Spreading Compassion to the French-speaking community through the Compassionate Inquiry programs created by Dr. Gabor Maté and further developed by Sat Dharam Kaur ND is a very exciting prospect.
Over my years of offering one-to-one Compassionate Inquiry sessions to French-speaking clients, I have come across many who resonated deeply with Gabor’s work and were eager to learn the approach. Unfortunately, they couldn’t imagine being able to understand the profundity of Gabor’s teachings, or indeed attend something like a CI Circle, if it wasn’t in their mother language.
The idea to offer Compassionate Inquiry to French speakers was born in October 2022 when I asked Sat Dharam if I could translate some written CI Circle’s PDFs into French. At the time I was running some Yoga workshops for the local community that included elements of Compassionate Inquiry. After hearing this, Sat Dharam invited me to consider translating the entire training. So, in April 2023, we had our first French Translation Meeting to plan the translation of the Self-Study Short Course. Soon after that, with the help of Ongkar Singh from Beyond Addiction France, the process of translating the material started. After 18 months of steady, diligent labour, and with the help of a few freelancers, we’d made it to 200,000 words; the first step.
With much anticipation, we are now preparing for the launch of the Self-Study Course in May 2025 and also working to make the Facilitated Short Course available to French-speaking groups by the end of the year. In addition, we are delighted to announce that CI Circles in French will be starting soon too.
Being on the verge of launching Compassionate inquiry in a new country is a thrilling feeling. It is a mix of excitement and some anxiety. My hope is that it will be well received by the large French-speaking community.
Some of the remaining challenges concern how we can share this offering widely enough to build a nice community of passionate people interested in Compassionate Inquiry. It’s not clear to us how familiar French-speaking people are with Gabor’s books and wisdom, so we would be delighted if anyone from the existing community could offer some support in this respect by spreading the word. For all those interested in entering more deeply into Gabor’s work, the documentary ‘The Wisdom of Trauma’ has also been subtitled in French (https://thewisdomoftrauma.com/fr/). It is a masterpiece that offers incredible insight into the philosophy beneath Gabor’s work and where the approach stems from in Gabor’s own experience. Finally, we are very excited to announce that there is a real possibility that Gabor’s book ‘The Myth of Normal’ will be translated into French and launched in 2025. So watch this space.
Lastly, we are very happy to share two dates that are already on the calendar for 2025; the first one is the Live Call with Sat Dharam on April the 27th 2025, where participants will be able to ask any questions they have to us, and the second is the Demo Call on May the 25th 2025, where participants will get first-hand experience of the Compassionate Inquiry method in French.
To receive updates on all our upcoming French language offerings please join the mailing list here.
We hope to see many of you French-speakers during those calls.
Peaceful Blessings
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