CI Program Structure
CI Program Structure
Module Components
The Compassionate Inquiry course material is categorized into the following components, presented in each of
the eight modules:
The components are spread through the eight modules to allow you to focus on:
Module Content
The content for the eight modules includes the following themes. Download the Course Outline pdf for details.
You will cycle through the eight modules three times, focusing on different elements of the course content during
each cycle, integrating more fully, becoming fluent with the Skills and Stepping Stones, and progressing towards
mastery.
The structure, levels and learning objectives of the online training are outlined in detail below.
Student Practice 1. Embody the Quality for this module. Bring awareness to this quality within yourself in
your daily living
2. Use the CI Map and Case Study Form to practice Self-Inquiry for whatever comes up
for you
3. Read the Practice Guide for the module you are working on, before you meet weekly
in dyads or triads.
4. Discuss the content of Gabor’s Teachings after your check-in
5. Practice the Skills and Stepping Stones for the module with one another
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6. Attend the Monthly Facilitated Workshops and the Zoom calls with Gabor to develop
your skills
7. Track attendance at these using the CI Triad Attendance form found in the
introductory module.
8. Rotate practice session partners (creating new triads/dyads) every 4 weeks
9. Engage with the breathing or meditation practice provided by Sat Dharam or
develop/maintain your own daily spiritual practice.
Student 1. Review Gabor’s Teachings videos for module, and focus on the Practice videos
Content to Study 2. Review module pdf and Conversations, noticing how Skills and Stepping Stones are
Before Biweekly implemented by Gabor, and safety is maintained
Meetings 3. Finish listening to and/or reading as many of Gabor’s Conversations as you have time
for
4. Complete the quizzes for the Conversation videos
5. Complete the Study and Practice guide questions, respond to these during check-ins
6. Continue the recommended reading
Student Practice 1. Continue to develop the Quality for this module, and notice how it’s showing up more
in your daily living.
2. Continue to meet weekly in dyads or triads, practicing the Skills and Stepping Stones
for this module as well as Skills and Stepping Stones from all modules.
3. Record attendance at the dyad/triad meetings.
4. Begin to do some complete CI sessions in your dyads/triads, and optionally record 1
session to receive feedback (no longer than 20 minute video) for Level 2 Review
5. Begin filling out Case Study forms, and submit 5 to receive feedback
6. Study and discuss the content of Gabor’s Conversations, and share what you’ve
learned
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Dyad/Triad 1. Rotate practice session partners (creating new triads/dyads) every 4 weeks (average
Structure once per month)
2. You may work with members of your biweekly group outside of your pod and may
also work with others in your specific cohort, connecting through the Facebook group
3. Fill out Case Study Form as the therapist after working in dyads/triads, as well as with
your own clients
4. Assess your developing skills using the Competency Form in each module after you do
triad work
5. Give feedback to one another using the Feedback Protocol and Competency Form,
and provide honest feedback and recommendations for what to focus on
6. Participants are responsible for scheduling triad meetings each week
7. Attendance is tracked; 50 meetings are needed for course completion
8. During dyad/triad meeting, exchange roles as therapist, client and observer, and
make CI sessions longer as they become more complete
Objectives 1. Develop supportive, professional peer group, providing feedback and support.
2. Demonstrate understanding of material and content, leading towards mastery.
3. Complete all 25 Case Study forms
4. Complete video quizzes
5. Complete Study and Practice Guide questions if incomplete.
6. Complete Competency Form for self and discuss competencies with others in your
peer group.
7. Be fluent and spontaneous with the Compassionate Inquiry Map
8. Embody the Qualities of the Therapist
9. Demonstrate expertise in 22 Skills and 17 Stepping Stones, modelling your skills in
dyads/triads with assessment from peers and online facilitator.
10. Engage with the material further during any scheduled Zoom sessions with Gabor
11. Participate in the Monthly Facilitated Workshops to refine your skills.
12. Discuss how you can work with CI professionally
13. Consider 5-year plan of using CI professionally, and explore opportunities to expand
CI globally.
14. Foster dialogue, establish relationships with international colleagues, and investigate
research and networking possibilities through international Facebook group and
online community
Student 1. Review Conversation videos again, noticing how Skills and Stepping Stones are
Content to Study implemented by Gabor, and what you can improve in your own CI sessions.
Before Biweekly 2. Complete the Quizzes for Gabor’s Teachings videos, if incomplete
Meetings 3. Finish listening to and/or reading Gabor’s Conversations and complete Quizzes, if
incomplete
4. Complete the recommended reading if desired
Student Practice 1. Express the Qualities of the Therapist in your daily living.
2. Meet weekly in dyads or triads or as a pod of 4, conducting the complete CI session
with one another. Track attendance at these meetings. Complete 50 meetings to
qualify for course completion.
3. Review full Competency Form, identify areas to develop, and practice these
4. Complete 20 Case Study forms and Competency Form for yourself
5. Provide friendly constructive feedback using Feedback Protocol to support your peers’
mastery of CI
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5. During dyad/triad meeting, exchange roles as therapist, client and observer, and do
complete CI sessions, demonstrating all Skills and Stepping Stones from the CI Map as
appropriate for the session.
6. Fill out Case Study Forms for yourself as therapist after working in dyads/triads
7. Assess your skills using the full Competency Form after you do dyad/triad work
8. Provide feedback to one another using the Feedback Protocol and discuss
competencies using the Competency Form, and give specific recommendations for
improvement.
9. Complete final Competency Form for self in Level 3
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Compassionate Inquiry Module Structure
The chart below outlines the content, quality to develop, skills to practice, and Stepping Stones in each module.
2 Triggers, Pain, Shame Self- 4. Encourage authentic 7. Give the client space to
• Triggers and Emotional Pain Awareness feeling. experience and identify the
• Acceptance of Anger and Pain 5. Give the client lots of feeling that is present, even
• How to Handle Emotions space if they can’t talk about it.
• Feelings vs Perceptions 6. Recognize when you Distinguish between a
• The Exercise of the Green Bush are triggered feeling and a perception or
• Be in Relationship to Feelings interpretation.
• Understanding Shame
3 Trauma, Disconnection, Trust Your 7. Listen to the voice, 8. Ask whenever it’s
Constriction Gut verbal language and appropriate, "Is this the first
• Ego and Essence Feelings speech patterns time that you've
• What is Trauma? 8. Notice body language experienced this?" Don’t
• Trauma as Disconnection and breathing patterns make it about the current
• From States to Traits situation, but show that its
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• Sensitivity and Trauma 9. Recognize defense origins go far, far back. Ask
• Vicarious Trauma mechanisms about what experiences in
• Teaching About Trauma 10. Acknowledge the childhood might have
• A Dialogue About Trauma client, validate induced that feeling, and
• Know What Happened to You when this perception or
• Resolution of Trauma belief originated. Find the
• How to Ask About Trauma earliest one.
• Trauma and Eating Disorders 9. Ask the client who they
• Socio-Cultural Trauma talked to at the time – who
did they tell? If not their
• My Experience as a Jew
parents, why not?
• Trauma and Psychosis
• Epigenetics and Trauma
• PTSD
• False Memory Syndrome
• The Patriarchal Culture
• Perpetrators
• Set, Setting and Substances
• Gut Feelings
4 Attachment, Adaptation, Addiction Authenticity 11. Recognize who is 10. Help the client remember
• The Happy Childhood Challenge Curiosity talking – the inner their childhood and bring
• The Many Parts of Us child, the adult or forth the repressed feelings
• Recognize Who Is Speaking another part by asking them to imagine a
• The Roots of Addiction 12. Clarify anything not child of a similar age
• Parental Guilt understood experiencing what they
• The Genetic Link to Addiction 13. Mirror experienced as a child.
• Attachment vs Authenticity What would that child feel?
• The Adaptive Purpose of a How would they interpret
Behaviour it?
• Coping Mechanisms as Wounds 11. Ask, if it was their child
to the Self experiencing these
emotions at that age, who
• Helping from the Wound vs
would they want them to
Helping Authentically
talk to? If a child did not
talk to their parents, what
would be the reason? This
must have been the client’s
reason too. Have them
name the reason.
5 Children, Family, Responsibility Confidence 14. Use appropriate self- 12. Bring the client’s
• Working with Children disclosure awareness to
• Involve the Family 15. Interrupt the client’s understanding their
• Put the Child’s Needs First story behaviour as a coping
• Adopted Children mechanism. Ask them what
• Coping with Childhood Trauma their behaviour or
• Understand Your Child’s Needs substance gives them, and
• Childhood Play if this is a normal human
need. Help them to be
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• See Your Children for Who They compassionate towards
Are themselves, and move
• ADHD as a Coping Mechanism away from making
• Healing is Within Everybody themselves wrong.
• The Limitations of Diagnoses
• Illness Is a Process
• Genetic Susceptibility and Illness
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Schizophrenia
• How to Work with Prisoners
• You Are Responsible for the Way
You Are Now
• Living in Separate Worlds
• We are 100% Responsible
• Bad Things as Sources of
Nutrition
• Righteous Indignation
6 Memory, Stories, Beliefs Non- 16. Pay attention to your 13. Ask the client to identify
• Explicit and Implicit Memory Judgement, body and your the underlying belief that
• Preverbal Memory Acceptance reactions they created about
• Somatic Memory 17. Identify unconscious themselves at that time.
• The Body Knows All beliefs and explore 14. Challenge the current belief
• Unconscious Beliefs and their their origin by examining other possible
Origin 18. Use teaching stories reasons a person might
• Is It True? and quotes have said or done
• Examine Your Stories something that upset the
• Notice Your Mental Loops client.
• Shift Your Perspective
• You’re Exactly Where You Need
to Be
7 Will, Compassion, Forgiveness Compassion 19. Practice self- 15. Bring the client’s current
• Diagnoses Humility compassion and self- issue back to them. It’s not
• Will and Counterwill care about someone else.
• The Super-Ego Encourage 100%
• The Five Levels of Compassion responsibility, which
• Radical Compassion includes action. What is an
• Compassion Fatigue action that will help
• Three Ways of Working on the integrate what they have
Front Lines discovered during the
• Self-Compassion and Self-Care session?
• Who Is There to Forgive?
• It’s Not About Them
• How Do You Show Up?
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8 Relationship, Possibility, Change Playfulness 20. Be playful 16. See the client for their
• The Behavioural Approach to Non- 21. Give the client a taste possibility. Help them
Therapy Attachment of victory reframe their perceptions
• The Relational Approach to 22. Express gratitude to be more in line with
Therapy present reality. Affirm what
• The Relational Container they have already achieved
• Working with Transgendered or demonstrated.
People 17. Check in with the client to
• Be in Relationship with the see if their intention for the
Client’s True Self session has been fulfilled,
• How to Work with Clients Who and if they feel complete.
Don’t Want to Feel Thank the client for the
• Experience the Feeling in Tiny interaction.
Doses
• Willingness to Do the Work
• Working with Couples
• The Client-Therapist
Relationship is Like a Marriage
• Inquiry and Validation
• Holding Hope, Hitting Rock
Bottom and Enabling
• Change Is Possible
• The Source Is Within Us
The written material in the pdfs is compiled from six Compassionate Inquiry two-day workshops and from
conversations Gabor had with participants in the Beyond Addiction program. It has been organized thematically.
Please note that the pdfs will not correspond word-for-word to the videos, as sections have been added to the
pdfs from multiple workshops.
The “conversations” where Gabor demonstrates Compassionate Inquiry with participants, are at the end of each
module. Some conversations were recorded on video, others via audio. Not all of the conversations have videos
to go with them. The conversations exemplify the qualities, skills or stepping stones highlighted in each module.
1. We recommend that you read the pdf for each module first, including the conversations, to understand
the didactic material and become familiar with the qualities and skills being developed.
2. Then watch the videos in sequence, to hear Gabor explain the material and to watch him demonstrate
Compassionate Inquiry. During the demonstrations, notice how he embodies the Quality focused on in
the module, and utilizes the Skills and Stepping Stones. You will begin to notice nuances as he models the
skills and will see repeating patterns as he uses the Stepping Stones. Have a notebook on hand to take
notes on what you witness.
3. During the weeks that you are studying a particular module, be mindful of the Quality you are focusing
on, as well as the Skills and Stepping Stones you are developing. Practice modelling these in your daily
life, in your dyads and triads, as well as with clients.
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4. As you are working in triads practicing Compassionate Inquiry, bring attention in each session to the skills
and stepping stones that are highlighted in the weekly module. In Levels Two and Three you can do a
complete Compassionate Inquiry, but also focus on the particular Skills, Stepping Stones, and
Competencies you are being asked to develop.
5. Recognize that there are an infinite number of possible ways to do a single Compassionate Inquiry
session, and each of us will choose different options at different times. Enjoy the learning as you develop
your skills.
You have been assigned to a biweekly online group with an online facilitator who will meet with your group at
regular pre-set times every 2 weeks for 25 sessions during the training. There are approximately 12-18 people in
each online group.
These 12-18 people will be further divided into 2 or 3 groups of approximately 6 people, known as a pod. You will
work weekly throughout Level 1 with members of your pod, practicing CI with one another and developing your
skills as you also do your personal work. Choose 3 time slots each week when all 6 people are available, and then
rotate who you work with each week, in dyads and triads, completing at least one CI session each week.
In Level 2 you have the option of working with other members in your online group outside of your pod, as your
schedules allow.
In Level 3 you will work primarily with 4-9 others whose schedules are compatible with yours.
At the end of the training, you will need to have completed 50 CI sessions with members of your online group to
receive a certificate of course completion.
1. Schedule 60-90 minutes each week to engage in a CI practice session with 1-2 others from your pod of
approximately 6 people, and follow the guidelines listed above according to each program level.
2. During the sessions, one of you will be the “therapist”, one the “client” and one a “witness” observing the
process. The witness is invited to write down what they notice during the interaction, relating to
Qualities, Skills and Stepping Stones, and provide feedback afterwards using the Feedback Protocol.
3. If there are 3 of you, this will give you the opportunity to participate in each of these roles in the 90-
minute session, with about 20 min dedicated to practice and 10 min to feedback for each inquiry.
4. During each weekly CI Triad practice session, focus on practicing the Quality, Skills and Stepping Stones
that are part of the Module for that week. ie for Week One you will be mindful of increasing presence,
creating safety, attuning to the client, asking about their intention for the session, gaining permission to
proceed, inviting openness, bringing them into the present moment and into the body.
5. Please see the weekly Qualities, Skill-Building exercises, and Stepping Stones above.
6. Follow the CI Communication Guidelines and Code of Ethics when working with one another.
7. After each of the 20 min sessions, take a total of 10 minutes to share what you’ve noticed: first the
therapist, then the client, then the observer (2-3 min each). Comment on Do’s and Don’ts that were
noticed, plus qualities, skills, steps. Refrain from judgement – there is no right or wrong way, only a
variety of options.
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8. In Level 2 and 3 of the training, you can work with other members of your online group, outside of your
original pod.
9. After each session, review the Competency Form for the module you are currently studying to assess
yourself and recognize what you did well and what could be improved. Once you are in Level Three of the
training, fill out the full Competency Form. Download the CI Competency Form in the Introductory
Module to view the complete form.
Terms:
Biweekly Online Group = 12-18 people who meet every second week with an online facilitator
CI Pod = group of approximately 6 people (all in the same biweekly group) who practice with one another in Level
1, in different combinations of dyads and triads.
Dyads/Triads = group of 2-3 people who practice weekly with one another
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Individual Mentorship:
Individual Mentorship is available to you, at an extra charge, as you participate in the online training. You may
contact any of the online facilitators for private mentorship and request that they review one or more videotaped
sessions where you are practicing CI. They will provide feedback on what competencies you are doing well, and
which require further attention. This will accelerate your learning. The cost ranges from $120-$150/hr.
If the certification team deems that they are certifiable and skilled in the CI competencies, they will be certified as
a CI Practitioner and added to the CI website. Recertification is required every 3 years.
The mentorship and certification guidelines and costs above may be revised from time to time.
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Ongoing Participation and Annual Membership:
Our vision is to bring compassion, respect, acceptance, insight, healing, freedom and connection to humanity
through an international community of skillful Compassionate Inquiry practitioners. We can fulfill this vision by
supporting your continued learning of CI and by connecting you to one another through an annual membership.
You will be emailed an invitation for annual membership during the last month of your year-long training.
The annual membership fee is currently $150 CAD, and grants you the following benefits:
• continued access to the online platform, including new additions to the content
• access to attendance at scheduled CI Zoom calls with Gabor, and their recordings for the current year
• access to non-participatory attendance at monthly facilitated workshops, and their recordings
• connection to CI alumni
• continued access to the online community forum
• invitation to participate in CI focus groups, to collaborate with other practitioners
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