Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC)

Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically-supported 8 week course designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion. Developed through the clinical expertise of Dr Kristin Neff (Research Psychologist and a Pioneering Researcher in the field of Self-Compassion), and Dr Chris Germer (Clinical Psychologist).

MSC enhances our capacity for emotional well-being by developing our inner resources of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion.

The Three Core Components of Self-Compassion are;

  • Self-Kindness: opens our hearts to our suffering, so that we are able to give ourselves what we need.

  • Common humanity: opens us up to our essential inter-connectedness, so that we realise that we aren’t alone.

  • Mindful Awareness: opens us up to the present moment so that we are able to accept our experience with greater ease.

    Together they comprise a state of warm-hearted, connected presence.

What will you learn?

Learn to become a kind and supportive friend to yourself when you need it most. MSC teaches core principles and practices that enable us to respond to difficult moments in our lives with kindness, care, and understanding.

Self-compassion is a courageous attitude that embraces suffering, and stands up to harm, including the harm that we unwittingly inflict on ourselves though self criticism, self isolation, or self absorption.  

Over the eight-week course, you will learn to:

  • Practice mindfulness and self-compassion in daily life

  • Motivate yourself with kindness rather than judgement or criticism

  • Meet difficult emotions with greater ease

  • Work with challenging relationships

  • Manage care-giving fatigue and burn out

  • Practice the art of savouring and gratitude

Self-compassion provides emotional strength and resilience, allowing us to:

  • Admit our shortcomings

  • Motivate ourselves with kindness

  • Forgive ourselves and others when needed

  • Relate wholeheartedly to ourselves and others

  • Be more authentically ourselves

  • Live in greater alignment with our values

Rapidly expanding research demonstrates that self-compassion is strongly associated with:

  • Greater emotional wellbeing and resilience

  • Reduced anxiety, depression and stress

  • Maintenance of healthy habits such as diet, exercise and supportive practices.

  • More harmonious and meaningful relationships. 

How does the MSC Course work?

The MSC 8-Week Course is taught over 8 sessions of 2.75 hours each per week, including a half day practice retreat after week 5.

The MSC course is an adventure in Self-discovery and Self-kindness  

  • MSC is an opportunity to explore how we typically respond when difficulties arise in our lives, and to learn resources to start to respond in a new way: to become a kind and supportive friend to ourselves.

  • Self-compassion has the paradoxical effect of both soothing our emotional distress, as well as opening us to the pain that we may have been unconsciously holding inside, often for many years.  Therefore, some difficult emotions are likely to arise during the course, as we grow in our capacity to embrace and heal them. This is an important and essential part of the healing and transformation process.

  • MSC is therapeutic, but it’s not therapy.  The emphasis of the course is on enhancing our emotional resources to meet emotional challenges, old and new.  

  • MSC is Mindfulness-based Compassion training in which the quality of warmth and kindness is emphasised more than awareness itself.

  • We are committed to creating an environment of safety, support, privacy, individual responsibility, and a common commitment to developing compassion for oneself and others.

The course  includes:

  • Weekly sessions which include: Weekly Topics, Meditations, experiential exercises, small and large group discussions.

  • Weekly home Practice

  • Recorded guided meditations

  • A Half day Silent Practice Retreat

  • A Supportive Community

MSC participants are asked to practice mindfulness and self-compassion at home for up to 1/2 hour per day during the course;  

In a randomised, controlled study, MSC significantly increased; self-compassion, compassion for others, mindfulness, and life satisfaction. As well as decreased; anxiety, stress and depression.  Improvements were linked to how much a person practiced in their daily lives.

  • Testimonial

    “This course was unexpectedly profound - balanced with a generous dose of humour; beautifully and skilfully held by Keah. It felt natural and easy to immediately incorporate the many offerings of practical meditations into daily life. I am so grateful for this rich and wonderful resource, and for the chance to meet challenges with the support of mindful self-compassion".

    ~ Elaine (Sep 2024)

  • Testimonial

    “Keah's MSC course has, quite literally, been life changing. Her gentle yet powerful teaching methods have unlocked meditation for me in a way no other teacher or guide has managed, and given me tools that I know I will carry with me for the rest of my life. 

    Learning how to compassionately care for myself has opened my heart and changed the way I operate in the world. This could be compulsory learning for all humans of all ages.” 

    ~ Elly (Sep 2024)

  • Testimonial

    “Keah is an incredible teacher & guide in this exploration into Mindful Self-compassion. The course shifted things fundamentally for me. All within the slowly, slowly & gently, gently pace that I so appreciated.

    I am a "do-er" and generally want to charge through things and get them done. I am also throttled to feeling feelings - I think thoughts instead. This course brought such release and relief. "I too am human, I too am allowed, and I too can be kind to myself & others while still getting things done". How wonderful to experience. The connection with common humanity was magical.

    Such a well curated course and guided by a skilled practitioner that embodies the principals shared. Truly a life shift for me.” 

    ~ Leah  (Sep 2024)

  • Testimonial

    “Thank you SO much, Keah, for the opportunity to take part in this MSC course! It has given me such valuable tools to draw on when facing difficult times, and I feel like something has clicked inside which has caused some fundamental changes in me. I feel more able to support myself and more aware when I might be acting in a way that is not helpful and even destructive.

    You created such a wonderful, safe and supportive space, which I think was a big part of why the experience was so positive.”

    ~ Ben (Sep 2024)

  • Testimonial

    “My experience of the MSC with Keah was transformational.

     I have attended meditation courses in the past, and felt some benefit, but this time it feels like a key has been turned and a switch has been flipped! I just know that if I keep using the many, practical tools I have been gifted, I will move forward in my life positively.

    One of the biggest life-changing effects has been the ability to catch myself before spiraling into a self-sabotaging inner monologue, and treat myself with some compassion.

    I loved the course SO much, and Keah brought a unique gentleness to each session.”

    ~ Susi (Sep 2024)

  • Testimonial

    “I went into this course seeking a sense of solid ground within myself. What the course showed me was that this grounded-ness could also have a fluidity which more easily moves with the sea change of life. It showed me that I have the ability and capacity to hold myself gently and safely, even in the most turbulent situations - and to care for myself in times I would previously have been really harsh and bullying towards myself.  A tenderness for my shadow side or the parts of myself that I really struggle with. 

    Keah held space with such gentleness that was simultaneously so powerful in it's quiet and calm presence. I felt held, heard, seen in this special group of people. I feel that the course has had a profound impact on the way I treat myself, giving me a newfound inner peace. It has provided me with invaluable resources which I have been able to incorporate into a daily meditative practice, but have also been able to imbue or embody within my daily thinking and feeling.”

    ~ Emma (Sep 2024)

  • Testimonial

    “I have done many meditation courses before but this is by far the most impactful and practical I have experienced. And given that I am an experiential learner, very little sat between intellectual and experiential. I am constantly bringing what we learned into my daily life, multiple times a day... and I feel "stable" with greater capacity and more mental & emotional space which these practices create.

    Keah holds space like no-one I have ever experienced. She lives the work she teaches, so this course is experiential firstly and practical & intellectual as a close and tied second. To work with it (be) experientially is Keah’s true gift. And it's easy to just follow her lead.”

    ~ Brett (Sep 2024)

  • Testimonial

    “The MSC course provided precious time and space to reconnect with myself and listen deeply, and offered  simple and gentle practices to apply within my day-to-day life. Keah creates and holds a truly open and accepting space, gracefully embodies the practice and brings it to life in such an approachable way.” 

    ~ Marissa (Sep 2024)

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

― Buddha