What Is Compassionate Inquiry®?
Dr. Gabor Maté developed the Compassionate Inquiry® psychotherapy approach, which reveals what lies beneath the appearance we present to the world.
Using the Compassionate Inquiry system, both the individual and therapist unveil the level of consciousness, mental climate, hidden assumptions, implicit memories and body states that form the real message that words both express and conceal.
Through the therapist’s use of the Compassionate Inquiry approach, the client can recognize the unconscious dynamics that run their lives and how to liberate themselves from them.
“The purpose of the Compassionate Inquiry is to drill down to the core stories people tell themselves – to get them to see what story they are telling themselves unconsciously; what those beliefs are, where they came from; and guide them to the possibility of letting go of those stories, or letting go of the hold those stories have on them …
That’s what Compassionate Inquiry is.”
~ Dr. Gabor Maté
Our Intention
To teach the Compassionate Inquiry approach, developed by Dr. Gabor Maté, so that individuals can connect to the truth within themselves in the present moment, become free from self-generated suffering, and gain insight, clarity and choice in their behaviour.
Our Vision
To bring compassion, respect, acceptance, insight, healing, freedom and connection to humanity through an international community of skillful Compassionate Inquiry practitioners.
Who Can Benefit from Compassionate Inquiry®?
The Compassionate Inquiry training and approach will be of benefit to psychotherapists, mental health professionals, health care professionals, allied health professionals, medical doctors, naturopathic physicians, fitness coaches, addiction counsellors, educators, First Nations counsellors and elders, Traditional Healers, psychedelic therapists, plant medicine shamans, therapeutic communities and institutions, yoga teachers, meditation teachers, spiritual teachers, recovery communities, individuals interested in personal development, adult influencers, marginalized groups, diverse groups (in demographics, economics, sex, lifestyle), and multicultural groups (variations in ethnicity).
About Dr. Gabor Maté
Dr. Gabor Maté is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of four books published in twenty-five languages, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. His book on addiction received the Hubert Evans Prize for literary non-fiction.
For his groundbreaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver. His books include In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction; When the Body Says No; The Cost of Hidden Stress; Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder; and (with Gordon Neufeld) Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. To learn more, join his enews list at www.drgabormate.com.
About Sat Dharam Kaur ND
Sat Dharam is a naturopathic doctor, Kundalini Yoga expert instructor, and author, practicing in Owen Sound, Ontario. She facilitates Kundalini Yoga training programs internationally. She developed the Beyond Addiction: The Yogic Path to Recovery program, and has been working closely with Dr. Gabor Maté in delivering this program along with the Compassionate Inquiry training. She also developed the Healthy Breast Program, designed to help educate women globally in reducing breast cancer risk, and co-founded the MammAlive Foundation. Sat Dharam was awarded the Naturopathic Doctor of the Year award in Ontario in 2000. She has written three books: A Call to Women: The Healthy Breast Program and Workbook, The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer, and The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Women’s Health.
About the Program
Dr. Maté teaches workshops where he models the process of Compassionate Inquiry with course participants, which serves to instruct therapists in the practice of this powerful technique to help clients access deep healing and transformation. Upcoming live workshops, and workshop recordings can be found here.
The online training and curriculum was developed by Sat Dharam Kaur N.D. and contains video and audio recordings and transcripts from 5 Compassionate Inquiry workshops taught by Dr. Maté. The first training was offered in January 2019.
Click here to learn more about the online program.
In the Compassionate Inquiry® training, you will learn:
- how to cultivate presence, being with what is
- to bring attention to body signals in clients and yourself
- to enhance your perception of what is not being revealed overtly
- to enable clients to access emotional states through body awareness
- how to create and maintain a safe sacred space between client and therapist
- how to facilitate the expression of what has remained unexpresssed
- how to keep a client engaged in present moment experience
- the importance of patience, respect and choice in the therapeutic process
- how to uncover early traumatic events of childhood and unconscious feeling states through Compassionate Inquiry
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