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March 23, 2025: 5-Day Intensive at Sedona Mago with Chris Germer and Sydney Spears

March 23, 2025: 5-Day Intensive at Sedona Mago with Chris Germer and Sydney Spears

Join us March 23-28, 2025 for this in person offering that is an intensive version of the 8-week*, empirically-supported MSC program in beautiful Sedona, Arizona.

MSC activities include short talks, experiential exercises, meditation, group discussion, and home practices. Past intensives have been held in wellness and retreat centers around the United States with varied natural landscapes.

The emphasis of the program is on building the resources of self-compassion and mindfulness through a process of self-discovery. We begin with mindfulness, through which we turn with loving awareness toward difficult experiences (thoughts, emotions, and sensations). Next, we learn to turn that loving awareness toward ourselves. Together, mindfulness and self-compassion comprise a state of warm, connected, presence during difficult moments in our lives.

*This is not a silent retreat, for more information about our silent retreats please go here.

Meet your Retreat Leaders:

Christopher Germer and Sydney Spears are both Certified Teachers of Mindful Self-Compassion: highly experienced in teaching both online and in-person.

Chris is also:

  • Co-developer of the Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) program and co-founder of the Center for MSC.
  • Author of "The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion" and co-author of "Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program" with Kristin Neff.
  • Clinical psychologist and part-time lecturer at Harvard Medical School, integrating meditation into psychotherapy since 1978.
  • Co-edited influential volumes on mindfulness and psychotherapy, and is a founding faculty member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, Harvard Medical School.
  • Maintains a private practice specializing in mindfulness and compassion-based psychotherapy.

Sydney is also:

  • Certified Mindful-Self Compassion teacher and Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) at the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion
  • Part-time faculty at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, teaching diversity, anti-oppression, social justice, and clinical social work courses
  • Passionate about advancing social equity for racialized and underserved populations, focusing on systemic injustices
  • Committed to anti-oppressive and trauma-sensitive practices in psychotherapy as a licensed clinical social worker
  • Specializes in counseling survivors of chronic stress and trauma from family relationships and sociocultural trauma

Meet your Retreat Mentors:
Trymaine Gaither
Noriko Morita Harth
Carolina Bautista-Velez

Please Note: The cost of the course registration does NOT include accommodations. Once you register for the course you will be sent a confirmation email with the link to purchase your room. Room cost includes 3 meals each day in addition to snack offerings.

Private Rooms Starting at $1700 for the week.
Share Rooms Starting at $1450 for the week.

 
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5 Day Mindful Self-Compassion Intensive

  • Overview

    Led by Christopher Germer and Sydney Spears

    Retreat Mentors Include:
    Carolina Bautista-Velez, Noriko Harth, Trymaine Gathier

    Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically- supported, mindfulness-based, self-compassion training program. MSC participants from across the globe learn the skills of self-compassion and mindfulness to enhance their capacity for emotional well-being, including more helpful ways of exploring our typical responses to difficulties that arise in our lives and learning tools for becoming a warm and supportive companion to ourselves.

    MSC is therapeutic, but it’s not therapy. The emphasis of the program is on building the resources of self-compassion and mindfulness through a process of self-discovery. We begin with mindfulness, through which we turn with loving awareness toward difficult experiences (thoughts, emotions, and sensations). Next, we learn to turn that loving awareness toward ourselves. Together, mindfulness and self-compassion comprise a state of warm, connected, presence during difficult moments in our lives.

    MSC is not a substitute for medical or mental health care.

  • Details

    MSC activities include short talks, experiential exercises, meditation, group discussion, and home practices.

    Upon completing MSC, participants should be able to:

    • Demonstrate motivating yourself with encouragement rather than self-criticism
    • Encounter difficult emotions with greater moment-to-moment acceptance
    • Develop response to feelings of failure or inadequacy with self-kindness
    • Explain how to transform difficult relationships, old and new, through self-validation
    • Use the art of savoring and self-appreciation
    • Identify core mindfulness and self-compassion exercises to implement in daily life
    • Discuss simple self-compassion practices to patients, students, or clients
    • Describe the theory and research supporting mindful self-compassion
    • Identify fierce and tender aspects of self-compassion and their role in overall well-being

    To create an optimal learning experience, Intensives are only taught by Certified MSC Teachers (the highest level of teacher training available). All participants are encouraged to engage in the Intensive to the extent that they feel comfortable, and not more.

  • Who Should Attend

    This program is designed for members of the general public based on the values of equity, diversity, and inclusiveness. MSC is particularly helpful for:

    • Those who would like to cultivate the capacity to comfort and soothe themselves and to motivate themselves with encouragement when they suffer, fail, or feel inadequate;
    • Those who struggle with a strong inner critic or perfectionism;
    • Those engaged in the care of others, like mental health and other healthcare professionals who wish to share self-compassion with their clients through their own embodiment of the practice.

    Meditation experience is not necessary to participate in MSC. All are welcome!

    This workshop offers Continuing Education credits; details can be found below in the FAQ section.

  • Schedule & Access to Materials

    Schedule:
    Sunday, March 23, 2025

    • Registration: 3:00-5:00 PM
    • Dinner: 5:30–6:30 PM
    • Opening Session: 7:00-8:30 PM Mago Hall

    Monday, March 24

    • Sessions: 8:30-12:00, 2:00-5:30


    Tuesday, March 25

    • Sessions: 8:30-12:00, 2:00-5:30
    • Evening. Optional Program - TBD: 7:30-8:30 PM

    Wednesday, March 26

    • Morning Session: 8:30-12:00
    • Afternoon Session (no session – free time)
    • Evening. Optional Program – TBD: 7:30-8:30 PM


    Thursday, March 27

    • Sessions: 8:30-12:00, 2:00-5:30
    • Evening. Optional Program - TBD: 7:30-8:30 PM

    Friday, March 28

    • Morning Session: 8:30 – 11:30
    • MSC Morning Meditation (optional): 6:30-7:15 AM Mon – Fri
    • Companionable Silence: 10 PM-8:30 AM (starting Monday evening; ending Thursday morning)

    Meals

    Breakfast 7-8:00 AM
    Lunch 11:30-1:00
    Dinner 5:30-7:00


    Any materials that are offered during the course will be available on your CMSC online learning platform for up to 90 days after the date of the intensive.

FAQs & Important Information

How do I purchase Continuing Education credits for this course?

For those licensed outside California, please check with your local licensing board to determine if CE credit is accepted.

Psychologists: Continuing Education Credit for this program is provided by UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This course offers 22 hours of credit. (Please check with your local board to verify that APA approval is accepted.)

California licensed MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, LCSWs: Continuing Education Credit for this program is provided by UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness.

The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. 22 CE Credit may be applied to your license renewal through the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. (For those licensed outside California, please check with your local licensing board to determine if APA CE Credit is accepted.)


Nurses: UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP16351, for 22 CE credit. (Please contact your local board to see if California BRN CE hours are accepted.)


Price for CE credit: $75 *Must attend all classes live to receive credits.

Please Choose the Course + Continuing Education Credits option upon purchase.

If I'm unable to attend, can I request a refund?

All monies paid for the Registration will be refunded in full (less a $25 administrative fee) if a refund request is received 14 or more days before the Program begins.

If a refund request is received between 13 days and 48 hours before the Program begins, a $200 administrative fee will be applied. Any requests 48 hours or less before the Program begins is non refundable.

For Lodging through Sedona Mago:
Cancelation policy

  • If canceling more than 2 weeks prior to program start date, the guest can receive a full refund minus a $50 cancellation fee.
  • If canceling within 2 weeks of the program start date, the guest’s payment can be saved as a credit to be used in the future minus a $50 cancellation fee.
  • For no shows, no refund or credit is available

Important Info: Mindful Self-Compassion is not a substitute for Therapy

Our programs are designed to teach participants the tools needed to develop and cultivate a mindfulness and self-compassion practice.

It is not a substitute for mental health care, personal therapy or medical treatment.


Personal safety and emotional wellbeing are the foundation of self-compassion training and you are primarily responsible for your own safety.

Teachers and facilitators are not expected or able to provide medical and/or psychological care. Course experiences may bring up challenging memories or feelings.

If you have a history with a serious mental health condition or other concerns you think may impact your ability to take this course, please contact CMSC or your healthcare professional to determine if this course is right for you. Your personal contact information may be used in the event the teacher or facilitator reasonably determines a need to call emergency services on your behalf.

Important Info: Productive Participation in Courses & Workshops

Participation is at the discretion of the teachers and facilitators at all times.

If, in the opinion of the teachers and facilitators, you are unable to participate productively and appropriately in the course or workshop you have registered for, you may be asked to discontinue.

Decisions of removal are to ensure CMSC provides the safest space possible for our participants and teachers. Please see our refund policy regarding necessary participant removal.

How do I book my room accommodations?

Once you register for the course you will be sent a confirmation email with the link to purchase your room. Room cost includes 3 meals each day in addition to snack offerings.

Private Rooms Starting at $1700 for the week.
Share Rooms Starting at $1450 for the week.