Self-Compassion for Parents

Susan M. Pollak, MTS, EdD, is cofounder and senior teacher at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, where she has supervised and taught since the mid-1990s. She is past president of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and a psychologist in private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A longtime student of meditation and yoga, Dr. Pollak teaches about mindfulness, compassion, and self-compassion in psychotherapy and has been integrating the practices of meditation into psychotherapy since the 1980s. She is author of Self-Compassion for Parents (for general readers) and coauthor of Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy (for mental health professionals).

Introduction
1. “Make It Stop—I Can’t Keep Up!”: Parenting Is Overwhelming
2. “Why Is This So Hard?”: Using Self-Compassion as a Life Raft
3. “Where Did That Come From?”: Dealing with the Baggage We Bring to Parenting
4. “I’ll Never Be Good Enough”: Avoiding the Comparison Trap
5. “What Should I Do?”: Working with the Inevitable Uncertainty of Parenting
6. “Why Can’t Everyone Just Calm Down?”: Handling the Inevitable Hot Emotions
7. “It’s All Too Much”: Tapping the Power of Compassion When Times Are Particularly Tough
8. Roots and Wings: The Gifts We Give Our Children
Self-Compassion for Parents Toolbox
Resources
Notes

Audio Downloads:
1. Tending to Yourself--3 minutes
2. Self-Compassion Life Saver for Parents--2 minutes
3. The Baggage We Inherit--11 minutes
4. Soles of the Feet--4 minutes
5. Having Your Back--9 minutes
6. You Don't Have to Control Everything--9 minutes
7. Three-Minute Compassion Space--4 minutes
8. Mindfulness at 4 AM--5 minutes
9. The Warm Blanket--8 minutes
10. Appreciating Yourself as a Parent--6 minutes