A Somatic Self-Compassion Practice for Faculty Who Are Their Own Harshest Critic

A self-paced course with a live community, for faculty who want a different way of relating to themselves that holds up under pressure better than self-criticism ever did.

You learned to run on self-criticism. It got you through the PhD, maybe even through tenure. It's also why one sharp line on a student evaluation can drown out a whole semester of good ones.

This course is for faculty, whether tenured, teaching, or adjunct, who are worn down by being their own harshest critic and tired of being kind to everyone but themselves.

WHY SELF-COMPASSION?

You’re exhausted from always striving, always giving, always doing. You’re kind to others, but brutal to yourself. You know mindfulness helps, but your inner critic still shouts louder than a drill sergeant.

I see you. I was there too. Accomplished on the outside, but suffering inside. I thought success would silence the self-doubt. It didn’t. I didn't need to work harder. I needed to learn how to meet myself with compassion.

Grounded in the self-compassion research of Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Chris Germer, this practice combines mindfulness and self-kindness into powerful tools for emotional resilience. Backed by decades of research, it helps you navigate life's difficulties with more grace, strength, and care.

✅ Reduce anxiety and self-criticism
✅ Improve relationships and self-worth
✅ Support emotional resilience and balance
✅ Build motivation without burnout

This isn't self-help fluff or spiritual bypassing. It's a research-backed, trauma-informed approach to transforming your relationship with yourself, grounded in the science of self-compassion and taught with warmth, humor, and real-world practicality.

This 8-module course blends live support and flexible learning to help you move from self-criticism to self-kindness. It will help you live with more ease, clarity, and purpose. You’ll learn how to meet difficult moments with grace, and how to build inner strength through gentle, steady practice.

🌿 YOU'LL COME AWAY WITH TOOLS THAT HELP YOU ...

Calm Zen sand garden

🌀 SEE THE INNER CRITIC

Notice self-critical thoughts without getting swept away. Create space between you and your inner judge.

Man making a heart with his hands

💗 RESPOND WITH KINDNESS

Learn to treat yourself like someone you care about—especially in moments of struggle.

🌊 NAVIGATE DIFFICULT EMOTIONS

Turn toward your feelings with mindfulness and compassion instead of avoidance or overwhelm.

Surfer in waves

🌟 BUILD A SUPPORTIVE INNER VOICE

Shift your inner dialogue from harsh to helpful, encouraging growth through warmth, not pressure.

Peaceful woman doing yoga near glowing mandala

WHAT'S INCLUDED?

Every module, unlocked the day you enroll, to move through at your own pace
Short, practical video lessons  
Guided meditations & downloadable audio practices  
A private community for support  
Office hours twice a week for questions and help with your practice
A monthly live practice session in the community with me

🧘‍♀️ 8 Modules of Guided Practice, Insight, and Community

Self-compassion is an evidence-based practice for relating to yourself with kindness, especially when life feels overwhelming. In this course, you'll learn practical tools for bringing mindfulness and self-compassion into your everyday life. Whether you're navigating stress, burnout, perfectionism, or just feeling like you're never enough, this course helps you meet those moments with clarity, care, and courage. 

🌿 What You'll Learn

• 7 core meditations to ground you in presence and kindness
• 14 experiential exercises to deepen insight
• 20 informal practices to use anytime, anywhere
• Skills for responding to self-criticism with compassion
• Ways to hold difficult emotions with care, not fear
• How to reconnect with your core values and inner strengths
• Tools for cultivating emotional resilience, even during conflict
• A deeper sense of connection to yourself and others

💡 What to Expect

Everything is open from day one, so you can move at the pace your semester allows. The modules carry the teaching and the practices. The community is where it becomes a habit: each week I post a self-compassion practice, you try it and share how it went, and you respond to each other. I hold office hours twice a week for questions, and once a month we meet live for a guided practice. You take what you need, when you can. There's no falling behind here, because there's no behind.

✨ Why Self-Compassion?

Because harsh self-judgment isn’t helping. And self-kindness is not self-indulgent. Decades of research show that self-compassion increases emotional resilience, reduces anxiety, boosts motivation, and improves relationships. You don't need to change who you are. You can learn to be with yourself exactly as you are, with warmth, honesty, and care. 

The Details

8 self-paced modules plus a live faculty community.

 The community is a private space with a weekly practice prompt and ongoing discussion, where members support each other's practice.  

Office hours run two hours a week, including one on a weekend, with the times posted inside the course.

Once a month we meet live for a guided practice.

All you'll need is about the time you'd give a long coffee break each week, and a willingness to practice imperfectly.

You'll walk away with a set of self-compassion practices you can use in the middle of a hard day or week, a steadier way of talking to yourself when the work goes badly, and a small community of faculty who understand, because they're doing it alongside you.

WHAT MAKES IT WORK?

This course draws on the science of self-compassion developed by Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Chris Germer, paired with real-life applications and support from a teacher trained in Mindful Self-Compassion (that's me).

Imagine waking up happy to face the day.
Imagine responding to mistakes with care instead of criticism.
Imagine feeling supported—not just by others, but by yourself.
This isn’t just possible. It’s what happens when you practice self-compassion.

I’m a certified MSC teacher with 14 years of experience teaching meditation and mindfulness. I’m also a Pragmatic Buddhist monk with a PhD in sociology, blending science and wisdom to help people like you reconnect with what matters.

Danielle MacCartney

Danielle MacCartney, PhD, is a sociologist, Abbot of the Order of Pragmatic Buddhists, and a Mindful Self-Compassion Practitioner & Teacher. She has taught mindfulness and meditation since 2010, working mostly with faculty and other high-achievers navigating burnout and self-criticism. She built this course from what changed her own relationship to the inner critic.

I'm Ready to Be Kinder to Myself

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Everything is self-paced, so there's no schedule to fall behind on. Most weeks that means a short module and a quick response to a community prompt, which is roughly the time of a long coffee break. Once a month we meet live for a guided practice together, and that's the only fixed commitment on the calendar.

This program goes further than mindfulness alone; it pairs mindfulness with self-compassion and somatic practice, taught in a supportive community that helps it become a habit rather than something you abandon by week three.

Self-criticism activates the same threat response in your body as actual danger: it narrows your thinking and makes it harder to learn from a mistake. Self-compassion works through a different system entirely, what psychologist Paul Gilbert calls the soothing system. People who practice it get steadier under pressure; they don't abandon their goals. You can still set a high bar but you don't need the physiological and emotional overload to meet it.

This is the question that trips up high achievers specifically, because self-criticism has genuinely worked for you. You've built a successful career on pushing through. The evidence doesn't argue that self-criticism produces nothing. It's just an expensive way to get results, and the cost shows up as burnout and a nervous system stuck in threat mode. Self-compassion is a different fuel source, one that doesn't run dry at 2am grading finals.

The foundation of this course is self-compassion research from Kristin Neff and Chris Germer, published in outlets like the Annual Review of Psychology. The somatic elements draw on Paul Gilbert's compassion-focused therapy, which has meta-analytic evidence behind its effect on self-criticism, and on polyvagal theory, which explains why practices that involve the body change your relationship to your inner critic in ways that thinking alone doesn't. I also draw on Brené Brown's qualitative research on shame, which is directly relevant to where a harsh inner voice comes from in the first place.

My own training includes Buddhist contemplative practice, but this course is taught the way most modern self-compassion programs are. The practices are rooted in contemplative tradition, taught through a secular, evidence-based lens. No spiritual belief or practice is required to do this work.

No. The community is private and made up of faculty from other colleges and universities, not likely your own colleagues. The weekly prompt and monthly community sit are there if you want them. Nothing requires you to disclose more than you're ready to.

No, therapy is another important tool and this practice should not replace that. This is skill-building and community, not clinical treatment. If you're dealing with significant depression, anxiety, or trauma, this can sit alongside therapy, but it isn't a substitute for it.

It's built for anyone doing the work of teaching, research, and/or service, whatever your contract says. Although I was tenured and that's the lens I use when I teach, adjuncts, visiting faculty, even graduate students have a harsh inner critic. Whatever your job title is, creating a better relationship with self-criticism can help you achieve the goals you set for yourself and allow you to be happier while you're doing it!

It's a sliding-scale model. The lower tier exists for people who genuinely couldn't take this course otherwise. The higher tier lets someone who's able to pay more help cover that gap for someone else.

Course Curriculum

Course Pricing

I Need Some Compassion

$197 USD

  • Scholarship tier intended only for those with financial difficulties

    • 8 weekly 90-minute live practice sessions
    • Online lecture materials
    • Guided meditation audio tracks
    • Private community of support
    • Access to online materials for 30 days after course ends
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Standard Course Price

$397 USD

    • Everything from previous tier plus ...
    • Printable course workbook
    • Access to online materials for 60 days after course ends
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Benefactor

$597 USD

  • Support a student who needs some self-compassion

    • Everything from scholarship and standard plan plus ...
    • Two 30-minute 1-1 coaching sessions
    • Special recognition on the course platform and in the community, if desired
    • A small token of appreciation mailed to your home
    • Access to online materials for 90 days after course ends
    • The knowledge that you've given the priceless gift of compassion to others
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