Giving Compass' Take:

• Making Friends With Yourself is an eight-week course hosted by UC San Diego that focuses on three components to help teens with self-compassion: common humanity, mindfulness, and self-kindness. 

• Why is it important for teens' mental health status to build compassion?  What are parents' roles in this process? 

• Read about how to remove the stigma of mental health among young people. 

Research has shown that teens (and adults) can benefit from self-compassion in a variety of ways. For teens, self-compassion appears to have a protective effect against trauma, peer victimization, depression and self-harm, and low self-esteem. Contrary to what some believe, studies suggest that self-compassionate people have greater motivation to improve, not less: They don’t let themselves off the hook for bad behavior but confront their shortcomings head-on. Self-compassionate people don’t get mired in selfishness or self-pity, but actually have greater compassion toward others.

At a time when depression and suicide rates are high, more and more research is starting to show how crucial self-compassion can be to teen mental health. Having taught self-compassion to teens for a number of years, I’ve seen the benefits firsthand—and learned some lessons about how to get the message across.

Making Friends with Yourself is an eight-week course created by UC San Diego’s Lorraine Hobbs and myself, as an adaptation of the adult Mindful Self-Compassion course by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer. Classes include developmentally appropriate exercises such as mindful art and movement, music meditation, and short videos on topics like the changing adolescent brain. MFY teaches teens how to let go of pervasive self-criticism and judgment, be kind to themselves, and begin on the path of accepting themselves exactly as they are.

Our teachings at these classes follow the three components of self-compassion:

  • Common humanity
  • Mindfulness
  • Self-kindness

Read the full article about compassionate teens  by Karen Bluth at Greater Good Magazine