Compassion Keynote 2026
At our 2026 Compassion Symposium Keynote Address, we are excited to welcome Professor Derek Griner.
Derek will open the symposium with his talk titled 'Not Earned, Not Deserved — Just Activated: An Evolutionary Exploration of Our Capacity to Care'.
Derek is a clinical professor at Brigham Young University, Utah, USA. He is a board certified (ABPP) psychologist who also meets the internationally accepted criteria of education, training, and experience to be endorsed as a certified group psychotherapist. He has worked in several clinical settings and currently engages in individual, group, and couples psychotherapy, teaching, research, and program development at BYU. He also serves as the associate training director and oversees the clinical training for students from several graduate programs. Derek spent the Spring and Summer of 2024 on sabbatical at the Compassionate Mind Foundation in Derby, England, where he worked directly with Professor Paul Gilbert. There he did clinical work and research focused on Compassion Focused Therapy in group psychotherapy. Derek focuses his research, teaching, and clinical work on CFT. He is also committed to diversity issues and has conducted award winning research in this domain.
The Keynote Address is a free in-person event.
Registration is essential.
Time: 6:15pm, pre-drinks and nibbles from 5:00pm
About Compassion Symposium
This cross-disciplinary symposium is designed to bring together academics, clinicians, researchers, and students from different disciplines within The University of Queensland and from the community, to present on how compassion is or could be a part of their research, studies, or practice.
