privately with a teacher about any personal issues that may interfere with their self-compassion
practice.
Self-compassion training is a profoundly individual experience for each participant. During the
eight-week program, group members learn 2 core meditations, 9 other meditations and 18 informal
self-compassion practices, along with the rationale behind these practices. All the practices are
described in a handout booklet, and the guided meditations can be downloaded from the Internet.
Group participants are encouraged to be experimental in how they adapt the practices to their own
lives. At the end of the course, the question is often raised, “What’s the best practice for me?” and
the answer is, “The one you’re most committed to”. That’s usually a practice that’s carefully tailored
to one’s individual needs, easy to use and has provided many moments of comfort and relief.
The MSC program is organized so that the themes of each session build sequentially upon each
other:
Session 1 is an introduction to the subject of self-compassion, to the structure of the program, and
it’s an opportunity for the participants to become acquainted with one another. In session 2,
participants learn mindfulness practices, especially affectionate awareness of breathing.
Mindfulness helps us know when we’re feeling stress or emotional pain, which is a necessary
precondition for compassion. We teach loving-kindness meditation in session 3, the core practice
of the MSC program. Session 4 expands loving-kindness into daily life, showing how to “warm up”
the everyday conversations in our minds. Session 5 focuses on core values and commitments. To
be truly self-compassionate, we need to know what really matters in our lives and respond to those
deeper needs. The mini-retreat follows the 4th or 5th session and provides an opportunity for
extended self-inquiry in a supportive group environment. By the 6th session, the core practices of
the MSC program have been taught and we begin to apply them to manage difficult emotions
(session 6) and transform challenging relationships (session 7). Finally, in session 8, we shift our
attention to embracing the positive aspects of our lives, and discuss how to take self-compassion
home after the program ends.
Most sessions begin with 20 minutes of meditation practice followed by 20 minutes of group
discussion under the banner, “How is your practice going?” Then the topic of the day is introduced,
such as “What is mindfulness?” or “Finding your compassionate voice”. Every effort is made to
anchor new ideas in direct experience using class exercises, meditations or informal take-home
practices. Poetry also helps participants to experience new concepts at an intuitive or visceral
level. In the MSC program, we use poems written by previous course participants as well as poets
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