About the Community for Deepening Practice (CDP)
The CDP is a vibrant and enriching program offered to all MSC graduates (including emerging MSC teachers) in conjunction with the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion. The course runs for 8.5 months, and we meet weekly, with several rest weeks built in.
Apply for 2023 and 2024 cohorts
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Because this is a graduates’ course, CDP is a deepening and elaboration of MSC. Participants re-commit to integrating and embodying self-compassion into daily life through regular, long-term practice in community with others. This more slowly paced, spiral learning approach allows participants to savor the practices anew as a way to consciously embody, expand, and deepen their learning. This is also an ideal course for emerging MSC teachers who wish to deepen their own embodiment in support of their future teaching endeavors.
Course structure:
- We’ll begin the CDP by clarifying intentions and exploring our individual challenges to bringing practice into the world. This sets the stage for our shared journey together. We receive periodic guest teachings by senior teachers, which have included Chris Germer, Steve Hickman, David Treleaven, Frank Ostaseski, Christine Braehler, Michelle Becker, Jonathan Prescott, and others.
- The CDP will meet online together once a week in both small- and large-group configurations. Each meeting will include an opening meditation, a group check-in, discussion and an exercise about the week’s topic(s), and a closing circle. Participants sometimes choose to meet each other at other times as well to practice together informally in peer-led sessions.
- As added support, participants are each offered two 1-on-1 sessions with a teacher for a dedicated discussion on each person’s progress in the course.
- We will provide an accessible, password-protected, online home in which participants can come together to connect via the discussion board, share resources, network, and discuss any topics which arise during the course.
- Participants are given fully optional Creative Invitations (see sample here), which we hope will encourage varied modes of engagement with each week’s topics. These Invitations will include guided journaling, photography, musical explorations, visual creations, guided movement exercises, and more. We will focus on process, not outcome, as way to deepen experience and be with what unfolds.
- Each CDP participant will receive access to our Community’s shared directory and discussion forums (hosted by Mighty Networks). True to all MSC practices, participants are invited to check in deeply with themselves and to take part (participate) in as much or as little as they wish.
- Also available to CDP participants is the MSC Circles of Practice, offered by CMSC volunteer teachers. The Circles of Practice is a free, drop-in, flexible, ongoing experience that is available to both CDP participants and the wider MSC graduate community as a whole.
Time commitment
In order to enjoy the program to the fullest, it is suggested that the minimum time commitment is 3 hours per week. It breaks down as follows:
- 2 hours per week for our online group meeting
- 1 hour to go over the week’s readings, materials, and practice(s)
- Strongly recommended: We invite up to 30 minutes/day of formal or informal meditation practice.
- Optional: Participants may use the online discussion forums and Zoom video conferencing software as often as they wish to connect outside of class hours
- Optional: There will be a variety of supportive readings and Creative Invitations available throughout the course to further engage learning and nurture an embodying of practice.
- THIS IS NOT A DROP-IN PRACTICE GROUP. If you wish for a more variable schedule to accommodate an unpredictable job or life situation, you may wish to explore the MSC Circles of Practice, which provides six opportunities each week to practice in community with others.
Schedule:
We aspire to offer enrollment three times per year: January (2 cohorts), April (2 cohorts), and August (1 cohort). We are now accepting applications for early 2023 and will soon open registration for mid- and late-2023 cohorts.
Class size:
We are intentionally limiting the size of the CDP in order to engender an environment which supports trust, safety, and connection among participants and teachers. The maximum number of participants is 22, and we’ll meet in both large- and small-group configurations throughout the 8.5-month period.
Pricing:
In order to allow participation by the greatest number of people possible, the course fee of $1,725 USD can be paid in full at the beginning of the course or monthly (additional $50 admin. fee for monthly arrangement). A $250 deposit is required with each application. This reserves a participant’s spot during application review. Upon acceptance, the deposit will be deducted from the total cost of the course. (Convert to your local currency.)
There will be some financial support available for those who are unable to pay the full course fee. Please visit the financial support page to learn more.
For those who are considering joining us for the CDP journey:
- We appreciate this is a commitment of time and priority, and in order to support this, we would like you to consider: Is this the right time? During the course, we’ll invite you to renew your commitment to taking care of yourself by engaging the exercises, the practices/meditations, and each other. Our once-weekly meetings are 120 minutes, and the process of going inward, reflecting, and witnessing will benefit from dedicated space and time.
- While this is a committed process, we also understand there may need to be occasional absences due to extenuating life circumstances (work commitments, family illness). However, if you cannot in good faith commit to consistent, ongoing participation for the duration of the course, please apply when you are able to do so.
- “Completion” of the course means that you’ve attended 75% or more of the weekly online meetings. We do track attendance. If you have four or more absences in a row and you have not communicated your intentions for continued participation, we will assume you have withdrawn, and you forfeit your spot in the course. Your access to the private Mighty Network will be removed. Please note you are still responsible for the full course fee, even if you choose to withdraw early.
- Please note the CDP is open to ALL MSC GRADS, whether or not they teach MSC. And for teachers of MSC, this is strictly an opportunity to deepen personal practice.