[Registration Closed] Our next Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) will be live and online, across eight Tuesdays from April 19 – June 14 (no class June 7) and from 4:00-6:00pm PT (7:00-9:00pm ET, 12am-2am UTC) [Registration Closed]
Join fellow community members for a course on love, empathy and compassion, known as Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), an 8-week educational program designed to help you improve your resilience and feel more connected to others—ultimately providing an overall sense of well-being.
CCT combines traditional contemplative practices with contemporary psychology and scientific research to help you lead a more compassionate life. Through instruction, daily meditation, mindfulness, and in-class interaction, you can strengthen the qualities of compassion, empathy, and kindness.
Classes meet for 2-hours, once a week for 8-weeks. Daily meditation home-practice is assigned.
Learn how to train your mind to intentionally choose compassionate thoughts and actions and develop skills that help you relate to others—and yourself.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Compassion Cultivation Training is designed to support anyone who wants to cultivate compassion for themselves and for others.
This includes:
- Parents and caregivers
- Educators
- Healthcare professionals and therapists
- Executives and managers
- Public service leaders and employees
- Individuals seeking to increase awareness and mindfulness
People working in a wide range of professions and life contexts can benefit from this program. No previous meditation experience is required, although willingness to practice daily meditation is a key component of the training.
WHY ENROLL?
A compassionate attitude can greatly reduce the distress people feel in difficult situations and become a profound personal resource in times of stress.
Compassion training extends beyond helping one feel more empathy and concern for others.
It includes the development of:
- The strength to be present with suffering
- The courage to take compassionate action
- The resilience to prevent compassion fatigue
These qualities support a wide range of goals – from improving personal and work relationships to making a positive difference in the world.
Compassion training can also support one’s own health, happiness, and well-being. Preliminary research suggests that the CCT course and similar programs can increase self-compassion and self-care, reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, and enhance connection with others.
TIME, PLACE AND PRICE
This course will be LIVE and ONLINE from 4:00-6:00pm PST (7:00-9:00pm EST, 12am- 2am UTC), across eight Tuesdays from April 19 – June 14, with no class on June 7th. The last class on June 14 will go to 6:30pm PST (9:30pm EST) for closing circle.
We know our current times are challenging for everyone, and we know compassion is needed now more than ever. So we are happy to offer this training at a sliding scale price of $300-400.
If you are financially able, we encourage you to select the $400 option to help support those in need right now. If our current pandemic has put a strain on your finances, then feel free to choose the $300 option.
Summary of details:
4:00-6:00pm PST (7:00-9:00pm EST, 12am- 2am UTC)
Classes will take place on the Zoom platform.
Eight Tuesdays from April 19 – June 14 (no class on June 7th)
Last class on June 14 will go to 6:30pm PST (9:30pm EST) for closing circle.
Cost: $300-400 Sliding Scale
We have one scholarship opportunity for those with financial need. Send an email to info@the-heart-center.com, explaining in a few sentences your financial situation and what you plan to use the CCT training for.
COMPASSION CULTIVATION TRAINING (CCT) OUTLINE
WEEK 1: Settling and Focusing the Mind
Honing the skills of attention and noticing distraction, we set a foundation for our compassion practices.
WEEK 2: Loving-Kindness and Compassion for a Loved One
Connecting with our natural capacity for compassion and kindness, and learning to recognize what it feels like when they occur.
WEEK 3: Self Compassion
Developing skills such as compassionate self talk and greater self acceptance, and connecting with our own feelings and needs with tenderness, is a basis for developing our compassion towards others.
WEEK 4: Loving-Kindness for Oneself
Inviting qualities of warmth, appreciation, gratitude and joy for ourselves and our lives. Following the sometimes difficult practice of self acceptance, we focus on self appreciation.
WEEK 5: Common Humanity and Appreciation for Others
Exploring our interconnection with others, and allowing that to deepen an awareness of shared common humanity. This is an important basis for compassion.
WEEK 6: Broadening Compassion
No one left out. Building upon a recognition of interdependence, we begin to cultivate compassion for others, even those we may find challenging. Ultimately, we include all beings in our compassion.
WEEK 7: Active Compassion
The practice of “giving and taking.” In this step we develop an altruistic wish, and deepen our resolve to act in response to the suffering of others.
WEEK 8: Integrated Daily Compassion Practice
In our final class, essential elements from all previous weeks are combined into an integrated practice that can be done daily. We make time for review, and purposefully close our time together.
TRAINER BIO
Mary Doane
Mary Doane is Supervising Instructor for Education Programs at Zen Caregiving Project (ZCP), formerly known as Zen Hospice Project, where she served as a volunteer bedside caregiver for over a decade. In addition to teaching at ZCP, Mary designs teacher trainings, is a mentor teacher, and delivers curriculum to partner organizations. Mary trained to teach Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT©) at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), and is certified by both CCARE and Compassion Institute (CI). She has completed Buddhist Chaplaincy training at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, and studied at Upaya Institute and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. She is also a contributing teacher at Compassion Education Alliance (CEA). As a practitioner, teacher, mother, and spouse, Mary aspires to always arrive with fresh eyes, and has deep trust that the answer is always compassion. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
To stay in touch with Mary, you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook. You can also listen to Mary talk about Compassion through Life and Loss on Episode 39 of the Learn to Love Podcast.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
The training has reinforced my commitment to compassion in my daily life. I have a deeper understanding as I bring compassion to myself and all sentiment beings. I was fearful of my compassion and thought others perceived my actions of daily compassion as soft or weak.. especially in my work setting. I have learned demonstrating/practicing daily compassion is an act of courage – an act of embracing loving kindness with full presence to myself and all humans I interface…
I am in awe of Mary Doane and her incredible skill navigating the zoom learning platform, creating a safe environment for openness and vulnerability. Mary was always prepared, mindful and intentional with the structure and format and kind, patient and encouraging throughout. Mary did a phenomenal job! I was a bit skeptical about the zoom platform and uncomfortable initially, however, Mary quickly changed that. I would take many more courses with Mary.
Throughout the 8 week course my interpersonal activities were enhanced, dialed up or down all in more beneficial and skillful ways. I was so grateful and delighted. Mary brilliantly transformed and ‘warmed’ the screen to create a class environment almost as tangible and connected as if it were held in person. …Just my immense gratitude for her warmth, skill as a teacher.
I noticed a shift on the second week as we explored digging into the process of compassion… It seemed like my lens of compassion opened deeper and wider. I am not a fan of Zoom however this course was most diverse because of Zoom. I was moved by how each shared openly and a connection was felt which speaks to the instructor’s ability to guide and hold space effectively. The training was a very insightful experience for me. It will be easy to remember.
Compassion – it’s not what I thought … literally! The training was a wonderful opportunity to join a group of people who chose to come together with a focused interest in compassion. [The training] helped to anchor the spirit of compassion at the forefront of my daily practice. It helped clarify the distinctions between compassion, empathy, and sympathy and awakened a way of seeing compassion as a strength and a wise way of being in the world.
I signed up for the 8-week Compassion Cultivation Training because I vigil with dying hospital patients and wanted to know more about strengthening compassion and preventing burnout in the healthcare setting. I truly found the course life-altering: It taught me how to better nurture my soul and extend patience and kindness to others – and it gave me a renewed sense of purpose and meaning.
Compassion is so needed in our complex world today. We must harness our leaders everywhere to lead more compassionately into the flux, uncertainty, and change of all organizations. The Compassion Cultivation Training 8-week course gave me new skills and a way of being in my daily work that is beyond mindfulness.
Register
Registration is officially closed. If you were planning to attend or have any questions, send an email to info@the-heart-center.com