Mental Health

Have you ever felt swamped with negative thoughts and emotions? Have you ever found yourself feeling down and blue? You are not alone. Feeling anxious or sad is really common and the World Health Organization (WHO) says that depressive mood and anxiety could be the biggest health problems we face in the world.

Well, you have come to the right place! Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy(MBCT) is an 8-week, evidence-based, experiential program that combines ideas of cognitive therapy and mindfulness meditation practices to cultivate present moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is designed to cultivate resilience and safeguard against recurring bouts of negative thoughts, emotions, and low mood. Research finds MBCT to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and stands as a validated alternative to medication. 

In this course, you will be able to understand the traits of mood disorders and cultivate a new, heartful relationship to them by turning towards habitual patterns of thinking that keep you stuck and spiraling down. With practice, you will be able to build your capacity to respond to life’s challenges in more mindful and attentive ways. 

Participants will be required to meet with the instructor before the program starts. You will receive more information on this closer to the start date.

Join us and unlock your inner resilience and embrace emotional balance by joining this transformative 8-week course!

What You’ll Learn

• Attend to patterns of thought, emotions, behavior
• Raise awareness of and reduce identification with negative states
• Build skills to prevent relapse using mindfulness meditation techniques
• Learn to respond rather than react, using the element of choice

Who Should Participate

If you often worry about the future or dwell on the past, experience low mood, or have a history of anxiety and/or depression, this is the class for you. A commitment to attendance of 80% of the full series and home practice activities is required. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend the daylong silent retreat.

Helpful Resources

• The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress — John Teasdale, Mark Williams, and Zindel Segal (Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn).
• Video: Zindel Segal speaks about MBCT
• Kuyken (2016): Individual patient data meta-analysis of randomized trials (MBCT and relapse prevention).

Objectives

At the completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• Articulate the key aspects of mindfulness as it relates to coping with negative moods and preventing relapse of depression and anxiety.
• Differentiate MBCT from and other CBT techniques that may seem similar but are quite different in contending with negative mood states.
• Practice the key aspects of mindfulness to manage symptoms and to prevent relapse of depression and anxiety.
• Apply mindfulness and cognitive therapy techniques when managing difficult situations and emotions in both personal and professional settings.
• Explain the potential benefits mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (and mindfulness) to family and friends
• Create plans to continue and deepen personal practice of mindfulness.

Note: This course does not train facilitators; it is for participants wishing to learn MBCT tools for themselves.

What would happen if, in moments of shame, you could care for yourself instead of going small, attacking yourself, or shutting down?

We are excited to invite you to Self-Compassion for Shame: Returning Home to Yourself, a groundbreaking 8-week program developed by Dr. Chris Germer, Natalie Bell, and the SC-Shame development team. In this course, we take a unique, non-pathological look at shame through the lens of mindful self-compassion—and learn why self-compassion is the antidote to shame.

Who Should Participate

Prerequisites: This course is suitable for everyone who has completed either the 8-Week MSC, the 5-Day MSC Intensive, or the Short Course in MSC-along with a personal self-compassion practice of 1 year or more. You should be able to recognize that shame may be limiting your full potential—and want new resources to be able to work with it in a healthy balanced way.

SC-Shame is a resource-building program (like MSC), not psychotherapy. Because we’ll be touching shame with self-compassion, challenging emotions may arise. Our teaching team is committed to co-creating a safe and rewarding learning environment together with participants.

“Self-Compassion allows us to see through shame—to see our inherent worth and value.”

What You’ll Learn

You will build practical resources to meet shame with greater acceptance and authenticity so you can stay connected, think in a balanced way, and make wise, healthy choices. The course weaves together talks, experiential exercises, meditation, and group discussion, alongside theory and research on shame and self-compassion. Special topics include:

• Mindfulness of shame
• Origins of shame
• Self-criticism
• Body shame
• Self-forgiveness
• Hidden parts
• Social justice

“Shame makes us want to go small, go silent, or go away. Self-Compassion shows us how to be strong and have a voice.”

Why This Course

Prior participants of the SC-Shame 8-week course reported:

• 96% would recommend the course
• 96% said their experience of shame changed as a result of the course
• 89% would consider taking the course again
• 85% had better mental and emotional wellbeing after the course

Program Structure

• 8 weeks, 28 hours total (20 hours class time plus 8 hours optional practice group)
• Weekly classes: 2.5 hours each
• Optional practice group: 1 hour weekly, facilitated by SC-Shame teachers
• Class size: maximum 30 participants

Free Orientation Session

Join us for a free orientation session as a preview of the upcoming 8-week course starting in April 2026. Register here.

In today’s world, teens and pre-teens are under more pressure and experiencing higher levels of stress than ever before. Increasing demand in technology, academic preparation, and life transitions often result in physical and emotional stressors, such as:

• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Depression

These stressors can affect your child’s well-being and happiness. A crucial skill in managing stress effectively is to be able to deal with change whenever it occurs.

In this program, teens will learn how to:

• Sharpen their ability to focus and pay attention
• Experience life situations with less emotional reactivity
• Remember effective strategies for making better choices
• Increase kindness and compassion for themselves and others
• Obtain skills for self-care

The teens will practice:

• Gentle stretching and yoga
• Mindful meditation practices to support relaxation and awareness
• Self-reflection through journaling
• Completing a variety of activities
• Participating in group discussions

Don't know where to start? Our Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program is our flag-ship program and a great place to learn about mindfulness and what it has to offer in your life.

Many participants come to us suffering from the following:

• Chronic pain
• Stress, anxiety, and worry
• Chronic or life-threatening medical illnesses
• Depression
• Relationship difficulties
• Sleep disturbance
• Hypertension and headaches
• Grief and loss

Now is the perfect moment to bring balance back into your life with this evidence‑based, 8‑week MBSR program—designed to help you regain calm, resilience, and heightened awareness.

MBSR involves cultivating a different relationship between you and the things that challenge you in your life, and relies completely upon the tools you already have. Specifically, mindfulness helps you access the ability to be non-judgmental, compassionate, patient, present and aware.

However, just because you have the inner wisdom and resources to contend differently with your life and all its aspects, does not mean that you routinely use them. Most of us are on “auto-pilot” much of the day and tend to react much more than we respond to the decisions and situations we face. Our courses are intended to develop the innate ability to cultivate mindfulness over “mindlessness”, with which we are all familiar. 

This is an opportunity to rediscover yourself and to access the qualities and strengths you possess deep inside. 

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor emeritus of medicine and the creator of the 'Stress Reduction Clinic' and the 'Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society' at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the author of many books including Full Catastrophe Living.

MBSR All-Day Session (Included in our registration):

As part of the MBSR course, we offer an All-Day Session of Mindfulness, typically held between weeks 6 and 7. This teacher-led silent retreat is a chance to experience mindfulness practices you have already been learning—such as sitting meditation, mindful movement, walking meditation— in a supportive and spacious way. You'll also have the opportunity to reflect and share your experience at the end of the day and during class.

MBSR Orientation Videos

Join us for a FREE SC-MSC Information Session on Tuesday, June 9th from 6-6:45pm PT

REGISTER HERE

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The Short Course in Mindful Self-Compassion (SC-MSC) is a 6-week adaptation of the empirically-supported 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program designed to begin the cultivation of the skills of self-compassion. SC-MSC was developed by Kristin Neff, PhD, the pioneering researcher in the field of self-compassion and Christopher Germer, PhD, a leader in the integration of mindfulness, compassion and psychotherapy. 

Most of us feel compassion for our close friends when they are struggling. What would it be like to receive the same caring attention from yourself when you needed it most? All that’s required is a shift in attention—recognizing that as a human being, you, too, are a worthy recipient of compassion. Self-compassion involves the capacity to comfort and soothe ourselves, and to motivate ourselves with encouragement, when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate. Self-compassion is learned in part by connecting with our innate compassion for others and including ourselves in that circle of compassion. The practice of self-compassion also helps to grow and sustain our compassion for others. 

The SC-MSC program draws on the skills of mindfulness and focuses on developing the resource of self-compassion to enhance our capacity for emotional wellbeing.  Burgeoning research shows that self-compassion is strongly associated with emotional wellbeing, coping with life challenges, lower levels of anxiety and depression, healthy habits such as diet and exercise, and more satisfying personal relationships. It is an inner strength that enables us to be more fully human—more fully ourselves. 

Fortunately, self-compassion can be learned by anyone, even those of us who did not learn these skills as children. 

This program is designed for members of the general public, based on the values of equity, diversity, inclusiveness and belonging. Meditation experience is not necessary to participate in SC-MSC. All are welcome!  

Program activities include short talks, experiential exercises, group discussion, and home practices.  SC-MSC is an opportunity to explore how we typically respond when difficulties arise in our lives and to learn tools for becoming a warm and supportive companion to ourselves.

Objectives

• Articulate the basic theoretical underpinnings and research findings related to self-compassion
• Develop and apply self-compassion practices to motivate themselves with encouragement rather than self-criticism
• Develop the capacity to contend with challenges and difficulties through awareness of self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness.
• Apply core self-compassion practices into daily life