Self Compassion in Psychotherapy: Beyond Mindfulness
- Enrich your practice with the Self-Compassion modality
- Apply Self-Compassion to treat depression, anxiety and trauma
- Improve your own mental health
- Prevent burnout and vicarious trauma
- Learn like in Harvard
If you’ve incorporated mindfulness into your psychotherapy practice, it might be time that you look beyond it and transition into the practice of self-compassion. Researchers now understand that self-compassion is a skill that can be strengthened through deliberate practice, and that it is one of the strongest predictors of mental health and wellness. The brain’s compassion centre, which neuroscientists call the Care Circuit, can be targeted and fortified using specific techniques.
This new online course is a guide for mental health practitioners on how to integrate cutting-edge neuroscience with mindfulness and traditional Buddhist practices in order to help clients develop a more loving, kind and forgiving attitude towards themselves.
Filled with convenient and practical short exercises, Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy: Beyond Mindfulness demonstrates how to apply self-compassion practices to treat depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, relationship problems and self-sabotage, preventing burnout and stress.
You do not need to have any background in mindfulness in order to benefit from this new online course presented by Dr Christopher Willard, a tenued professor from Harvard Medical School.
You will find that self-compassion practices have the capacity to add new layers of depth to mindfulness-based therapies such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
This highly experiential course will leave you energised and empowered with new tools and interventions.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the dimensions of self-compassion.
- Summarise the interpersonal neurobiology of self-compassion and compassion practices and their effects on depression, anxiety, and stress.
- Use self-compassion and compassion practices to minimise compassion fatigue/burnout/secondary trauma in practitioners and other caregivers.
- Teach self-compassion strategies to others, safely minimising risks of dissociation and decompensation in traumatised individuals.
- Design treatment plans that incorporate mindfulness and self-compassion skills.
- Communicate how understanding neurological processes can help professionals improve clinical outcomes.
- Integrate self-compassion, compassion, and mindful awareness practices with other treatment protocols.
- Facilitate others cultivating self-compassion/compassion practices to increase attention, concentration, executive functioning, and resilience.
- Acquire practices and interventions that decrease shame, self-criticism, and increase self-kindness instead.
- Explain the difference between self-compassion and self-esteem
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 4.5 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Anxious teens, stressed college students, and overwhelmed families struggling with modern pressures need more than traditional therapy approaches - they need clinicians who understand how mindfulness and other neuroscience backed practices can rewire young brains for resilience. Christopher Willard has dedicated his career to making mindfulness accessible and practical, becoming one of the world's leading experts in mindful approaches to youth mental health.
As a Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Willard has visited and trained practitioners across 44 countries in resilience, mental health, emotional intelligence, communication and more. His 20+ books - including Growing Up Mindful, College Mental Health 101, and the upcoming Neuroscience of Negotiation - have been translated into over a dozen languages and earned praise from mindfulness leaders like Thich Nhat Hanh, Tara Brach, Dan Siegel, and Jack Kornfield. His work bridges ancient wisdom with contemporary neuroscience, showing clinicians how contemplative practices can address anxiety, depression, and stress-related disorders for all ages
Dr. Willard's expertise spans mindfulness-based interventions, developmental neuroscience and corporate and educational consulting. His approach combines 20 years of personal meditation practice with rigorous clinical training, giving him unique insight into resilience across the lifespan. He helps clinicians understand when mindfulness is appropriate, how to adapt practices for different challenges, and ways to integrate contemplative approaches with evidence-based therapies.
What sets his training apart is developmental sophistication and practicality. Willard doesn't just water down mindfulness but make it relevant culturally, cognitively and developmentally for a multitasking world. His work from corporations to clinics to classrooms have shown him what interventions succeed or fail in different settings.
For your practice, expect to gain age-appropriate mindfulness techniques, practical tools for treating anxious and depressed youth, and frameworks for integrating contemplative practices with traditional therapy. His methods particularly benefit clinicians working with adolescents, college students, or families seeking alternatives to medication-focused treatment.
Quick Win: Willard's "Alphabreaths" technique gives young clients 26 different breathing practices they can choose from based on their current emotional state - creating immediate buy-in and personalised coping tools they actually use.
Qualifications
- PsyD, Clinical Psychology, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 2008
- B.A., English, Wesleyan University, 2001
- Licensed Psychologist (Massachusetts)
- 20+ years of personal meditation practice
Authored Books
- College Mental Health 101 (2025, co-author with Blaise Aguirre & Chelsie Green, New Harbinger)
- How We Grow Through What We Go Through (2022, Sounds True)
- Alphabreaths (2019, Sounds True)
- Raising Resilience (2017, Sounds True, praised by Sharon Salzberg, Tina Bryson)
- Growing Up Mindful (2016, Sounds True, praised by Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield)
- Child's Mind (2010, Parallax Press, praised by Thich Nhat Hanh)
- 20+ total titles including therapeutic games and card sets, translated into 10+ languages
Teaching & Roles
- Lecturer on Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 2014–present
- Clinical Instructor, Cambridge Health Alliance Department of Psychiatry, 2014–present
- President, Mindfulness in Education Network, 2015–present
- Psychologist & Consultant, Enlightened Livelihoods, 2005–present
- Psychologist, Tufts University Counseling and Mental Health Services, 2009–2014
Speaking & Training
- Harvard Medical School faculty presentations
- Brahm Centre Singapore keynote (2020)
- International mindfulness training and consultation
Ready to help young people develop lifelong resilience skills? Discover how Dr. Willard's mindfulness-based methods can transform your work with anxious and stressed youth while enhancing your own clinical presence.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 15
- Topics 0
- Duration 4.5 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English