Skip to main content

Voice Tone

The Voice Tone exercise is taken from the Psychology Tools For Developing Self-Compassion audio collection. This short exercise guides listeners through the process of experimenting with their tone of voice and reflecting upon the felt sense engendered by warmer and harsher voice tones.

Download or send

Choose your language

Notice: The 'Fillable PDF' format has been retired. For resources with form elements, both the 'Professional' and 'Client' versions are now available as fillable PDFs by default.

Audio track (MP3)

A therapy audio track designed for skills development.

Audio script (PDF)

The script for a therapy audio track. Read along with an exercise, or record in your own voice.

Tags

Languages this resource is available in

  • English (GB)
  • English (US)

Techniques associated with this resource

Introduction & Theoretical Background

One of the aims of compassion focused therapy (CFT) and compassionate mind training (CMT) is to activate and develop the soothing system, as this allows us to counteract the effects and stresses of the threat and drive systems. In simple terms, when the soothing system is active, we are more inclined to feel and give compassion. Like any practical skill, however, the soothing system is developed and strengthened through training and practice.

The Voice Tone exercise is a track taken from the Psychology Tools For Developing Self-Compassion audio collection. Care-giving and soothing received from others is often associated with particular behaviors and voice tones. Similarly, threatening and self-critical behaviors are associated with particular voice tones. Training ourselves to adopt behaviors that we associate with compassion, kindness, and care-giving can have the effect of increasing our ability to self-soothe. In this exercise, the listener is guided to speak some short

Get access to this resource

View all plans and pricing options

Get Access

Therapist Guidance

The Psychology Tools For Developing Self-Compassion audio collection is for anyone who wants to learn more about the ideas and practices of compassion focused therapy. It has been designed to be versatile, so it is suitable to support work with therapists who have been trained in compassion focused therapy, or to be used as a stand-alone collection of exercises. To assist the integration of the exercises into their clinical work, therapists can download the scripts for each exercise and use them in-session.

Individual tracks from the audio collection can be downloaded as .MP3 files, which can be played in most media player apps.

The simplest way to share an audio track with your clients is by using the Psychology Tools ‘Email a client’ function. After obtaining their consent, you can send it directly from this page by clicking ‘Send securely to my client’. Your client will receive a secure

Get access to this resource

View all plans and pricing options

Get Access

References And Further Reading

  • Gilbert, P. (2014). The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy. British Journal of Clinical Psychology53(1), 6-41.
  • Gilbert, P. (2020). Compassion: From its evolution to a psychotherapy. Frontiers in Psychology, 3123.
  • Irons, C., & Beaumont, E. (2017). The compassionate mind workbook: A step-by-step guide to developing your compassionate self. Robinson.
  • Irons, C., & Heriot‐Maitland, C. (2021). Compassionate Mind Training: An 8‐week group for the general public. Psychology and psychotherapy: Theory, research and practice94(3), 443-463.
  • Leboeuf, I., Andreotti, E., Irons, C., Beaumont, E., & Antoine, P. (2022). A randomized controlled study of a French compassionate mind training. Mindfulness13(11), 2891-2903.
  • Savari, Y., Mohagheghi, H., & Petrocchi, N. (2021). A preliminary investigation on the effectiveness of compassionate mind training for students with major depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Mindfulness12(5), 1159-1172.

Get access to this resource

View all plans and pricing options

Get Access