This course is being offered FREE for a limited number of UCSD affiliates. To check eligibility for your complimentary registration please fill out the following form: 

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The impact of compassion based contemplative practices is enjoying a surge in the current mainstream and scientific literature. Yet, it remains unclear how to practice compassion towards oneself, family and strangers. How does compassion practice impact our health and underlying physiology? The purpose of this integrative workshop is to describe the latest scientific findings describing how compassion training improves well-being and health.

Dr. Fadel Zeidan, cognitive neuroscientist and Executive Council member of UC San Diego’s newly founded T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion, will delineate a comprehensive, yet-user friendly description of the psychological and neural mechanisms supporting the promotion of health by a spectrum of compassion-based mental training practices and programs. Importantly, it is postulated that understanding the effects of compassion on well-being also requires self-awareness and practice. To this extent, this workshop will also integrate first-person experiences by Michelle Becker, LMFT. Michelle will guide participants in metta, loving-kindness, compassion-cultivation and mindful-self compassion practices. Throughout the day, both instructors will demonstrate how these practices promote the reduction of stress, anxiety, pain and promote health in a user-friendly fashion.