Mindful Non-Self-Compassion: Exploring the Meaning of Self in Self-Compassion
This course meets on Tuesday June 6, 2023
Hours: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT / 12:00 - 3:00 PM EST– Click here to view the Time Conversion Chart
This workshop is open to everyone – professionals and the general public.
The cost of this workshop is $125.
Join Chris Germer and Andrew Olendzki as they explore precisely what is meant by “self” in early Buddhist psychology and in the widely known Mindful Self-Compassion training program during this 3-hour workshop.
Participants will have access to recording of the workshop for two months after the live event.
Instructors
Christopher Germer
Co-Founder, CMSC
Christopher Germer, Ph.D., is a co-developer of the MSC program and a co-founder of the Center for MSC. He is the author of the popular book, The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and co-author (with Kristin Neff) of the professional text, Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program, and a workbook, The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook. Chris is an MSC Teacher Trainer and leads MSC intensives and workshops around the world.
Chris is also a clinical psychologist and lecturer on psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. Chris has been integrating the principles and practices of meditation into psychotherapy since 1978. He has co-edited two influential volumes –Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy – and he is a founding faculty member of both the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School. Chris maintains a small private practice in Arlington, Massachusetts, USA, specializing in mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapy.
Andrew Olendzki
PhD
Andrew Olendzki, PhD is a Buddhist scholar, teacher, and writer living in Amherst, MA. Trained at Lancaster University (UK), the University of Sri Lanka (Perediniya), and Harvard, he worked in leadership positions for 25 years in Barre, Massachusetts, first at the Insight Meditation Society and then at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He has taught at various New England colleges (including Amherst, Brandeis, Hampshire, Harvard, Lesley, Smith, and Wesleyan), and worked for two years with the Mind & Life Institute.. Andrew has contributed chapters to many books on Buddhist psychology, writes regularly for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and is the author of Unlimiting Mind: The radically experiential psychology of Buddhism (Wisdom, 2010), and Untangling Self: A Buddhist investigation of who we really are (Wisdom 2016). He is currently professor and director of the graduate Mindfulness Studies program at Lesley University.
Self-compassion is rapidly going mainstream around the world. However, the “self” in self-compassion still makes some people uncomfortable, especially when “self” is associated with selfishness. Early Buddhist psychology goes further and states that the “self” is the cause of most human suffering. How, then, do we explain the overwhelming research evidence showing that self-compassion is good for mental and physical well-being?
This unique, public offering is an opportunity to explore precisely what is meant by “self” in early Buddhist psychology and in the widely known Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) training program.
Andrew Olendzki, a foremost Western scholar of early Buddhism, and Chris Germer, a clinical psychologist and co-developer of the Mindful Self-Compassion program, will share their views and discuss key questions such as:
“What is the ‘self’ and how is it created?”
“How is the ‘self’ understood in self-compassion?
“Can self-compassion soften the ‘self’? If so, how?
“What is the role of mindfulness in self-compassion?
“Who is talking to whom in loving-kindness meditation?”
Mindfulness and self-compassion practitioners will be able to practice more effortlessly by understanding the deeper roots of self-compassion in the wisdom of non-self.
Scholars and academics will discover new threads linking wisdom and compassion in modern contemplative practice.
Psychotherapists will learn the underlying mechanics of effective self-compassion interventions in clinical practice.
Learning Objectives
- Describe how a sense of “self” is constructed and deconstructed according to early Buddhist psychology
- Explain how self-compassion softens the “self” through warmth and goodwill.
- Practice self-compassion with less effort by cultivating the wisdom of non-self
- Integrate self-compassion into professional work more easily and effectively