Mindful Self-Compassion Course for Challenging Times (8 weeks)

Mindful Self-Compassion Course

Join us at The Center for Growth in Huntington Woods, MI for a transformative in-person event. This Mindful Self-Compassion Course is designed to help you cultivate a deeper sense of self-compassion and mindfulness in your daily life. Through a combination of guided meditations, interactive exercises, and group discussions, you will learn practical tools to enhance your well-being and navigate life's challenges with greater resilience.

Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) combines the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion to enhance our capacity for emotional well-being. Research shows self-compassionate people hold themselves accountable for mistakes yet they are less afraid of failure and are more likely to try after failing. MSC is an empirically-supported 8-week program designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion, co-developed by Dr. Kristen Neff and Dr. Chris Germer.

Social worker and researcher Brené Brown recently interviewed Dr. Germer in a two-part discussion about self-compassion on her podcast Unlocking Us. Studies continue to show that self-compassion is a key factor of success in overcoming challenging life situations and supporting self-confidence.

The MSC program is a journey, an adventure in self-discovery and self-kindness. Self-compassion has the paradoxical effect of both soothing our emotional distress as well as opening us to the pain that we may have been unconsciously holding inside, often for many years. Therefore, some difficult emotions are likely to surface during the program as we grow in our capacity to embrace and heal them. MSC teachers are committed to providing an environment of safety, support, privacy, individual responsibility, and a common commitment to developing compassion for oneself and others.

MSC is therapeutic, but it’s not therapy. The emphasis of the program is on enhancing emotional resources to meet emotional challenges, old and new. MSC is also not primarily a type of mindfulness training; MSC is mindfulness-based compassion training in which the quality of warmth is emphasized more than awareness itself.

Self-compassion can be learned by anyone, even those who didn't receive enough affection in childhood or who feel uncomfortable when they are kind to themselves. It's a courageous attitude that stands up to harm, including the harm that we unwittingly inflict on ourselves through self-criticism or self-isolation. Self-compassion provides emotional strength and resilience, allowing us to admit our shortcomings, motivate ourselves with kindness, forgive ourselves when needed, relate wholeheartedly to others, and be more authentically ourselves.

Mindful Self-Compassion 8 week course outline:

Week 1: Discovering Mindful Self-Compassion

Week 2: Practicing Mindfulness

Week 3: Practicing Loving-Kindness

Week 4: Discovering Your Compassionate Voice

* Retreat (usually following Week 4 or Week 5)

Week 5: Living Deeply

Week 6: Meeting Difficult Emotions

Week 7: Exploring Challenging Relationships

Week 8: Embracing Your Life

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

-Identify and understand the role of self criticism in our lives

-Understand the empirically-supported benefits of self-compassion

-Motivate yourself with kindness rather than criticism

-Handle difficult emotions with greater ease

-Transform challenging relationships

-Manage caregiver fatigue

-Practice the art of self compassion, savoring and self-appreciation in every day life

Mindful Self-Compassion, 8-Week Course facilitated by Becky Siden, MSC Teacher, LMSW, CDWF, RYT and assisted by Dr. Sarah Mountain, Ph.D, LLMSW.

8 classes on Tuesdays starting on March 19th to May 14th from 7:00pm to 9:30pm (skip the week of 4/30).

Retreat at Center for Growth on Saturday on April 20th from 10:00am to 1:00pm.

The cost is $300 if you sign up by February 21st and $375 after.

Please visit our webiste to fill out the forms: https://www.centerforgrowthmichigan.com/online-registration-form

We look forward to supporting your practice. Feel free to reach out with questions: admin@centerforgrowthmichigan.com or 248-455-6161.