MIndful Self-Compassion – a 9 week course

Apr. 11 – June 6, 2018
Wednesdays (6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.)
Retreat:
Sat., May 12 (9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.)
No previous experience is required to attend this Program

Increasingly, health-care institutions are coming under pressure to do more with less, to provide quality care with less resources and to improve the experience of patients and their families.

As a result, many health-care workers find themselves grappling with increased levels of stress, burnout, compassion/empathy fatigue and conflict within their teams and colleagues.

There is a way to create workplaces that both support physician/staff/learner; one that creates resilience and enables compassionate care not only for patients but for fellow co-workers as well.

Mindful 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. Increased self-compassion improves compassion for others.

– 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 savoring and self-appreciation

Multiple studies have shown that 30-60% of physicians and other health care providers are experiencing significant levels of professional and personal distress, including burnout, emotional exhaustion, and low self-accomplishment. Burnout has been linked to many adverse outcomes including poor quality of care, increased errors and decreased ability to demonstrate empathy.

How can the individuals who choose this “helping” profession thrive in the face of personal and work stresses? As we meet suffering in clinical practice, can we practice building resilience rather than cynicism and exhaustion?

Who of us has not left themselves out in the process of caring for others?
Who does not have an inner critic that barks at us periodically?
Who has difficulty navigating stress or conflict in interpersonal relationships?

Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically-supported, (evidenced based) 9-week, training program designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion. Based on the ground-breaking 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.

The three key components of self-compassion are self-kindness, a sense of common humanity, and balanced, mindful awareness. Kindness opens our hearts to suffering, so we can give ourselves what we need. Common humanity opens us to our essential inter-relatedness, 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. It is 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 well-being, less anxiety, depression and stress, maintenance of healthy habits such as diet and exercise, and satisfying personal relationships and increased compassion for others.

This mindfulness course is an experiential curriculum for all health care providers. The program uses didactic teaching, experiential work including group, large and small, interpersonal work as well as individual work. We will meet for 2 1/2 hours each Wednesday and will have a half day retreat after session 5. To receive the most benefit from the program, participants are advised to attend every session along with the retreat and to develop a mindfulness practice each day during the program.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Develop mindfulness
• Develop self and other observational tools thus improving one’s relationship with self and others
• Learn to manage suffering and difficult emotions
• Learn the skills to start to develop self-compassion, self-care behaviors, set realistic personal boundaries to help prevent burnout
• Promote resilience, health and well-being within the self and the health care environment

For further information and entire brochure please go to  https://fhs.mcmaster.ca/facdev/documents/MSC2018.pdf

and to https://fhs.mcmaster.ca/facdev/ for further background information and testimonials by students