ONLINE: CFT for Eating Disorders (November 2025)

Timings and Registration‍

Monday 3rd November: 9:30 am - 4.30 pm | Tuesday 4th November: 9.30 am - 4:30 pm (UK GMT).

This workshop will be 14 hours towards your CPD, and you will receive a certificate of attendance shortly after the workshop via email. Handouts will be sent via email to be brought to the workshop. There will be no formal registration. You will be placed in a waiting room once you click on the link and the CMF Team will add you to the meeting.

This workshop is priced at a flat rate of £239.00. For those in difficult financial circumstances, who may struggle to afford this price, please contact hello@compassionatemind.co.uk

Level: Beginner

About this Course

CFT-E is an evidence-based treatment that is highly effective for people with a range of difficulties with eating disorders.

This workshop is designed to introduce the principles, philosophy and techniques of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and how these can be modified and applied to help people recover from an eating disorder/eating distress. It outlines ways to improve therapeutic outcomes and support long term recovery. It is aimed at health professionals who are working, or want to work, therapeutically with young people and adults with these difficulties. It will help you explore if this approach would be a useful addition to your therapeutic repertoire.

The workshop outlines how CFT-E teaches clients skills to recognise and regulate their emotions, enhance their compassionate motivation to change, address thoughts and feelings linked to disordered eating (including shame self-criticism) and make clinically significant changes in their behaviours.

It will explore how this transdiagnostic approach can be used to support people with a range of eating disorder diagnoses (including Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa, OSFED, Binge Eating Disorder) and overeating associated with emotional distress. It will also outline how it can be used in a range of ways including group, individual and in-person work, day patient and in-patient settings and as guided self-help or online therapy..

During the workshop you will be introduced to the CFT-E formulation and treatment model, including the aims and flow of therapy, and a session-by-session outline for clinical delivery. It will also outline the evidence that supports incorporating CFT-E into mainstream care, including recent controlled and randomised controlled trials.

Recommended Reading

Fox, R.E & Goss, K. Goss (Eds.) (2012) Eating and its Disorders. Chichester: Wiley.

Goss, K. (2011). The Compassionate Mind Approach to Beating Overeating. Robinson Publishing

Goss, K. (publication in 2025) The Compassionate Guide to Eating Well. Little Brown Books

Allan, S. & Goss. Shame and Pride in Eating Disorders. In Fox, R.E & Goss, K. Goss (2012) Eating and its disorders. (Eds.) (pp 154-166). Chichester: Wiley.

Goss, K. & Allan, S. An Introduction to Compassion Focused Therapy for Eating Disorders (CFT-E). In Fox, R.E & Goss, K. Goss (2012) Eating and its disorders. (Eds.) (pp 303-314). Chichester: Wiley.

Goss, K. & Gilbert P. (2002). Eating disorders, shame, and pride: A cognitive–behavioural functional analysis. In, P. Gilbert & J. Miles (eds.). Body Shame: Conceptualisation, Research & Treatment (pp. 219-255). London: Brunner-Routledge.

Goss, K. & Haynes, C. (2022) Compassion Focused Therapy for people with Eating Difficulties. In Downs, J. et al (Eds). The Practical Handbook of Eating Disorders (pp. 255 – 264). Pavilion, West Sussex.

Goss, K. & Kelly, A. (2022) The Role of Shame, Self-Criticism and Compassion Focused Therapy in Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating. In Gilbert, P. & Simos, G. (Eds) Compassion Focused Therapy: Clinical practice and applications. (pp. 519-533) Routledge, Oxon.

Goss, K. & Allan, S. (2010). Compassion focused therapy for eating disorders. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 3, 141-158.

Goss, K. & Allan, S. (2014) The development and application of compassion-focused therapy for eating disorders (CFT-E). British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 53, 62-77

Goss, K. & Allan, S. (2014) Eating disorder beliefs and behaviours across eating disorder diagnoses. Eating Behaviors, 15, 1, 42-44

Marques, C.C, et al. (2023) Online Compassion Focused Therapy for overeating: Feasibility and acceptability pilot study. Eating Disorders 57, 2, pp 221-469. doi.org/10.1002/eat.24118

Steindl, S.R, Buchanan, K., ,2 Goss, K &, Allan, S. (2017) Compassion focused therapy for eating disorders: A qualitative review and recommendations for further applications: Clinical Psychologist 21, 62–73

Vrabel, K.R, Wampold, B., Quintana, D.S., Goss, K., Waller, G.,& Hoffart, A. (2019) The Modum-ED Trial Protocol: Comparing Compassion-Focused Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Treatment of Eating Disorders With and Without Childhood Trauma: Protocol of a Randomized Trial: Frontiers of Psychology,18;10:1638.

Vrabel, K et al..(2024). Cognitive Behavioral therapy versus Compassion Focused Therapy for adult patients with eating disorders with and without childhood trauma: A randomized controlled trial in an intensive treatment setting. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 17 (2) 4. DOI. 10.1016/j.brat.2024.104480.

Workshop Leader :

Dr. Ken Goss (D. Clin. Psy), is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with over 30 years experience of working with people with an eating disorder. He was a student of Professor Paul Gilbert, a founding member of the Compassionate Mind Foundation, and has worked using this approach since the early 1990s. He pioneered the use of Compassion Focused Therapy in the treatment of eating disorders and is the leading expert in this approach. His book ”Overcoming, Overeating, Robinson 2011” was the first to outline this approach. He has provided national and international training and supervision, including for the first Randomised Control Trial of CFT for Eating Disorders.