CBCT News and Events

CBCT® and SEE Learning India are once again partnering to train a new cohort of CBCT teachers in India. From January 14-17, 2024 a group of approximately ten teachers in training will gather at the Drepung Loseling Meditation and Science Center in Mundgod, Karnataka for a four-day retreat led by Dr. Lobsang Tenzin Negi, executive director of the Emory Compassion Center and the developer of CBCT. The retreat is an opportunity for the new group to deepen their knowledge and practice of CBCT under the guidance of Dr. Negi.This will be followed by a two-day intensive workshop facilitated by Senior CBCT instructors Reshma Piramal, Neha Bhatia and Carol Beck. 

During the workshop, the group will focus on the pedagogy of CBCT while also delving into the research supporting CBCT as a means to increase personal resiliency and well-being while expanding the practice of compassion in a more inclusive and sustainable manner. After the live retreat and workshop, the group will continue with an eight-session long practicum over Zoom to further develop their teaching skills. After the successful completion of the practicum and the supervised co-teaching of a course, participants will become certified CBCT instructors. In 2021, the first training of CBCT teachers in India was organized by SEE Learning India and despite the challenges of the pandemic, an exceptional group of eleven successfully completed their certification. That course was facilitated by Penny Clements and Carol Beck.

If you or someone you know is a breast cancer survivor and is interested in participating, click here to learn more: https://www.nursing.arizona.edu/content/breast-cancer-suport-project

Active treatment for breast cancer typically includes months of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. When treatment ends, survivors and their caregivers often feel disconnected, anxious that cancer may return, depressed due to the many losses they’re handling, and unsure about ‘the new normal’ of how their lives will look like going forward.

To address some of these psychological factors of survivorship, a five-year study was launched with our long-time partners at the University of Arizona to examine the effectiveness of CBCT as a support for the wellbeing of breast cancer survivors, who learn and practice compassion training along with caregiving partners. The study is also looking at the effectiveness of providing CBCT online with the hope of providing courses to people who live in distant or rural areas.

During this study, participants take an 8-week CBCT course online via Zoom. The first cohort of participants completed the course in July and the second cohort begins on September 30, 2023. One of the course co-teachers, Sally Dodds, shared, “It’s wonderful to see how quickly CBCT can help participants find a sense of calm and connection. And we’re seeing how eager they are to connect and share their breast cancer experiences with others in the same situation.” The SUPORT (Survivors and Partners Online Together) Project is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute to the University of Arizona College of Nursing. Thaddeus Pace, Ph.D., is the Principal Investigator.

According to Forbes India, CBCT® has "already impacted 1200 healthcare providers across 20 districts in Bihar towards building compassionate leadership in the public healthcare system. This has created compassionate leaders at every level, from the security guards at the point of entry to the hospital manager." Improving the healthcare system is part of India's larger goal to become a developed nation by 2047. This report confirms what we all know at heart – that compassion is integral to delivering quality services respectfully and making them available, affordable, and accessible. The full article is available here.

Recently I signed a form declaring my intention to bequeath assets. They are to be dedicated to CBCT^® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training), a facet of Emory’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. What does that have to do with honoring nobility? To begin, those dedicated funds are there in large part because my father had a strong work ethic and a desire to care for my mother when he died. After he died, my mother was a good steward of those resources. And generous, too. Her heartfelt desire was to protect them so that she could pass them on to me and my sister for our well-being. And I’m able to protect them. My life has been blessed with the generosity of others besides my mother. Their acts of kindness have contributed to a financial stability that allows me to leave my invested assets untouched. As I approach the end of my life, I’m seeking further stewardship of those funds. Here’s where trust rides on nobility. I’ve come to know Dr. Lobsang Tenzin Negi, Timothy Harrison, and others who are a part of advancing CBCT for a safer, kinder world. I’ve observed their devoted efforts to uphold ethical and moral principles themselves and to teach mind-training techniques that foster the development of those noble character traits, contributing to human thriving. Compassion illumines the path to freedom for a soul seeking the embrace of a soft and gentle peace.  

While taking CBCT myself, I faced my own suffering from the effects of eight years of chronic, debilitating Lyme disease. While engaging with my own intense emotional pain, I came to understand the suffering of others. And I yearned to ease their pain. I bow to the soundness of the CBCT process as an agent of positive change, and one our world needs for survival. We humans cannot commit atrocities if we can feel empathy and compassion for others. I bow to those who do the work at Emory’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. I trust them to steward my family’s funds, serving humanity with wise and loving hearts. I trust them and those who come after them to be my hands when mine can no longer do the work of making this world a better place to be. While ending my remarks about legacy making, my mother’s smile brightens my face. I feel heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to be generous. And for the opportunity to honor the nobility of all of the people and circumstances that make that possible.  

Carolyn Graham 

To learn more about including the Compassion Center in your estate plans, please contact Mark Hughes at mark.hughes@emory.edu. 

The Torch and Trumpet Award was presented to Executive Director Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, at the opening session of the Science on Spirituality Symposium by George Grant, MDiv, PhD, Executive Director of Spiritual Health and co-director and co-founder of the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality. Spiritual Health at Emory Healthcare is a longtime partner with CBCT in the creation of the research-based chaplaincy program, Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health. Dr. Negi’s work with CBCT began with the seed planted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during a visit to Emory University in 1998.

Addressing the graduating class, the Dalai Lama said, “Education is the way to achieve far-reaching results; it is the proper way to promote compassion and tolerance in society.” This visit to Emory by His Holiness led to the creation of the Emory-Tibet Partnership, now called the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. A few years later, it was one of Dr. Negi’s students who encouraged him to begin a mediation practice for Emory students and the community. CBCT developed soon into a research-based meditation protocol. Since those early days, CBCT has grown into an international discipline, translated in many languages, taught in numerous countries, and is one of the most researched compassion training protocols today. CBCT has been offered for many years to faculty, staff, and students at the Emory School of Medicine and for continuing nursing education credit through the Emory Nursing Experience. CBCT is also central to the training of chaplains in Emory’s pioneering Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health program, active now in all twelve of the Emory hospitals and at Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. Dr. Negi regularly teaches the CBCT Foundation Course to in person and online to a worldwide audience.

A former monk, Negi began his monastic training at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamasala, India, and continued his education at Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India, where in 1994 he received the Geshe Lharampa degree – the highest academic degree granted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Dr. Negi completed his PhD at Emory University in 1999; his interdisciplinary dissertation centered on traditional Buddhist and contemporary Western approaches to emotions and their impact on wellness. His current research focuses on the complementarity of modern science and contemplative practice.

To watch the introduction of the Science on Spirituality Symposium and award presentation to Dr. Negi, click the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fip2FjOselg

An experienced CBCT^® practitioner, Dr. González-Hernández reports, “The CBCT community has been a source of inspiration and support in different aspects of my life.  It is comforting to know that there are a growing number of people inspired and excited in cultivating a good heart to make the world a more nurturing and kinder place to live.”

Edgar holds a Doctor in Psychology from Valencia International University in Spain and is especially interested in implementing CBCT^® for individuals who have experienced psychological trauma, adapting the resources of contemplative science to modern psychology and neuropsychology, and investigating the role of contemplative practices as a resource for preventing psychopathology. His current research at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) in Mexico includes collaboration with the World Health Organization, adapting tools and resources to evaluate and address the health implications in adulthood of adverse childhood experiences.  

Edgar is lead author of the 2018 article: “Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study,” published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies.  Based on this research, he co-edited the 2021 book, Heroínas compasivas.  La vida como supervivientes de cáncer de mama [translation: Compassionate Heroines: Life as Breast Cancer Survivors] with Rebeca Diego Pedro and Lobsang Tenzin Negi, developer of CBCT^®.  This book provides a fictionalized account of Esperanza, a woman struggling with cancer, as she experiences the full sequence of CBCT’s training exercises.  The book explores the resilience, self-compassion, and sense of purpose that can emerge through compassion training, and it provides encouragement and hope to cancer survivors and their caregivers, as well as to clinicians, counselors, psychologists, and meditation practitioners who work with serious illness in any form.

As happy as we are to welcome Edgar to this role, the occasion is tinged with sadness as we continue to grieve the passing of our dear friend and collaborator, Samuel Fernandez-Carriba, PhD. This program would not be what it is today without the skill, intelligence, and exuberant energy of Samuel, who pioneered the Spanish-speaking CBCT Teacher Certification program from its early planning stages in 2018 all the way through to late 2022 when a third encounter with cancer took his life. The Center intends to honor his legacy by carrying on his vision for spreading the practice of compassion and compassion training with enthusiasm and hope, especially on the Spanish-speaking international stage.

For those interested in the Spanish-speaking CBCT^® Teacher Certification program, please reach out to us to let us know. The start date of the next cohort is not yet determined, but we are gathering names and we can connect you with Edgar if you would like to learn more.

The English-speaking CBCT^® Teacher Certification Program is currently accepting applications for a new cohort starting in June 2023.  The program can be attended entirely online and has included individuals from all over the US and from Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Peru, and Spain.  For details, access the program overview here

Though numerous studies examine posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and burnout among healthcare providers, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the growing need to study and support posttraumatic growth, a positive psychological shift that can be experienced after a crisis or traumatic event. A recently published paper in The Journal of Nursing Administration reported promising outcomes of the “Compassion & Growth Workshop,” a new virtual intervention aimed at frontline nurses across the US during the pandemic. Covering the topics of grounding, nurturance, and growth, the workshop drew on CBCT^® along with other contemplative interventions to provide six hours of interactive training.

CBCT^® Senior Instructors Timothy Harrison, Associate Director for CBCT^®, and Michelle Heker Liberman, Instructional Content Developer, consulted on the intervention design, along with CBCT^® Instructor Deborah Disney, LCPC. Harrison co-authored the paper, and Liberman and Disney co-taught the sessions on nurturance. Through trauma-informed education and exercises combining emotional awareness with visualization, the nurses participating in the study learned skills to improve self-regulation, implement cognitive reframing strategies, and infuse compassion more intentionally into their daily lives.  

Visit the CBCT research page to learn more about the research.

“These first two phases of the CBCT^® Teacher Certification were a wonderful and challenging experience for me.  Every text, discussion, and orientation broadened my perspective about others and all living creatures on the planet, including myself.  It challenged my old assumptions and ideas, transforming and transmuting it in a new form of seeing, feeling, and acting. CBCT^® brought to me a holistic approach where science, ethics and spirituality are connected and intertwined in an inclusive and altruistic way.” 

George Brooks 

2022 cohort member 

George Brooks (New York, US) with a background in Business shares his perspective. 

The Breast Cancer Survivors and Partners Online Research Together (SUPORT) Project incorporates contemplative meditation exercises over Zoom designed to strengthen and sustain compassion, while increasing emotional awareness.

A team of researchers at the University of Arizona College of Nursing were recently awarded a grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the effectiveness of compassion meditation to reduce stress and anxiety for breast cancer survivors and their supportive partners.

Evidence suggests that breast cancer survivors often experience increased anxiety, stress, fatigue, and social isolation many years after the end of their cancer treatments. Family members who live with breast cancer survivors such as husbands, wives, significant others, partners, and adult children also experience similar quality of life changes. Unlike other meditation programs that focus solely on mindfulness, CBCT^® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) is focused on how an individual interconnects with other people, building an ethos of compassion and well-being for you and for others.

“The idea for this project came from our earlier work with Cognitively-Based Compassion Training with breast cancer survivors several years ago,” said principal investigator Thaddeus Pace, PhD. “Folks on our team, including Dr. Terry Badger, have studied how supportive partners are very important for the well-being of cancer survivors, so we wanted to expand our use of Cognitively-Based Compassion Training for both survivors and partners together.”

While previous studies utilizing meditation have been done in-person, the pandemic inspired Dr. Pace and his colleagues at the University of Arizona to look at a new model utilizing video conferencing systems like Zoom to greatly expand access to CBCT.

“The pandemic has made everyone more comfortable with using systems like Zoom,” Dr. Pace said. “And we started to think it would be really interesting to create a program through Zoom. We conducted a pilot study with survivors and partners that worked relatively well, so now this project is a continuation of that on a larger scale, allowing survivors and supportive partners to participate coast to coast.”

“The pandemic posed the great challenge of learning how to successfully deliver compassion training online,” said Dr. Lobsang Tenzin Negi, Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University. “What started as a challenge quickly became a blessing. We have been able to share on a larger scale and offer to more people than ever before. Collaborating with the University of Arizona on this novel research project will allow us to combine new insights with previous studies and learn even more about how to benefit cancer survivors and the supportive partners.” 

Participants will be grouped in either online CBCT classes or online Cancer Health Education classes that will function very similarly to an online group Yoga or exercise classes. Survivors and their supportive partners can participate from anywhere so long as they have an internet connection, a computer or tablet with a twelve inch or larger screen and can commit to the weekly courses for the 10-week program.  

“There’s neuroscience research that shows that people who meditate over time can actually change their brains and the way their minds work,” said Dr. Pace. “CBCT in particular may be really ideal for improving survivors and supportive partners [in] distress because of the way it may change how their minds work, especially in challenging and stressful situation[s] that we all encounter in our social world.”

This research is supported by the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health (R01 CA264047).

To learn more, go to nursing.arizona.edu/SUPORT. https://nursing.arizona.edu/SUPORT 

 The Holy Cross Hospital in Maryland has witnessed immense suffering over the two years of the pandemic. Between March 2020 and February 2022, Holy Cross Health (Holy Cross Hospital, Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, and Holy Cross Health Network) cared for over 8,000 patients with a COVID–19 diagnosis and attended over 800 COVID–19 deaths. This speaks to the level of strength, resilience, and compassion of its staff and providers. 

Holy Cross Health was excellent at offering compassionate care to others, but what about the needs of their staff and the medical professionals serving those patients? To celebrate their dedication, Father Kirtley Yearwood commissioned two Broadway dancers to create a video to be shown throughout the Holy Cross Health system as a means of encouraging self-compassion and promoting well-being among the staff, providers, and contracted healthcare professionals. 

The team responsible for this video includes Kamille Upshaw, who was the Dance Captain for Broadway’s, “MJ The Musical” and a swing dancer in “Hamilton,” among other major productions. Chanel DaSilva is a choreographer for The Joffrey Ballet and a co-founder of MoveNYC. These two Julliard–trained professionals created and filmed “A Time of Stillness: A Dance of Compassion” on location at the Holy Cross hospitals. It is an interpretive dance that draws from the insights of CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) as a grace–filled offering of love that expresses and acknowledges key moments in caring for COVID–19 patients. 

Further, it is meant to support staff and providers to be open to practicing kindness and gentleness toward self. “A Time of Stillness: A Dance of Compassion” premiered at Holy Cross Health on Friday, March 4, 2022 on the second anniversary of Holy Cross diagnosing the first COVID–19 patient in the State of Maryland. The ceremony was officiated by His Eminence Wilton Cardinal Gregory, Archbishop of Washington. Watch the video of “A Time of Stillness: A Dance of Compassion” by clicking here.

Dr. Fernandez-Carriba is the creator of this first International Meeting for the CBCT® Community en español, co-sponsored by the Center for Contemplative Science and Contemplative-Based Ethics (CCSCBE). The developer of CBCT®, Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, and Executive Director of the CCSCBE will be the event keynote speaker. With more than 20 years of experience serving professionals and families of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other disabilities, Dr. Fernandez-Carriba works internationally, primarily in the US, Spain, and Latin America. He obtained his PhD from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University. As a senior level CBCT® Instructor, he investigates and applies clinically the CBCT® core teachings of compassion training to families and providers consisting of strategies to foster resilience and social competence to populations under high stress. Dr. Fernandez-Carriba’s recent work has led to three peer-reviewed articles, including a study using a brief Mindfulness intervention during the COVID-19 lockdown and “Mindfulness y meditación contra el estrés causado por el autism” covered by CNN Español (in Spanish, https://cnn.it/2hIhKiG).

For more information about the International Meeting for the CBCT® Community en español or to register, click here.

Join us for the CBCT® Foundation Course this fall. This course will be taught by the developer of CBCT, Professor Lobsang Tenzin Negi. The course will be offered over two weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, September 17 and 18 and October 8 and 9. You will have the option to attend in-person or online via Zoom. CBCT® is a research-based approach to fostering personal resilience and sustaining warm-hearted relationships.

For details, click here. Public CBCT® Courses and Continuing Education | CBCT® Compassion Training - Emory University

“Blaming someone else has always been one of my defense mechanisms and a way of avoiding taking responsibility for my life. I didn’t mess myself up, right? Why should I have to take responsibility for fixing myself?!  

Honestly, that is the way I thought for the greater part of fifty years – until I was introduced to Cognitive Based Compassion Training (CBCT) through Emory Healthcare in my first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education.  

In our class we first experienced compassion towards self by learning to recognize nurturing moments that take place throughout our day and feel the resulting kindness in ourselves. As we consciously drank that in more and more of this kindness and compassion, we were more easily able to pour it out to those we care for. 

This awareness opened a world that I didn’t trust existed, instead of being defensive I started to feel relaxed and happy. It also became easier for me to catch a negative thought or feeling and calm it or release it before acting on it. 

CBCT reminded me of the gap that exists between thought and action and that space is where our freedom lies. I had a tough day at the hospital and even though I gave up drinking, I was planning a drink on the way home, where I was going to stop, what it was going to taste like, and how relaxed and good I was going to feel afterwards. Then I remembered that this was just a feeling and I wondered what was behind it? I realized that I was frustrated because I felt like I had not accomplished anything that day. As soon as I put the realization and the feeling together, my “need” to drink disappeared.  

Another day I was at the dentist and feeling a bit stressed which was reflected when the hygienist took my blood pressure, and it was sky high. A week later, I returned to the dentist, and I remembered to take myself to a nurturing moment in my mind, which I did, and my blood pressure was 35 points lower than it was the prior week! 

The following day I was outside feeding the birds and admiring and feeling grateful for the beautiful day, really being present, and Spirit told me that I had found my Superpower through CBCT. It was a YES! Moment. I couldn’t wait to tell my husband. I have this superpower within myself, and it doesn’t matter what happens outside because I am the one deciding my response. It gives me a wonderful sense of agency, of overseeing my feelings and not being pushed around my circumstances. Most importantly, it aligns me with Spirit.  

Another aspect of the training is expanding our compassion to all beings by picturing them as able to become happy. The first time that I did the exercise, I pictured a man that used to work for me that I never did like very well. I was able to picture him happy but hadn’t thought about him again. Yesterday, Spirit set me up. I saw the man at the grocery store across from my office and actually hoped that he would stop in and see me. I would never have felt that tenderness towards him before doing the exercise!  

I never needed “fixing,” I just needed to experience love and compassion, and find it within myself. I am in control of my well-being and as a result, I am able to give from a glad heart. That’s my superpower and the realization of this gift makes me cry.” 

~ Katrina Andrews, who took an introduction to CBCT® as a chaplain intern at Emory. 

The Compassion Center is grateful to Ms. Andrews for taking the time to send this message and then giving permission to share it with others. 

CBCT® is being offered to dozens of frontline healthcare workers as part a new Emory program funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. The program, called Atlanta’s Resiliency Resource fOr Frontline Workers (ARROW), is designed to build resiliency and strengthen resolve among clinicians, police, and public safety officers. In partnership with Emory University School of Nursing, Grady Health System, and Emory University and Health System Police and Public Safety Departments, ARROW will offer comprehensive resources for resiliency enrichment, training, and professional development for both practicing and student nurses, physicians, and public safety personnel.

The aim is to increase the number of frontline workers trained and certified in CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) and in CRM® (Community Resiliency Model) to reduce, address, and prevent burnout, mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and suicide. ARROW targets workers across the 29-county Atlanta metropolitan statistical area.

Are you interested in joining a community of practitioners skillfully sharing CBCT with others? The CBCT Teacher Certification Program application deadline has been extended to May 15. We are accepting a new cohort of experienced and eager practitioners. This high-quality training is designed for those wishing to share CBCT in their community or in research settings.

A series of retreats, workshops, and coaching sessions held over several months will provide a thorough understanding of the CBCT rationale and its core content, as well as the skills to expertly lead adult learning groups and guide meditations. This June, in collaboration with Tibethaus in Germany, we will have our first German-speaking group to begin the teacher training. Other past participants have come from diverse backgrounds and locations including the U.S., Brazil, Chile, France, Israel, Mexico, Peru, and Spain. Learn about the program and application here .