Marie Bloomfield

Clinical Psychologist

Senior Certified MSC Teacher

Marianna Lolas

Clinical Psychologist

MSC teacher

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

for Professionals (2-day-14 hours)

Cultivate emotional resources and teach them to your clients!

Click here for the list of dates, costs and locations of our other upcoming training programs in Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

"Compassion is the heart of emotional healing".

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Professionals is an outstanding didactic and experiential workshop presenting powerful practices from the empirically validated Mindful Self-Compassion program (designed by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer) that you can use in your own life and also teach your clients.

An ever-growing body of research is showing that mindfulness and self-compassion benefit mental and physical health by reducing depression, anxiety, trauma and burnout while promoting wellbeing, resilience and better relationships.

In Mindfulness and Self-Compassion 2-day workshop you will learn simple tools that can be used in daily life, to mindfully attend to struggles and to respond with understanding and kindness to encourage and empower. Mistakes, shortcomings, failures can be met with more calm and acceptance so there is a greater possibility to problem solve, learn from experiences, gain strength, heal and thrive. Mindfulness and Self-Compassion greatly increase the ability to regulate emotions, to ease toxic inner criticisms, while promoting confidence, and inner strength.

Mindfulness + Self-Compassion

Mindfulness and self-compassion are about being present with connection and warmth during times of pain and struggle. Mindfulness increases our ability to deal with the inevitable stresses and struggles with more calm. When we add Self-Compassion, we greatly increase our capacity for equanimity and happiness. Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of the present moment, to step out of thoughts, to opt out of automatic ways of reacting, to gain more perspectives, for better self-care and wisdom. In the moment, when difficult emotions are met with compassion rather than fear, anger or shame, there is a change in body chemistry which can lead to profound transformation.

The Physiology of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

Compassion, including self-compassion, activates the emotions of bonding and safety in our mammalian-care system to allow access to our more evolved human capacities of perspective-taking and problem-solving. When difficult moments are met with mindfulness and self-compassion, the stress response is reduced, and the automatic fight/flight/freeze response (sympathetic nervous system) is eased. This helps to restore a sense of safety, to restore calm and the rest-digest or tend-befriend response (parasympathetic nervous system), to allow access to higher brain functions, and to enable to deal with challenges more effectively.

The Yin and the Yang of Self-Compassion

Often, to restore calm we think of compassion as passive or yin, which is comforting, nurturing and soothing but, self-compassion can also be very active or yang, which is motivating, empowering, and giving the courage to act, assert, protect, to defend as required.

The Mindful Self-Compassion program contains a wide variety of yin and yang tools, practices and exercises that each person can explore to discover which ones work best for them to meet their needs and circumstances. Some practices are more yin and others are more yang, while some have both aspects.

Research findings over the last 30 years support the benefits of the practice of mindfulness, meditation and self-compassion by promoting better mental and physical health, and positive relationships while preventing burnout and caregiver fatigue.

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion have been found to:

Increases resilience to stress, fostering emotional strengths and flexibility
Promotes emotional regulation, relaxation and calm
Prevent burnout, vicarious trauma and caregiver fatigue
Activates brain circuits to promote well-being, confidence, problem-solving and flexibility
Reduces risk of illness by boosting the positive effects of the parasympathetic/vagus nerve and strengthening the immune system
Promotes healthy lifestyle habits such as diet/exercise, to assist in maintaining a healthy weight
Increases happiness, curiosity, enthusiasm, commitment and satisfaction, while decreasing negative emotions
Promotes better communication, social intelligence and stronger relationships
Increases ability to focus, to concentrate, to be open to new ways, to innovate
Promotes leadership skills
Increases life satisfaction, social connectedness, vitality, optimism and joy of living

What is Self-Compassion?

Mindful Self-Compassion is the practice of mindfulness with self-kindness associated with the notion of common humanity. The motivation is to soothe and calm in times of stress to increase the ability to resolve challenges and enjoy life. We can learn those skills for ourselves, so we can teach them effectively to others. Everyone will benefit!

Self-compassion has transformed millions of lives. It is redefined as the ability to care, to comfort, but also to strengthen the self when it is needed. It is revolutionising self-care and emotional coping skills in behavioural medicine and psychology. It is a way to courageously attend to inner difficulties with understanding and kindness to empower the self. Developing self-compassion is cultivating an attitude of goodwill toward the self and to be able to skillfully attend to the self when times are tough in order to resolve challenges. Through Mindfulness and Self-Compassion we learn to be aware in the present moment of difficult feelings (mindfulness), to bypass negative thinking bias or default mode, to respond more effectively.

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion are not sainthoods, self-indulgence, narcissism or self-pity but a way to relate to shame, inner criticism, anger, anxiety and distress by reconnecting with the self and others to ease pain and gain greater emotional strength, resilience and well-being. Training in the practice of self-compassion can create a dramatic shift psychologically and behaviourally.

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion can be learned by anyone. Self-compassion is a courageous attitude that stands up to harm, including the harm that we unwittingly inflict on ourselves through self-criticism, self-isolation, and self-absorption. It promotes social and emotional intelligence, allowing us to admit our shortcomings, motivate ourselves with self-kindness and practice self-forgiveness when needed.

Training objectives

After participating in this training workshop, you’ll be more able to:

Practice mindfulness and self-compassion in daily life
Cultivate feelings of goodwill, kindness and warmth towards self and others
Motivate yourself and others with encouragement rather than harsh self-criticism
Deal with struggles with courage, acceptance and resilience
Regulate difficult emotions with more ease
Become aware and able to attend skilfully to your needs and the needs of others
Teach simple mindfulness and self-compassion practices to patients, clients, students and children

The Mindfulness and Self-Compassion training workshop consists of:

Guided meditations, visualizations, talks, experiential exercises, self-reflective writing, group discussions, strategies, tools and suggested home practices.
Meditations and informal practices with mp3downloads
You will be given the option to purchase the Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook written by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer ($40.00)

Program content

Day 1:

Session 1: Self-Compassion in daily life

Session 2: Mindfulness in daily life

Day 2:

Session 3: Benefits and applications of Loving-Kindness

Session 4: Making peace with the Inner Critic and positively motivating ourselves

What to Expect

The short course presents simple and quick tools to increase the ability to attend to the self, compassionately, whenever there is struggle or pain, to ease stress, to gain balance and resilience. The workshop consists of topics and practices, meditations from Mindful Self-Compassion to soothe, to calm as well as strategies to promote emotional strength, flexibility and positive motivation that you can practice in daily life and teach your clients, patients or students. The workshop consists of short talks, meditation, visualisation, experiential exercises, self-reflection writing and group discussions.

The goal is for participants to directly experience and learn practices that evoke mindfulness and self-compassion that can be integrated into daily life. The emphasis is on learning mindfulness and self-compassion to build emotional resources that can be used simply and quickly anywhere anytime.

This program, integrates other concepts and practices from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Dialectic Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance Commitment Therapy(ACT), Compassionate mind training + Compassion-Focused Therapy(CFT) and Cognitive Therapy(CBT), as well as Positive Psychology adding the element of self-compassion based on the latest neuroscience research findings.

Note: This two-day workshop is an introduction to Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC- designed by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer) an empirically-supported program since 2013. The content of the program consists of the first two days or initial 4 sessions of the complete Mindful Self-Compassion program often presented over 5 days or 8 weeks.

Who is it for

This workshop is for professionals who value and wish to integrate mindfulness and self-compassion into their life and work to enhance their clinical skills while preventing burnout.

This Mindfulness and Self-Compassion workshop has been very popular among professionals such as psychologists, social workers, counsellors, medical practitioners, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, teachers, trainers, coaches, nurses, lawyers, managers, accountants and so on, who wish to integrate mindfulness and self-compassion in their personal life and in their work practices.

Beginners are welcome as well as others who may have a more regular practice in mindfulness or meditation. If you have attended other mindfulness-based programs such as MBSR or MBCT this course will help you to extend and deepen your practice in self-compassion.

The workshop is promoted on the Australian Psychologist Society(APS) calendar of events.

Participant Guidelines

The Mindfulness and Self-Compassion training workshop is an adventure in self-discovery and personal growth. During the program, we can open up to our struggles in a way that is soothing and comforting to uncover our inner strengths. The group comes together to provide a safe, supportive, confidential environment to develop compassion for ourselves and others.

Difficult emotions may arise as we give ourselves the kindness that we need. Participants are asked to attend to their safety and wellbeing. We will support participants as we proceed together through the course. We are committed to making the journey safe, interesting and enjoyable for everyone.

What Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Professionals are not:

This program is not group therapy and does not replace individual psychotherapy. Mindfulness and Self-Compassion is an educational group program to build emotional resources and is not a substitute for individual medical or psychological treatments.

Participants are encouraged to share their experiences on the path of mindful self-compassion which can be very healing. The emphasis of the training program is on skill-building to enhance emotional resources and personal capacities to learn for ourselves and to teach others.

This workshop is an introduction to the mindful self-compassion 8-week or 5-day program. It is not the entire course and therefore it does not fulfil the pre-requisite for attending teacher training or participating in other CMSC programs for MSC graduates.

Continued Professional Development-CPD

A Certificate of attendance of 14 hours will be given to professionals requiring evidence of professional development training such as psychologists, social workers, teachers, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, etc.

Reading (optional)

It is recommended, but not required, that participants read one of the following books before the training program:

• Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind by Kristin Neff

• The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion by Christopher Germer

• Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer

The next Mindfulness and Self-Compassion 2-day (14 hours)

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Professionals (2 days) -

TBA