MCMH Lesson Information

Mindfulness and Compassion for Mental Health

Scroll down to see a detailed look at each lesson, and an overview of the materials and exercises covered.

mindful self compassion course

Session 1 - Anxiety

Anxiety is the most commonly diagnosed condition in the general population. There are four primary anxiety disorder diagnoses in the DSM-5, but anxiety is also associated with a variety of other disorders. The good news is, anxiety is one of the most easily treatable of the mental health diagnoses.

Anxiety is the most commonly diagnosed condition in the general population. There are four primary anxiety disorder diagnoses in the DSM-5, but anxiety is also associated with a variety of other disorders. The good news is, anxiety is one of the most easily treatable of the mental health diagnoses.

Ads and marketing of mindfulness programs claim their classes or sessions will bring about wellbeing, relaxation, contentment, etc. This is true… given good training and regular practice.

It is well known that mindfulness meditation can lower levels of anxiety, but how does it do that, what sort of things hinder our ability to reduce our levels of anxiety, and what areas of our life are affected by the anxiety?

We will address those questions in this session with special attention to the experience of the mindfulness meditation and compassion exercises. A sneak peek at the research bibliography is below.

In this session we will be discussing mindfulness and compassion in relation to…

  • A Compassion Focused Approach to Anxiety Disorders (Welford, 2010)

  • Investigating the effects and efficacy of self-compassion intervention on generalized anxiety disorders (Luo et al., 2024)

  • Mindfulness-based interventions for social anxiety disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis (Liu et al., 2021)

  • Self-compassion is a better predictor than mindfulness of symptom severity and quality of life in mixed anxiety and depression (Van Dam et al., 2011)

  • The Impact of Self-Compassion on Shame-Proneness (Cȃndea & Szentágotai-Tătar, 2018)

  • The Mediating Effects of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion on Trait Anxiety (Bergen-Cico & Cheon, 2013)

Session 2 - Depression

According to the latest Gallup poll on depression in 2023, levels of depression in the United States is at an all-time high (the full report will be available after this session is posted). Those findings are consistent with the National Institute of Health (NIH) findings.

The Oxford Mindfulness Centre in England has been applying and researching mindfulness and depression for almost 30 years. Collectively, their body of research has made a significant contribution to the field of the treatment of depression and has helped untold numbers in their recovery. They created a system of therapy for treating depression, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

In this session, we will take a look at depression and its relationship to anxiety…

… feelings of self-worth, rumination, shame, guilt and depression. Reading this, are you depressed yet? I hope not. Because there many people have been greatly helped by mindfulness and compassion for their symptoms of depression.

Here is a list of articles and studies that have been used in this session:

  • Mediating role of self-esteem on the relationship between mindfulness, anxiety, and depression (Bajaj et al., 2016)

  • Self-compassion and symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression (de Souza et al., 2020)

  • Self-compassion, anxiety and depression symptoms; the mediation of shame and guilt (Etemadi Shamsababdi & Dehshiri, 2024)

  • The critical relationship between anxiety and depression (Kalin, 2020)

  • Impact of mindfulness and self-compassion on anxiety and depression: The mediating role of resilience (Pérez-Aranda et al., 2021)

  • Effects of length of mindfulness practice on mindfulness, depression, anxiety, and stress: A randomized controlled experiment (Strohmaier et al., 2021)

  • Why does positive mental health buffer against psychopathology? An exploratory study on self-compassion as a resilience mechanism and adaptive emotion regulation strategy (Trompetter et al., 2017)

Session 3 - Social Anxiety

We are not getting rid of something; we are inducing balance by regulating our Autonomic NS

  • Resilience is a true measure of improvement: Resilience is defined as “the ability of a substance of object to spring back into shape; the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties (Oxford English Dictionary)

  • Shame and guilt are distinctly different states

  • Stimulating one’s “rest and digest” system (the parasympathetic nervous system) is more effective in reducing anxiety than the conventional method of trying to manage the negative states

In this session, we will take a cover...

Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Meditation for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Effects on Anxiety and Stress Reactivity (Hoge et al., 2013)

  • MBSR reducing anxiety in general (GAD)

  • Improved reactions to distress (increased resilience

  • Increase in positive self-statements

  • Resilience is defined as “the ability of a substance of object to spring back into shape; the capacity to recovery quickly from difficulties (Oxford English Dictionary)

  • Indices of association between anxiety and mindfulness: a guide for future mindfulness studies (Jaiswal et al., 2019)

    • Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) pathway activation leads to

      • A cascade of psychological, behavioral, electrophysical, immunological endocrine and genetic reactions in the body

    • Mindfulness downregulates this system’s activity

      • Through emotional regulation

    • Increases executive function

  • Mediating role of self-esteem on the relationship between mindfulness, anxiety, and depression (Bajaj et al., 2016)

    • Mindfulness meditation improves a sense of self-worth

    • The sense of self-worth decreases negative rumination with in turn decreases the tendency toward anxiety and depression

  • Decentering as a Common Link among Mindfulness, cognitive Reappraisal, and Social Anxiety (Hayes-Skelton & Lee, 2020)

    • Decentering is seeing thoughts as objective events and not personalizing them

    • When we do this, it makes for more accurate appraisal of internal and external events as well as the self as an agent of interaction

  • A Compassion Focused Approach to Anxiety Disorders (Welford, 2010)

    • Threat detection is a necessary evolutionary skill

    • People with high levels of self-criticism and shame are more likely to exhibit symptoms of social anxiety and other forms of anxiety

    • There is a distinct difference between shame and guilt

    • The most effective way to reduce anxiety is not through trying to manage it, but by stimulating the soothing system (parasympathetic NS)

  • Effects of Loving-Kindness and Compassion Meditation on Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Zheng et al., 2023)

    • Loving-Kindness and Compassion Mediation reduce many forms of anxiety as well as social anxiety

  • Second-Generation Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Toward More Authentic Mindfulness Practice and Teaching (Van Gordon & Shonin, 2020)

    • The quality of mindfulness teaching/training is important.

Session 4 - Forgiveness

It is easy to see that forgiveness is a part of the human experience since injury, betrayal, jealousy, and more, are also part of the human experience. And if we don’t forgive, it is like walking around with an open wound. Forgiveness is generally accepted as important and at times, necessary, yet it is not well practiced. Often people will say I’ll forgive but I’ll never forget. Like many colloquial sayings, this is misleading. To truly forgive means the balance sheet is zero: nothing owed to or from the other. We let go.

Complete forgiveness is not easy, it is a bumpy road, often painful and it takes a long time. When in the process of forgiving, we begin to see the work it really takes, we may say to ourselves: That’s good enough and we stop, claiming we’ve forgiven. Not so. If we, when remembering the instance(s) or person(s) we intend to forgive, the emotions and memories and pain begin to arise and we’re back in the experience much like a trauma recall, rest assured… we have not yet completed the cycle of forgiveness.

The obstacles to full forgiveness are many. Among them most common are anger, fear, blame, pride, confusion (ambivalence), pain and more. The extend to which we want to achieve a deep sense of wellbeing and to be helpful to those around us will determine how thorough we are in forgiving. If we truly wish to be free, we will need to fully forgive. My favorite definition of forgiveness is Forgiveness is letting go of the pain. I feel it sums up the character and the dynamics of forgiveness, which we will discuss in detail during the session. It is easy to see that mindfulness and compassion skills might be very helpful in the process. That is indeed the case. We will see what the research says and apply mindfulness and compassion exercises to forgiveness to get a taste of the process.

In this session, we will take a look at

Self-Compassion and Interpersonal Mindfulness as Predictors of Forgiveness in Adulthood (Topçu & Erus, 2023)

Shame and guilt-proneness and self-compassion as predictors of self-forgiveness (Mróz & Sornat, 2022)

Is mindfulness associated with interpersonal forgiveness? (Karremans et al., 2020)

Metacognition and Mindfulness - The Role of Fringe Consciousness (Norman, 2017)

Cost and registration

The suggested cost for this 4-week series is $200.

If you would like to discuss series pricing or if you would like to attend only one or two of the sessions, please contact Alfie Wishart directly at  Info@WishartCounseling.com to make futher arrangements.

Session Recordings & Missed Sessions

All participants will receive access to the full session recordings—whether attending live or not.

  1. If you register and miss a session, you’ll still receive the full replay and resources for that session.

  2. Please note: No refunds are available for missed sessions.

This format is designed to give you flexibility and ongoing access to revisit the material in your own time.

For any questions, contact us at:   info@dallascmc.org

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