Dissolving Self-Doubt
Individual Mindfulness Training
‘When we suffer, we give ourselves compassion,
not to feel better, but because we feel bad.'
Chris Germer
A recent participant in the training shared:
​
This is a wonderful course
that helped me to know myself better
and gave me a smorgasbord of useful tools
to manage difficult feelings, like anxiety and stress.
I feel much better about myself and past events.
I’m happier, calmer, and quietly confident
that I can face any tough times that might lie ahead.
The Dissolving Self-Doubt training comprises 6 x 60-minute sessions, designed to teach you new ways of relating to yourself, especially when feelings such as unworthiness show up.
​
You can also book individual session that will be tailored to you immediate needs.
​
In this training you will learn skills that you can continue to use as you go deeper in your healing.
​
The outline below is a guide and will be adapted to match your individual needs.
​
Week 1- Getting oriented
-
Explore your experience of self-doubt, the way it affects your life & the stories that underlie it.
-
Learn what is going on in your nervous system that gets in the way of shifting negative beliefs.
-
Begin to learn some self-compassion practices as the first step to disempowering these beliefs.
​
Week 2 - Building resources to deepen safety and resilience​
-
Explore embodied and externalised practices to help establish and maintain stability when exposed to vulnerable inner experiences and sensations.
-
Develop awareness of ways to enhance resilience by building inner resources and internalising positive experiences.
​
Week 3 - Exploring somatic awareness
-
Learn about the window of tolerance and its relation to the activity of the nervous system.
-
Begin to recognise when your nervous system is moving outside the window of tolerance, and understand ways to anchor awareness to avoid overwhelm.
-
Learn how manage difficult emotions by locating them in the body and practising the proces: 'soften - soothe - allow'.
​​
Week 4 - Meeting the inner critic with compassion
-
Explore the role your inner critic has played in attempting to keep you safe.
-
Discover how your self-compassionate voice can be a kinder source of motivation.
-
Learn to savour and assimilate a more positive relationship with yourself.
​
Week 5 - Working with shame
-
Understand the components of shame and how it is created and sustained.
-
Recognise how unworthiness is one of the core beliefs that underlies shame.
-
Practice antidoting the impacts of shame with self-compassion.
​
Week 6 - Bring it all together
-
Review all that you have learned over the past five sessions.
-
Identify how the approaches learned can support you and which practices have been most valuable for you.
-
Develop a plan to work with these practices in the future.
​
How I came to this work
During over 40 years of meditation practice, I would often find myself paying attention to the sensations in my body where I could feel energy was stuck. And I learned that if I stayed present, accepting that energy as it was, that it would gradually soften and shift. There would be a sense of release, and a corresponding positive shift in my state of mind.
​
In 2018 I was introduced to Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and that same year I took part in a MSC teacher training. Applying what I have learned from MSC I now bring an attitude of caring when I am sitting with inner discomfort, and this helps the tension shifts with greater ease.
​
In recent times there have been important advances in psychological research and techniques, applying the knowledge and experience of mindfulness and of somatic or bodily awareness.
I have been fortunate to study with many of these great-hearted teachers, including:
-
Chris Germer (Mindful Self-Compassion)
-
David Treleaven (Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness)
-
Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing)
-
Pat Ogden (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy)
-
Rick Hanson (Positive Neuroplasticity)
-
Rajan Sankaran (Wise Processes)