Compassion Training and Mindfulness Training for Social Well-Being and Mental Health

CCT is a secular, empirically supported 8-week program that integrates meditation practices, interactive discussions, and educational lectures to improve self-compassion and other-oriented compassion, emotion and stress management, and happiness and well-being. It includes a weekly 2-hour educational lecture with discussion and in-class exercises, a recommendation of 15-30 minutes of daily meditation, and real-world assignments to practice compassion. The program is taught by a certified instructor with more than 5 years experience.

MBSR is among the most studied mindfulness-based interventions in the literature and is a secular, 8-week psycho-educational group-based intervention. The program structure (slightly modified to match CCT) includes a weekly 2-hour class, a prescription of 15-30-minutes of daily mindfulness practice, and a one-day optional retreat (6 hours) between week six and seven. The program is taught by a certified instructor with more than 5 years experience.