome, but the experience was powerful, and I think it made a difference.

We need more empathy, not only in clinical encounters, where we know that relational skills are as important as technical skills. We need more empathy in civil discourse, and we need to remind ourselves that we are not that different from those who might look different or who come from different countries, religions or creeds. We all need empathy and compassion and to feel understood by others. We need to build connections and bridges between people. We do not need more walls.