Making Friends With ... Yourself (MFY)!

The 8 week MFY course is Mindful Self-Compassion training for adolescents. It is designed to help adolescents manage difficult emotions through the challenges of their teenage years.

See the Courses tab for upcoming courses.

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​What is MFY?

MFY is an empirically-supported, 8-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, Mindful Self-compassion teaches core principles and practices that enable participants to respond to difficult moments in their lives with kindness, care and understanding. MFY is the adolescent version of this work.

 

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, even those who feel uncomfortable when they are good to themselves. It's 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 symptoms, maintenance of healthy habits such as diet and exercise, and satisfying personal relationships. And it’s easier than you think.

 

After participating in this course, you’ll be able to:

• Practice self-compassion in daily life

• Understand the empirically-supported benefits of self-compassion

• Motivate yourself with kindness rather than criticism

• Handle difficult emotions with greater ease

• Transform challenging relationships, old and new

• Practice the art of savouring and self-appreciation

 

What To Expect

Program activities include some art work, meditation, short talks, experiential exercises, group discussion, and home practices. MFY is a workshop. The goal is for participants to directly experience self-compassion and learn practices that evoke self-compassion in daily life.

Although mindfulness is the foundation of self-compassion, MFY is primarily a compassion training program rather than mindfulness training like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). MFY is also not psychotherapy insofar as the emphasis of MFY is on building emotional resources rather than addressing old wounds.  Positive change occurs naturally as we develop the capacity to be with ourselves in a kinder, more compassionate way.

It is said that “love reveals everything unlike itself.” While some difficult emotions may arise when practicing self-compassion, MFY teachers are committed to providing a safe, supportive environment for this process to unfold, and to making the journey interesting and enjoyable for everyone.

 

MFY includes 8 weekly sessions of 1¾ hours each. 

 

Prerequisites

No previous experience with mindfulness or meditation is required to attend MFY. To ensure safety, participants are asked to provide background information when they register for the programme and there will be an opportunity for you to meet with the lead teacher of the MFY course before the course starts.

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