Date: TBA
Venue: Faculty of Health Sciences campus
Time: TBA
Course fee is
R 2,500 per person
CPD Points = 5 Ethics
Register Online
This is a 4-week compassion training programme designed for healthcare professionals seeking evidence-based tools to mitigate psychosocial stress and burnout. The course develops both self directed and relational compassion as core professional capacities rather than optional personal virtues.
Participants are introduced to empirically grounded mechanisms associated with reduced self-criticism, greater emotional balance, strengthened sense of shared humanity, and improved interpersonal responsiveness. Compassion is explored not only as an affective state but as an ethical orientation central to clinical practice.
The course combines scientific theory with practise-based exercises. Each session is 1 hour and 15 minutes. By integrating theory with structured experiential exercises, the programme equips healthcare providers with practical skills to sustain personal wellbeing while enhancing ethically attuned patient care.
Who Should Attend
All personnel involved in healthcare work - medical professionals, nurses, allied health practitioners, care facility workers
Course Content
Session 1:
• Introduction: What is self-compassion? The construct of self-compassion.
• The Neural correlates of compassion versus empathy.
• Outcomes of Self-compassion
Exercises: The Self-Compassion break.
: Loving-Kindness 1 (generating positive emotions for the self)
Session 2.
• Connecting to the body.
Exercise: The Golden Nugget Listening Breathing Exercise (GNLBE)
An exercise to listen in to the nervous system and regulate it in any given moment.
• Why embodiment is important?
• Its role in compassion, connection and avoiding burnout.
• Compassion as a regulation tool – what science shows us.
Exercises: Self-Compassion Break
: Loving-Kindness exercise.
Session 3:
• Scientific studies showing the outcomes of both self-compassion and loving-kindness meditation.
• Understanding self-compassion in the context of self-criticism attachment and PTSD.
Exercises: GNLBE
: The Self-Compassion break
: Loving-Kindness 2 (for self and other)
Session 4.
• Generating positive emotions, the broaden and build principle and resilience.
• Understanding self-compassion and interpersonal approach behaviour, and compassion and its link to altruism and pro-social behaviour.
Exercises: GNLBE
: The Self-Compassion break
: Loving-Kindness 1 - to generate positive emotions to the self
: Loving-Kindness 2 - for self and other
A digital certificate of attendance will be issued to participants of the course.
For more information or to register email ce.administration@uct.ac.za
Only participants registered for the workshop will be eligible to attend. Limited space available.