Event Details
Event Title Making Friends With Yourself: A Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Teens
Location Chapel Hill, NC
Sponsor FPG CDI
Date/Time 08/11/2019 - 08/14/2019 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Event Price
For more information, contact the event administrator: Barbara Lowery barbara.lowery@unc.edu
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Making Friends With Yourself (MFY) is a program designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion in teens Ages 12-16. MFY teaches core principles and practices that enable teens to respond to the challenges of these critical years with kindness and self-compassion.

Adolescence is a time of change and growth. It is the period of life reserved for rebellion and self-discovery, but as the demands in life increase for teens, this time is often fraught with confusion, anxiety or depression. For many teens these challenges lead to disconnection and isolation.

In this  course which meets for four days and 4 hours a day , teens engage in developmentally appropriate activities and carefully crafted practices and meditations, which provide them with the opportunity to learn how to navigate the emotional ups and downs of life with greater ease.   Backed by research, findings indicate increases in emotional well-being and greater resilience after taking the course.

Following in the footsteps of the adult MSC program, MFY is rooted in the three key components of self-compassion: self-kindness, common humanity and mindful, balanced awareness. These elements serve to open the hearts of teens to their own suffering, so they can learn to give themselves what they truly need, recognize that they are not alone in their suffering, and encourage an open-minded acceptance of the struggle they are facing.

"It's cool to see after we took [the class] how much life in general has improved, like not necessarily the situations, but the ways I can handled it. This is so important, so I'm going to take it again and then maybe make it even better." - Teen participant

Instructors are the developer of this program, Dr. Karen Bluth (see www.karenbluth.com ), who is also author of the book The Self-Compassion Workbook for Teens: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Skills to Overcome Self-Criticism and Embrace Who You Are.

Co-instructor is Macy Ratliff, who is a trained Making Friends with Yourself teacher as well as a trained mindfulness teacher with her masters' degree in Applied Child and Adolescent Psychology

 

UNC - Chapel Hill