MSC Community for Deepening Practice, Cohort 28 (Dedicated cohort for MSC Teachers)

Starting January 2024, a small group of MSC teachers (all levels) will gather and explore their practice challenges and strengths with the guidance of experienced MSC Teacher Trainer and Mentor, Tina Gibson, along with Dr. Jorge Armesto. This unique course (offered once in 2024) takes place over 8 spacious months of learning in a global community.

Course Teachers

▣ About the course:

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As an MSC teacher, you know that embodiment of self-compassion is your single most powerful teaching tool. Your actions and the quality of your presence are at least as impactful as your words. Further, your embodiment of mindfulness gives rise to the wisdom and equanimity needed to respond skillfully to suffering in both your personal life and your teaching.

Yet it’s natural that there will still be areas where we struggle in our personal self-compassion practice. Especially for those of us who were called to teaching because of our own difficulties with self-compassion, the nourishment that we receive by sharing MSC with participants is just one part of a longer personal healing path. And so an integral part of our work as teachers is continuing to be students! For these reasons, we’ve created the 8.5-month Community for Deepening Practice course, just for MSC teachers.

Starting this January, a small group of MSC teachers (all levels) will have the opportunity to gather and explore their own practice edges and strengths with the guidance of experienced MSC Teacher Trainer and Teacher Mentor, Tina Gibson, along with Dr. Jorge Armesto, Certified MSC Teacher.

Free of the internal pressures and expectations that may come while wearing our “teacher hats,” we’ll be free to evolve at our own pace. Common humanity will reveal that we may not be as alone as we think in not “having it all together” as MSC Teachers. We’ll also delight in discovering where our strengths are getting stronger.

In the generous reflection and warm community of your peers, you’ll take eight and a half months to re-discover the MSC curriculum from the inside, out. Slowly and experientially, you’ll deepen your personal embodiment of the skills that you wish to teach. This results in a more mature understanding of self-compassion, plus greater integrity, capacity, confidence, and authenticity as a teacher.

Participants will: 

• Encounter new learning challenges and strengths within the six domains of teaching MSC as they embark on a slow, deliberate unpacking of MSC from the inside, out;
• Explore the humble art of self-reflection and self-inquiry;
• Cultivate a more authentic teaching voice;
• Receive expert encouragement and guidance; The CDP for MSC Teachers is facilitated by two of CMSC’s most senior teacher trainers, Tina Gibson and Steve Hickman.
• Co-create a new community of peers — especially invaluable for teachers who may not have many peers currently in their network who share the unique language of MSC.
• The small group experience of the CDP is held in the same compassionate container and with the same guiding principles as we provide for our participants. From this holding space, participants build confidence in themselves, the learning process, and MSC.
• Enjoy 24×7 connection with their peer group on the shared discussion community. In the safety of this private space, participants can share resources, pose questions, and learn from common struggles.

What the CDP for MSC Teachers is not:

• This is not a course about how to teach MSC; the focus of this course is on deepening personal practice for MSC Teachers. Greater teaching competency will naturally arise through this focused introspective work.
• A supervision, consultation, practicum, or mentoring requirement for MSC teachers, but it is heartily encouraged for any teacher who wishes to learn to more deeply embody MSC in the ease and spaciousness of a tight-knit community of peers.