Germer

Neff

Mindful Self-Compassion: Core Skills Training

Aug 19 - 23, 2012

Presented by: Christopher Germer, Kristin Neff

• Spiritual Development

How do you typically react to difficulties in life—work stress, feeling rejected, physical problems, or financial hardship? As human beings, most of us instinctively fight negative experiences and find fault in ourselves when things go wrong: “This shouldn’t be happening!” “What’s the matter with me!?” Unfortunately, this tendency just adds stress to our lives and the critical self-talk defeats us before we know what’s happening. But what would happen if, instead, you took a moment to calm and comfort yourself when you felt bad, just because you felt bad—much like you’d do for others? In other words, what if you learned the art of mindful self-compassion ?

Self-compassion is a skill that can be learned by anyone, even those who didn’t receive enough affection in childhood or who find it embarrassing to be kind to oneself. Self-compassion is actually a courageous mental attitude that stands up to harm—the harm that we inflict on ourselves every day by overworking, overeating, overanalyzing, and overreacting. Self-compassion gives us emotional strength and resilience, allowing us to recover more quickly from bruised egos to acknowledge our shortcomings, forgive ourselves, and respond to ourselves and others with care and respect. After all, making mistakes is part of being human.

Research has shown that self-compassion greatly enhances emotional wellbeing. It boosts happiness, reduces anxiety and depression, and can even help you stick to your diet and exercise routine. And it’s easier than you think. Most of us feel compassion when a close friend is struggling. What would it be like to receive the same caring attention whenever you needed it most?

In this workshop, you’ll learn:

• how to stop being so hard on yourself
• how to handle difficult emotions with greater ease
• how to motivate yourself with encouragement rather than criticism
• how to transform difficult relationships, both old and new
• mindfulness and self-compassion practices for home and everyday life
• the theory and research behind mindful self-compassion
• how to become your own best teacher
  
  

This program is an intensive, weeklong version of the empirically-supported, 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program developed by Kristin Neff, a pioneering researcher in the field of self-compassion, and Christopher Germer, a clinical psychologist who specializes in mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapy .

Christopher K. Germer, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice, specializing in mindfulness, acceptance, and compassion-based treatment. He has been integrating the principles and practices of meditation into psychotherapy since 1978. Dr. Germer is a Clinical Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School and a founding member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He lectures internationally on mindfulness and self-compassion, is a co-editor of the professionally acclaimed book Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and co-editor of the forthcoming Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy. www.MindfulSelfCompassion.org

Kristin D. Neff, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Human Development and Culture at the University of Texas at Austin. She was one of the first scholars to define and measure self-compassion in an academic context, has written numerous research articles on the psychological benefits of self-compassion, and is a co-developer of an empirically-supported, 8-week mindful self-compassion training program. Dr. Neff is the author of Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind. In addition, she is featured in the award-winning book and documentary The Horse Boy, which chronicles her family’s adventure with autism. www.Self-Compassion.org

TUITION: $525 CDN (meals & accommodation extra) / 4 nights