SCIP Program is offered by Meet Steven
Steven Hickman, Psy.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and an Associate Clinical Professor in the UC San Diego Department of Family Medicine & Public Health. As the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (CMSC) Executive Director, Steve provides oversight, vision, direction, and focus on the development and expansion of CMSC around the world.
He is also the Director of Professional Training for MSC, overseeing the training of teachers worldwide from “start to finish” and assuring the highest quality standards and the best possible resources for teaching MSC intensives and workshops internationally in-person and online. Steve is the Founding Director of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, a program of community building, clinical care, professional training, and research. He has taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for 19 years and has trained teachers of MBSR and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
Therapeutic Alliance
WEEK TWO
We are all on journeys of identity, belonging, and wellness. Our identities are shaped by relationships from our earliest moments, in being cherished and nurtured, or all too often, being devalued, marginalized, and subordinated.
Self-compassion helps therapists cultivate their therapeutic identity and resilience, common humanity, and increases the pleasure of being curious about others and exploring different cultures and ways of being. Self-compassion also helps therapists take into consideration the patient’s entire background, not just their trauma. and provides stability to both the therapist and the patient in the midst of patient distress.
When self-compassion is embodied within the therapist, they are able to better understand and relate to their patients’ trauma, oppression, and adversity with warmth, spaciousness, individuality, and specificity as well as navigate the inevitable disruptions that arise in relatedness.
Cultural identities and issues as embodied in DEIBA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging and Advocacy) principles are integral components of the therapeutic relationship, and they can bring great richness and growth for both therapist and patient, but also have the potential for disconnection.
It is vital for therapists to be aware of their identities and potential blind spots. Self-compassion bridges different identities and enhances trust and safety, navigating the patient towards greater receptivity and collaborative capacity in the relationship.
Self-compassion in psychotherapy is a transformative therapeutic orientation of relatedness that benefits patients, communities, and the world, and works to transform the great web of suffering into a compassionate network of healing.
Sydney Spears
Sydney Spears PhD, LCSW, LSCSW, TCTSY-F, is a certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher, Center of Mindful Self-Compassion Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, and a Trauma-Sensitive Yoga facilitator and certified through the Center for Trauma and Embodiment. She is also licensed as a clinical social worker and works part-time at the University of Kansas as an adjunct instructor teaching coursework in diversity, anti-oppression, social justice, and trauma-sensitive practice.
David Treleaven
David Treleaven, PhD, is a writer, educator, and trauma professional working at the intersection of mindfulness and trauma. A visiting scholar at Brown University, David focuses on empowering meditation and mental-health practitioners with the knowledge and tools they need to practice mindfulness in a trauma-informed way. He is the author of the best-selling book Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, and he’s taught and lectured on the topic at The University of Massachusetts Medical School, UCLA, The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, and the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute developed at Google.
Christian Stiglmayr
Christian Stiglmayr, Ph.D., is a practicing psychologist in Berlin, Germany, who specializes in DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) and working with borderline patients. He studied psychology at Eichstätt and Freiburg and was the psychologist on the first DBT unit in Germany. In 2001, he founded the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Wissenschaftliche Psychotherapie Berlin (AWP Berlin), a training institute for psychotherapeutic techniques and methods. He is a psychotherapist for Behavioral Psychotherapy in Berlin, an assistant professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, and a trainer and supervisor for students of DBT. He has written numerous publications on states of tension, self-injurious behavior, dissociation, and DBT. In 2017, he became a Trained Teacher in Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). In 2018, he completed a study exploring the effectiveness of MSC for Borderline patients (claiming, “It was great fun!”). and in 2019 became a Certified MSC Teacher.
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Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 3
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Week 4
Replay the launch webinar