Come join us in the Byron Hinterland of Clunes, NSW, for this 8 week Self-Compassion Training.
Mindful Self-Compassion combines the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion, providing a powerful tool for emotional resilience. Randomised controlled trials have demonstrated that MSC significantly increases self-compassion, compassion for others, mindfulness, and life satisfaction, as well as decreasing depression, anxiety and stress.
In this empirically supported 8 week training, you will learn skills and techniques which can help you have a healthier relationship to yourself, discover how to make more empowered life decisions, and reduce suffering in your life.
Self-compassion is not self-pity, it is not self-indulgence nor is it self-esteem. You will learn that it is much more extraordinary!
The next course runs for 8 Sundays as follows:
Wk 1: Sunday January 28th 2024, 9am – 12pm.
Wk 2: Sunday February 4th 2024, 9am – 12pm.
Wk 3: Sunday February 11th 2024, 9am – 12pm.
Wk 4 :Sunday February 18th 2024, 9am – 12pm.
Wk 5: Sunday February 25th 2024, 9am – 12pm.
Wk 6: Sunday March 3rd 2024, 9am – 12pm.
Wk 7: Sunday March 10th 2024, 9am – 12pm.
Wk 8: Sunday March 17th 2024, 9am – 12pm.
SUNDAY APRIL 14th 2024 RETREAT DAY
This luxe retreat is included and offered as part of the course. How magical – an opportunity for you to simply receive, to bathe in mindfulness and compassion. You will have had a break from the weekly training, and maybe the opportunity for some more self-practice. But whatever the case, all we’ll be practising is opening to our moment-to-moment experience, giving ourselves kindness and compassion, and seeing what happens!
Our intention for this retreat, is to welcome you back into the fold of Mindful Self-Compassion, and warmly hold the space for you to renew and deepen your practice within an environment enhanced by community, beauty, and support.
We will maintain companionable silence throughout the retreat, and near the end of the retreat, there will be a chance to informally discuss/share any breakthroughs, joys, and difficulties you may have encountered with your practice.
The retreat experience offers the opportunity to take Restorative Yoga (deeply physiologically rest) positions for the led practices, and includes the use of yoga mats, blankets, and bolsters.
Full Training Fees:
Early Bird : $495.00 Regular Price $595.00.
Early Bird ends at MIDDAY MONDAY 22nd JANUARY 2024
REGISTRATION
Registration closes 25th January and limited places are available.
To secure your place, please email Lise at generatinggoodkarma@gmail.com and request a registration form. Payment can be made via direct deposit to:
Bank Account Name: Lise Hearns
BSB: 112-879 Account number: 002 895 371
Reference: Your name plus “MSC”
Please Read Full Course Description Below
Here is a little bit about us:
Lise Hearns.
Lise (pronounced Lis-eh) has been sharing the principles of Yoga and Meditation for 14 years, and you can read more about that here.
Lise’s journey with Self-Compassion began in 2013, attending a Compassion Cultivation training, when a team travelled from Stanford University to teach in Sydney, and she has completed several trainings since then, mostly with the Centre for Mindful Self-Compassion. She is particularly passionate about representing Compassion (Ahimsa) as the first tenet of Yoga philosophy, and Yoga being a way of life, a balanced practice of all eight limbs of Yoga, not just Asana (postures), and also about continually learning. She has spent the last couple of years on a break from holding public practice to enquire further into her own practice and continue her studies, training and understanding around grief, trauma and self-compassion.
Together with her continual study of Yoga, Self-Compassion and Non-Violent Communication (or Compassionate Communication), Lise enjoys exploring and sharing a sense of empowered purpose and presence in the world.
Lise is driven by her desire to help people suffer less, make conscious decisions about their lives, to feel balance and to feel better, to find joy, find contentment, and find themselves.
Dr Sadhbh Joyce (BA-Psych (hons), MClinNeuroPsych, PhD, MAPS)
Sadhbh (pronounced Sive) is a Connemara woman from the far west coast of Ireland. She is a Senior Psychologist and Meditation Teacher with over 18 years’ experience working in Mental Health. Sadhbh has provided evidence-based therapy and support to those struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma and bereavement. She is also the co-founder of Mindarma, a qualified yoga teacher, a Nature-based Therapy Practitioner and an External Fellow at the Black Dog Institute and UNSW Medicine.
In 2017 Sadhbh experienced severe burnout, empathic distress and significant physical illness. Deepening her practise of self-compassion and self-care were integral to her healing and returning to work. You can read about Sadhbh’s journey with self-compassion here.
Today Sadhbh’s daily life embodies the practices of mindful self-compassion and proactive self-care. This supports her in honouring her own needs whilst also taking care of the values she holds dear. She is consistently learning and growing from this practice and from those she fortunate enough to share these teachings with through her work at Mindarma.
Sadhbh is particularly passionate about supporting those who work in service-to-others occupations who can easily forget their own needs when focused on supporting others. Over the past decade, Sadhbh has taught proactive self-care and self-compassion practices to a wide variety of groups including carers, paramedics, educators, health care workers, firefighters, teachers, child protection workers, nurses, community and justice workers, police officers, animal welfare workers, construction workers, environmental scientists, wellbeing managers, civil servants, parents and guardians. You can learn more about her work here.
Read: The Transformative Practice of Self-Compassion by Dr. Sadhbh Joyce
“We meditate, we listen, we learn to be kinder to ourselves and others, not to be better or to achieve, but to move with integrity, warmth and compassion, to create a safer world for all” ~ Mindarma
Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically-supported, 8-week training programme designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion.
Based on the groundbreaking research of Kristin Neff and the clinical expertise of Christopher Germer, MSC teaches core principles and practices that enable participants to respond to difficult moments in their lives with kindness, care and understanding.
Many people feel quite uncomfortable with the thought of being kind to themselves. However, research shows people who practice being kinder to themselves are less likely to be anxious, stressed, and depressed. They’re also more likely to be happy and optimistic about the future.
The three key components of self-compassion are:
- self-kindness,
- a sense of common humanity,
- a balanced, mindful awareness.
Kindness opens our hearts to suffering, so we can give ourselves what we need. Common humanity opens us to our essential interrelatedness, so that we know we aren’t alone. Mindfulness opens us to the present moment, so we can accept our experience with greater ease. Together they comprise a state of warm-hearted, connected presence.
Self-compassion can be learned by anyone, even those who didn’t receive enough affection in childhood or who feel uncomfortable when they are good to themselves.
It’s a courageous attitude that stands up to harm, including the harm that we unwittingly inflict on ourselves through self-criticism, self-isolation, or self-absorption.
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. Rapidly expanding research demonstrates that self-compassion is strongly associated with emotional wellbeing, less anxiety, depression and stress, maintenance of healthy habits such as diet and exercise, and satisfying personal relationships. And it’s easier than you think.
After participating in this workshop, you’ll be able to:
• Practice self-compassion in daily life
• Understand the empirically-supported benefits of self-compassion
• Motivate yourself with kindness rather than criticism
• Handle difficult emotions with greater ease
• Transform challenging relationships, old and new
• Manage caregiver fatigue
• Practice the art of savouring and self-appreciation
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
– His Holiness the Dalia Lama
What To Expect From The Training. Please Read Through Carefully.
Activities include meditation, short talks, experiential exercises, group discussion, and home practices.
MSC is a workshop rather than a retreat. The goal is for participants to directly experience self-compassion and learn practices that evoke self-compassion in daily life.
MSC is primarily a compassion training program rather than mindfulness training, although mindfulness is the foundation of self-compassion.
MSC is also not psychotherapy insofar as the emphasis of MSC is on building emotional resources rather than addressing old wounds.
Beneficial change occurs naturally as we develop the capacity to be with ourselves in a kinder, more compassionate way. Compassion is a positive, energizing emotion.
However, it is said that “love reveals everything unlike itself.” While learning self-compassion, some difficult emotions may arise. MSC teachers are committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for this process to unfold, and to making the journey enjoyable for everyone.
MSC includes 8 weekly sessions of 2 3/4 hours each, in addition to a retreat day.
Prior to registering, participants should plan to attend every session and practice mindfulness and self-compassion at least 30 minutes per day throughout the program.
Prerequisites
Everyone welcome, including people of all backgrounds and identities. No previous experience with mindfulness or meditation is required to attend MSC.
Your sense of safety is important to us. Participants will be asked to provide some personal information when they register for this course to help us determine their safety and readiness for this kind of emotional work.
Though not necessary, the following book is recommended as a companion to the MSC course: The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook, by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer (2018).
And for those who wish to integrate MSC into their professional activities, the following book is also recommended. However, please plan to take MSC primarily for your own personal insight and development. “Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program”, by Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff (2019).
This program fulfils one of the prerequisites for becoming an MSC teacher. For more information on MSC or MSC Teacher Training, please visit www.centerformsc.org .
This training will go ahead once it has reached a minimum participant number. If it does not reach that number, you will be refunded and informed of the next trining dates.
Refund policy: As this training will go ahead off the back of bookings, there is no refund if you cannot attend, but you can possibly send someone in your place, as long as you let us know beforehand, and their readiness for this work has been confirmed by us.
Information on location/address and what to bring will accompany your booking confirmation email.
If you have any questions about this offering, please feel free to text message Lise with your queries on 0405 132 432.