Program Content Questions

A culminating aspect of the CCARE Compassion Lab, the Compassion Blueprint, integrates evidence-based practices from neuroscience, psychology, and contemplative traditions with lived experience. Throughout the program, participants will engage in compassion micro-experiments and track how their transformation in compassion enabled a more skillful, compassionate response toward themselves, others, and the systems that they engage with. Based on their program insights and transformation, participants develop a practical blueprint for reliably living compassion in the real world. The Compassion Blueprint serves as a demonstration of how participants moved beyond understanding and experiencing compassion to living it consistently, even in the most difficult moments.

The Applied Compassion Training, formerly offered through CCARE, was an 11-month program that centered around the Principles of Applied Compassion and introduced participants to the science of compassion. A major emphasis of ACT was supporting participants to develop a Capstone Project, designed to apply compassion to a real-world issue in their organization, community, or other settings (e.g., burnout in the workplace).

The CCARE Compassion Lab is a new 4-month immersive living laboratory for skill-building and transformation in compassion, designed to respond to the challenges of today’s divisive world. Participants will strengthen the core competencies of compassion (ie: compassionate dialogue, emotional regulation, perspective-taking, conflict navigation, collaboration, and bridge building skills) through practice-based methods and interactive compassion experiments. CCL provides real-time, simulated practice in a collaborative and supportive environment of peer-compassion pods. The CCARE Compassion Lab is designed to help participants sustain compassion as a way of life, especially in the face of reactivity, conflict, or difficulty.

A culminating aspect of the CCARE Compassion Lab, the Compassion Blueprint, integrates evidence-based practices from neuroscience, psychology, and contemplative traditions with lived experience. Based on program insights and transformation, participants will develop a practical blueprint for reliably living compassion in the world.

Cultivating a Compassionate Heart is an 8-week class designed to be a powerful introduction to the science and practice of compassion for self and others. It provides a meaningful foundation and offers a potent reinforcement for the ongoing journey into compassion.

CCH might be right for you if you are:
– Newer to mindfulness and compassion training
– Interested in the science of compassion
– Looking to cultivate compassion in yourself
– Ready for a shorter program (8 weeks)
– Seeking a lower financial commitment

The CCARE Compassion Lab takes that foundation to the next level, offering a longer (4-month) immersion into the study and practice of compassion through interactive skill building experiences. CCL combines small group peer collaboration, simulated role-play exercises, in-depth community practice sessions, and experiential compassion labs that integrate applied learning and practice. Although attending CCH is not a requirement for CCL, it would provide a beneficial foundation for anyone new to compassion training.

CCL might be right for you if you are:
– Already familiar with mindfulness or compassion training
– Ready for immersive skill-building and real-time practice to deepen compassion for self and others
– Looking to apply compassion in today’s divisive world
– Seeking a longer commitment (4 months)
– Prepared for a moderate financial commitment

Thankfully, many excellent compassion programs exist in today’s world!

The CCARE Compassion Lab is a pioneering program designed as a response to the needs of the greater compassion community and the challenges they face as practitioners of compassion in today’s divisive and highly polarized environment. This living laboratory prioritizes practice and building the skills needed to sustain compassion in personal, professional, and community settings. 

The CCARE Compassion Lab is designed as a safe and supportive container for participants to rewire the mind and heart through the practice of returning to compassion in the heat of challenging moments, during difficult conversations, and when engaging with people of differing views.

This training integrates findings from neuroscience, psychology, and contemplative traditions into a dynamic and experiential learning journey. Through this immersive training experience, participants will strengthen the inner resources of compassionate presence, emotional regulation, relational attunement, and ethical discernment, while fostering the courage to take compassionate action in the world. Participants will also be encouraged to draw from their own personal and professional wisdom and direct experience of compassion in relationship to themselves and others.

Participant attendance is required for the following sessions and final project:

1. Two immersive virtual retreats in January and May
2. Teaching Seminars (2 hours/month)
3. Compassion Labs (3-4 hours in March & April)
4. Peer-Compassion Pods (2 hours/month)
5. Completion of a Compassion Blueprint (2-4 hours/month)

Attendance is optional at the Community Practice Sessions (1 hour/month)

Please visit our curriculum overview and program schedule pages for more information.