Mindfulness + Self-Compassion: An Experiential Lecture/Workshop

Presenter: Renée Burgard, LCSW – Mindfulness & Health, Los Altos, CA

2 CEUs

This experiential (online) Mindfulness and Self-Compassion workshop will offer practices for cultivating the “allowing awareness” of mindfulness, for offering kindness and friendship to ourselves; for transforming difficulties; and for cultivating and deepening a sense of connection, belonging, appreciation, and wellbeing within ourselves and with others.

The presentation will begin with guided mindful movement, awareness of breathing practices, and a brief body scanning and sensory awareness meditation, incorporating self-compassion.

A brief history and review of the research in the fields of both mindfulness and self-compassion will be presented; followed by a description of basic precautions for guiding mindful self-compassion practices, and a comparison of mindfulness and self-compassion training and practice.

Participants will learn a mindful “S.T.O.P.” practice to use daily and to share with others; self-inquiry with a “B-E-T Check-in” (Body–Emotions–Thoughts), a “Mindful Self-Compassion Break,” practice, and 2 different LovingKindness meditations.

Fundamental principles inherent in the healing aspects of these practices will be explained.

Participants will watch brief animations supporting their understanding and enjoyment of the ideas and practices presented.

Learning Objectives:

1. Have a familiarity with and a basic understanding of fundamental mindfulness and self-compassion evidence-based approaches, and practices for health and wellbeing;
2. 2Be able to independently practice several meditation/movement/lovingkindness/self-compassion practices for stress reduction and wellbeing, ad share them with others;
3. Understand how ways to guide clients in several basic practices;
4. Identify links to written materials and audio recordings of practices for personal use and sharing with clients, if desired. Resources for further study will be offered.
5. Have an awareness of the body of research evidence for the physical, mental, emotional, and relational benefits that may be experienced from regular mindfulness and self-compassion practices.

About the Presenter:

Renée Burgard is a licensed psychotherapist and leading Bay Area Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction/MBSR, and Mindfulness + Self-Compassion/M+SC educator, teacher trainer, and consultant. She founded and has taught MBSR and related programs at Google, Inc.; Apple, Inc.; Stanford University; the Palo Alto Medical Foundation; and other schools, corporations and nonprofits locally and abroad since 2001. She is the owner of Mindfulness & Health in Los Altos, CA.

Burgard earned her Bachelors in Psychology at Stanford University, and Masters in Social Welfare and Health & Medical Sciences at UC Berkeley – a highlight was a year of training in neurosciences with Marian Diamond (see the wonderful PBS Documentary about her: “My Love Affair with the Brain,” aired in 2019). She trained with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction/MBSR founder Jon Kabat-Zinn; Mindful Self- Compassion/MSC founders Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer; Dan Siegel, MD, founder of Interpersonal Neurobiology; and Rick Hanson, author of Hardwiring Happiness. She was ordained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2007 as a lay member of the Community of Mindful Living in the Plum Village Tradition, and founded and facilitates a community of mindful living in his “Pluym Village” tradition, in Los Altos. She trained in yoga and meditation in the US and in India, and has been a dedicated practitioner for many years.