Cultivating a Multicultural Lens in the Compassion Classroom 

Live Online Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) course

Mindfulness and compassion teachers, develop your anti-oppressive lens, learn ways to help co-create a more welcoming and inclusive experience for your participants, and advance more skillful responses when cross-cultural issues, challenges, microaggressions, and communication ruptures arise in teaching mindfulness and compassion in this 8-week workshop series of supportive practice, discussion, and reflection.

Led by Sydney Spears, CMSC Director of DEIB and MSC Certified Teacher, Tracy Ochester, Coordinator of Midwest Alliance of Mindfulness and Certified MBCT Teacher, and guest presenters Mel Wraight, Michael Yellow Bird, Kristin Neff, Chris Germer, and Mushim Patricia Ikeda.

8 Mondays October 31, 2022 through December 19, 2022 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time (12 – 2 PM ET, Find Your Time Zone) Optional 15-20 minute post-session discussion and/or Q&A after each class.

 

Sliding Scale Fee: $250-$425 USD. 

Cultivating a multicultural, anti-oppression lens is essential to practicing just self-compassion and compassion for others. During this Mindful Self-Compassion based DEIB series, participants will:

          • be guided through reflective and experiential explorations of cultural self-awareness,

          • develop understanding of the  social-cultural realities of diverse groups,

          • explore ways of supporting an anti-oppressive practice, and

          • reflect upon the developmental process of social justice allyship. 

Each module will include pre-live session introductory material (i.e. videos, brief articles, handouts) related to the module topic with reflective prompts. This pre-work will prepare participants for the live session breakout and whole group reflections and discussions.

During the weekly live virtual 120-minute sessions, the facilitators and several guest speakers will share some key considerations and questions.  Within small groups participants will be invited to compassionately reflect upon the pre-session material, prompts and the considerations shared by the facilitators. This will be followed by a whole group segment where participants can share and ask questions.

This course is designed and open to teachers of mindfulness and compassion contemplative-based courses (including MSC, MBSR, MBCT, CBCT, CCT, TIC and others).

 

Cultivating a Multicultural Lens in the Mindfulness and Compassionate Classroom

Mondays October 31 – December 19, 2022

            • October 31: Orientation to the Intersection of Mindfulness, Self-Compassion and DEIB
            • November 7: Mindfully Exploring Cultural Self-Awareness with Self-Compassion
            • November 14: Understanding the Realities of Sociocultural Diverse Communities-part 1: Race 
            • November 21: Understanding the Realities of Sociocultural Diverse Communities-part 2: Sexism 
            • November 28: Understanding the Realities of Sociocultural Diverse Communities—part 3: Gender and Sexual Orientation 
            • December 5: Understanding the Realities of Sociocultural Diverse Communities—part 4: Disability 
            • December 12: Understanding the Realities of Sociocultural Diverse Communities—part 5: Patriarchy & Male Gender Role Socialization
            • December 19: Exploring the Developmental Process of Social Justice Allyship with Compassion

Sliding Scale: $250-$425 USD

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9:00 am - 11 am Pacific Time

(12 – 2 PM ET, Find Your Time Zone)

 

Optional 15-20 minute post-session discussion and/or Q&A after each class.

Online - Zoom

Please contact Rachel Tayse, CMSC Program Support Manager, with any questions.

Sydney Spears (she/her)

Facilitator

Sydney Spears, Ph.D., LCSW is a certified Mindful-Self Compassion teacher and Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging for the Center of Mindful Self-Compassion. She also works part-time at the University of Kansas-School of Social Welfare specializing in teaching diversity, anti-oppression, social justice and clinical social work courses. Sydney has deep passion for advancing social equity for racialized people and all other underserved populations experiencing systemic injustices. Additionally, Sydney is highly committed to providing and integrating anti-oppressive and trauma-sensitive practices within her psychotherapy practice as a licensed clinical social worker. Her counseling service specializes in working with survivors of chronic stress and trauma generated from family relationships and sociocultural trauma.

 

Tracy Ochester (she/her)

Facilitator

Tracy Ochester, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Kansas City, Certified Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Teacher and UCSD MBPTI approved Mentor, a Trained Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention Teacher, and a Registered Yoga Teacher. She also serves as the Heart-Mind Coordinator for the Midwest Alliance for Mindfulness, a nonsectarian organization supporting the practice of mindfulness in the heartland.

 

Mel Wraight (they/them)

Guest Presenter

Mel is the founder of Stillpoint Mindfulness psychotherapy practice in the UK and has been teaching mindfulness to individuals, groups, and business for 10 years. Their training to teach mindfulness includes MBSR and MBCT at Bangor Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, The Mindful Self-Compassion programme with Kristen Neff and Chris Germer, Dot b. with the Mindfulness in Schools Project, and Finding Peace in a Frantic World with Chris Cullen at Oxford Centre for Mindfulness.

 

Michael Yellow Bird (he/him)

Guest Presenter

Michael Yellow Bird, MSW, PhD (he/him), is Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Social Work and the founder, director, and principal investigator of The Centre for Mindful Decolonization and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. He is an enrolled member of the MHA Nation (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) in North Dakota, USA and serves as a consultant, trainer, and senior advisor to several BIPOC mindfulness groups and organizations who are seeking to incorporate mindfulness practices, philosophies, and activities to Indigenize and decolonize western mindfulness approaches in order to address systemic racism and engage in structural change.

 

Mushim Patricia Ikeda (she/her)

Guest Presenter

Mushim Patricia Ikeda (she/her) is a co-founder and core teacher of East Bay Meditation Center, in Oakland, California. She’s also the guiding teacher of an award-winning yearlong program training social justice activists in secular mindfulness. She has published Buddhist-related nonfiction and poetry widely for journals like Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, and Tricycle, and she is the recipient of a Global Diversity Leadership Award. She has been a strong advocate for people who have experienced disabilities.

 

Kristin Neff (she/her)

Guest Presenter

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., is co-founder of CMSC and co-developer of MSC. She is an Associate Professor in the Educational Psychology Dept. at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, being the first person to operationally define and measure the construct. She has published numerous academic articles and has been recognized as one of the most influential researchers in psychology worldwide.  Her website – which contains videos, guided practices, a way to test your self-compassion levels and hundreds of research articles – is: www.self-compassion.org

 

Chris Germer (he/him)

Guest Presenter

Christopher Germer, Ph.D., is a co-developer of the MSC program and a co-founder of the Center for MSC. He is the author of the popular book, The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and co-author (with Kristin Neff) of the professional text, Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program, and a workbook, The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook. Chris is an MSC Teacher Trainer and leads MSC intensives and workshops around the world.

Chris is also a clinical psychologist and lecturer on psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. Chris has been integrating the principles and practices of meditation into psychotherapy since 1978.  

 
 
Program Fees

Standard Fee – $425 USD

Oppressed Identity (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Disabled) – $325

Need a Hand global economic disparity – $250

 

Cancellation Policy

A refund less $50 registration fee will be offered if cancelled before October 15, 2022. No refund will be offered after that time.

Recordings

The live sessions of this workshop series will not be recorded. Please plan to attend each session at the designated time to make the most of this program.