Is this you?

You value conscious compassionate relationships yet find yourself getting caught in reactivity. You would like to unhook yourself from reactivity and stand up for what you value with confidence. 

You know that reactivity interferes with your ability to access the skills you have learned and practiced. You recognize that turning towards your experience of reactivity requires vulnerability and the ability to be present with uncomfortable feelings.  You trust that the group structure we offer and your own resources will allow you to meet these challenges in our class series.

You are ready to dive into practicing with anchors and cultivating emotional security. 

What is it all about?

In this intermediate class series, we will weave together Mindful Compassionate Dialogue and attachment theory. Bringing these together we will learn new ways to see through reactivity, find feelings, needs, and requests; and create profound healing experiences.
 
While we can’t recreate the infant/caregiver attachment experience as adults, there is a lot we can do to create emotional security as adults and enjoy the gifts of that. MCD provides an ideal doorway to create healthy attachment as an adult. Empathy is key ingredient for the emotional attunement so needed for secure adult relationships. At the same time, honest expression maintains the clear lines of responsibility and healthy differentiation also necessary for adult relationships.  

Overview for the Series

In this series, you will practice recognizing reactivity before it takes over, intervening with reactivity to find groundedness, identifying the needs underneath reactivity, strengthening anchors, and cultivating emotional security.

An anchor is something you turn your attention toward in order to interrupt reactivity and access a non-reactive expansive perspective. It is specific, doable, has aliveness or meaning, is simple, and can be done any time and anywhere.  It could be physical, verbal, energetic, visual, or any combination. Essentially, an anchor wakes up the parts of you that can access a bigger perspective, begin to calm your physiology, engage mindfulness, and use your skills.

Emotional security is a relational confidence in which you trust that you can be received and held with care by others, and that your experience is acceptable and can be met with care and comfort.

While we can’t recreate the infant/caregiver attachment experience as adults, there is a lot we can do to create emotional security as adults and enjoy the gifts of that.  Mindful Compassionate Dialogue provides an ideal doorway to create healthy attachment as an adult.  

Transforming reactivity means engaging in at least two primary relationship competencies,  Recognizing Reactivity and Managing Reactivity.  For each of these competencies there are six main skills to learn and practice.  

Building confidence with these skills means drawing on one or more of the nine foundations; attunement, warmth, security, awareness, health, regulation, equanimity, clarity, and concentration. For this series we will focus primarily on security, awareness, regulation, and equanimity.

For our series, we will focus on three skills for each competency:

Recognize Reactivity

  1. Identify the signs of reactivity the moment it arises.

  2. Acknowledge that the causes for reactivity are internal and name what that looks like for you: Where you put your attention, thoughts, limiting beliefs, decisions, posture, behavior, etc.

  3. Identify your own “tender needs” and potential healing experiences related to these needs.

Manage Reactivity

  1. Practice with regulation strategies and an anchor

  2. Shift to empathy or self-empathy the moment reactivity is identified

  3. Name the differences between useful feedback regarding unmet needs and blame or judgment

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome!

    • Welcome! Download and Print this Handout for the Course

    • Getting the Most Out of Your Pre-Recorded Course
  • 2

    Week 1 - Expansive perspective, bypassing, and "tender" needs

    • Week 1 Video - Building confidence
  • 3

    Week 2 - Emotional Regulation and Creating an anchor for safety and belonging

    • Week 2 Video
  • 4

    Week 3 - How to engage an anchor for safety and belonging in the moment

    • Week 3 Video

  • 5

    Week 4 - Understanding Intention, Introduction to equanimity

    • Week 4 Video
  • 6

    Week 5 - Reactivity & Anchors for Support and Nourishment

    • Week 5 Video

  • 7

    Week 6 - Reactivity & Anchors for Autonomy, Obstacles for maintaining the expansive perspective

    • Week 6 Video

  • 8

    Week 7 - Presence with Appreciation & Celebration, Emotional Security, Reactivity & Anchors for Acceptance/Self-worth

    • Week 7 Video
  • 9

    Week 8 - Reactivity & Anchors for being Seen/heard, Reactivity & Anchors for Inclusion

    • Week 8 Video

Be supported in your learning

  • Weekly Reminders

    Each week, you will get an email reminder encouraging you to login and complete content for the course. You have the option to manage this feature.

  • Learning Schedule

    If you get behind, you have an extra eight weeks to catch up. This format helps support you in your commitment to stay engaged throughout the duration of the course.

  • Live One-on-One Connection

    Private sessions with Wise Heart's MCD Companions are offered to you at a discount while you are enrolled in the course.

  • Get Questions Answered

    If you run into questions during the course, you can send us an email at [email protected]