Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals

by Christopher Germer, Kristin Neff

This is the authoritative guide to conducting the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program, which provides powerful tools for coping with life challenges and enhancing emotional well-being. MSC codevelopers Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff review relevant theory and research and describe the program's unique pedagogy. Readers are taken step by step through facilitating each of the eight sessions and the accompanying full-day retreat. Detailed vignettes illustrate not only how to teach the course's didactic and experiential content, but also how to engage with participants, manage group processes, and overcome common obstacles. The final section of the book describes how to integrate self-compassion into psychotherapy. Purchasers get access to a companion website with downloadable audio recordings of the guided meditations. This book is not intended to replace formal training for teaching the MSC program.

473 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2022

About the author

Chris Germer, PhD is a clinical psychologist and lecturer on psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. He co-developed the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program with Kristin Neff in 2010, and since then MSC has been taught in 30 languages in over 60 countries. They co-authored three books on MSC: The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook, Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout, and Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program. He is also the author of Self-Compassion for Shame and The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion.

Dr. Germer is a founding faculty member of the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, Harvard Medical School at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and also the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He co-edited two influential volumes on therapy, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy. Currently, Chris spends most of his time lecturing and leading workshops around the world on mindfulness and self-compassion. and he maintains a small clinical practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.