Dates: 8 Thursdays, Sept 6 – Oct 25, 7pm – 9:30pm, PLUS 1/2 day on Oct 7, 9:30am – 1:30pm
Sliding Scale: $250 – $470. Code: LG1C18.
19 CE credits available if attending the full series – for $190 for psychologists and California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors.

Mindful Self-Compassion, as developed by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer, is a powerful 8-week training in empirically-supported tools and techniques that enables participants to respond to difficult moments in their lives with kindness, care, understanding and wise action.

Practices in loving-kindness and compassion allow us to keep our hearts open in moments of struggle and suffering. Practices in mindfulness allow us to see our experiences and our reactions to our experiences (and to see ourselves as the experiencer) more clearly, discern options, and make wise choices.

Understanding our common humanity brings us out of isolation into connection and resources again. Mindful Self-Compassion, through discussions, meditations and many experiential exercises, teaches practices of loving, connected presence that allow us to not only feel better but also to cope wisely when we are feeling bad.

This course helps participants deal effectively with life’s challenges and crises while creating community and deepening practice. Participants cultivate new, more wholesome coping strategies, leading to more clarity, response flexibility and resilience, and less greed, hatred, delusion and suffering.

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients. Continuing Education (CE) credit available. See below for attendance requirements and more information.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-
Based on the content of this program, you will be able to:

• Describe three elements of Mindful Self-Compassion [mindfulness, self-compassion, common humanity];
• Identify three resistances to practicing mindful self-compassion and three benefits to practicing mindful self-compassion;
• Describe the difference between compassion fatigue and empathy fatigue;
• Describe how soothing touch/hand on heart can be incorporated into mindful self-compassion meditations, in ways useful to clients;
• Demonstrate loving kindness with self-compassion meditation, in ways that may reduce emotional distress and improve job satisfaction;
• Demonstrate how to shift inner self-talk from self-criticism to self-compassion;
• Identify three situations where compassionate friend meditation could be useful;
• Describe how soften-soothe-allow meditation could be used to work with shame;
• Utilize a touchstone as a skillful reminder to practice the common humanity element of mindful self-compassion, in ways that may help health care professionals effectively cope with stresses in the workplace;
• Demonstrate how sharing worries and concerns in a letter to a friend can effectively evoke self-compassion and reduce work place anxiety and self-criticism;
• Demonstrate how to use a self-compassion break, in ways that improve patient care and prevent compassion fatigue;
• Utilize mindfulness of body sensations, such as Soles of the Feet or a Sense and Savor Walk, to evoke experiences of self-compassion, in ways useful to clients;
• Generate personal loving kindness phrases to practice self-compassion, in ways that reduce emotional exhaustion and may prevent burnout syndrome.

Young Adults (18-26) and Seniors (65+ with limited income) are invited to attend for $145.