Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science
Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT):
Essentials for Aid Workers
Embodying the Values of Humanitarian and Development Work
Overview
Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) is an evidence-based modular training that teaches the science and skills people need to reduce stress, build resilience, and cultivate lives of well-being, engagement, and purpose. The curriculum integrates timeless contemplative skills with contemporary breakthroughs in neuroscience, positive psychology, and integrative medicine, and is taught in a secular, experiential learning format that is not faith-based but is compatible with all faiths, including atheism/agnosticism.
CBRT Adapted for Aid Workers
This CBRT is for humanitarian and development aid workers wishing a comprehensive training method for building resilience, including living mindfully and compassionately; cultivating well-being; and transforming stress. More inner resilience supports all aspects of life including working life with its goal to improve the lives of people affected by crisis and chronic poverty.
The training aims to support participants to keep the values of Humanity and Human Rights strong in heart, mind and body, reaping strength from these as embodied motivations, in the midst of known stressors specific to the international aid context. Besides presenting the science of stress, resilience, and meditation, the training offers a space for peer-to-peer discussion about the experiences of both stress and compassion as international aid workers.
Common work-related experiences in international aid include stress, empathic distress fatigue, emotional numbing, post-traumatic stress syndrome, burnout and cynicism, often aggravated by moral dilemmas. This widespread problem has detrimental effects not only on aid workers but, by extension, also on the quality of aid work and the prospects for a better life among populations affected by crisis and chronic poverty.
Besides the effects of a difficult, often emotionally overwhelming, and dangerous working environment, a contributing factor to chronic stress among aid workers is that too few organizations invest in the well-being of its staff and draw insufficiently overall on the science of compassion.
Curriculum
This training is an adapted version catering especially to international aid workers in humanitarian and development work. It includes a class of basic compassion science as well as space for exchange of aid worker experiences. Due to the time constraints of aid workers, it is a condensed, elementary version of the original CBRT training from the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science (8-week training with eight modules).
The condensed curriculum includes five classes as follows:
- Introduction and Compassion Science Overview
- Focused Attention Training (Modules I & II)
- Open Attention Training (Modules III & IV)
- Self-Compassion (Module V)
- Universal Compassion (Module VI)
Crosscutting themes:
- Breath-work and movement (adapted from Module VIII).
- Aid worker experiences: With support from the science of stress, resilience, and meditation, the training offers a space for peer-to-peer discussion about both positive and negative social-emotional and ethical challenging experiences as international aid workers.
Class content:
Each class includes a presentation of the science and principle of each module, group discussion and meditation.
Resources / Format
Resources: Nalanda Institute provides access to a dedicated CBRT Student Website containing supporting materials for the training (manual, instructional videos, readings and audio meditations).
Format: The training is offered in different formats to increase flexibility (condensed or full version and online and/or in-person) and is affordably priced to increase accessibility for a diverse and global audience of aid workers.
- 2–4 day intensive (in-person)
- 2 hours weekly during five weeks (in-person or online through Zoom)
- Other formats per demand
Pricing
The training is offered in different formats to increase flexibility (condensed or full version and online and/or in-person) and is affordably priced to increase accessibility for a diverse and global audience of aid workers.
The price for the online-course is 125 USD (US $25 per student per 2-hour class X 5 classes). Discounts are available. In-person training will take place upon demand and in partnership with aid organisations. Price may vary depending on venue cost and travel costs.
Instructors
Our instructors are longtime practitioners who are certified to teach CBRT under the guidelines set forth in the CBRT Teacher Training method.
Victoria Fontana is a certified Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) instructor with the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science and a graduate of Nalanda Institute’s Contemplative Psychotherapy Program in New York. Victoria holds an M.A. in Education from the University of Washington and is currently finishing an M.Sc. in Mindfulness-Based Approaches from Bangor University, Wales, with MBSR certification. Victoria has been an educator for over 20 years, currently an adjunct professor at IE University in Madrid, where she teaches for the Center for Health, Well-Being and Happiness as well as the Languages and Humanities Departments. She teaches Mindfulness and Compassion both privately and in professional organizations and is a practicing Mindfulness and Wellness Coach, ACC. She is based in Madrid, Spain.
Jennifer Ladonne is a certified Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) instructor with the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science and teaches meditation in Paris. A practicing therapist, she is a graduate of the Helix Training Program for Psychotherapy and Nalanda Institute’s Contemplative Psychotherapy Program in New York City. Jennifer is also a seasoned travel writer, journalist and editor and holds a master’s degree from New York University. She is based in Paris, France.
Maria Thorin is a Certified Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) Instructor with the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, as well as a Certified Compassionate Integrity Training (CIT) facilitator with Life University. She is a PHD student at Åbo Academy University, within the discipline of Compassion Science, Ethics and Philosophy. She is a public speaker on Compassion, Empathy, Altruism. For twenty years she has worked with international aid, particularly Humanitarian Aid — first with the United Nations, and currently with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Maria is a Yoga Teacher within the Hatha Tradition, offering yoga and meditation weekly within a national health network. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden.
Join
Sign up by sending an email to Maria Thorin, maria@nalandainstitute.org, with the subject line “Aid Worker CBRT.”
Partnerships
The Nalanda Institute welcomes collaborations with aid organizations who may want to offer CBRT online or in-person to a) its staff or b) as part of mental health interventions to the affected population in crisis.
Please contact Maria Thorin, maria@nalandainstitute.org, with the subject line “Partnerships Aid Worker CBRT.”
Join us for this comprehensive, life changing course!
Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) was developed by Nalanda Institute Director and Founder Joe Loizzo, MD, PhD, in 1998, by integrating timeless techniques of contemplative self-regulation from India and Tibet with contemporary breakthroughs in neuroscience, positive psychology, and optimal health.
Read more on our CBRT general information page.
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