Embracing Self-Compassion

Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of creating and facilitating Embracing Self-Compassion: A Journey to Inner Kindness, a rolling six-week focus group on the BetterHelp platform. What began as an experiment in shared reflection has become a deeply meaningful space where people from around the world come together to explore what it really means to be kind to ourselves.

Each session is a gentle invitation to pause, notice, and listen differently to the stories we tell ourselves and the voices that have shaped them. It’s not therapy, but a guided, reflective space for self-awareness and connection. Over six weeks, we explore the many dimensions of self-compassion and how it can transform the way we relate to ourselves and others. We’ve explored themes like understanding the inner critic, practising self-kindness, emotional awareness, rewriting inner narratives, and setting boundaries rooted in self-respect.

A Global Community of Reflection

One of the most inspiring aspects of facilitating this programme has been its international reach. Each week, members log in from different corners of the world the UK, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Asia, and beyond. Time zones blend as we gather across screens, creating a shared circle of reflection that transcends geography.

The group’s diversity brings a richness to every discussion. Our cultural backgrounds shape how we understand kindness, shame, resilience, and care. Hearing how someone in another country experiences self-criticism or learns self-acceptance often opens new perspectives for everyone present.

Despite the distances between us, there’s a deep sense of togetherness, a reminder that self-doubt, healing, and the desire to be gentler with ourselves are universal human experiences. In many ways, this global connection embodies what compassion is about: recognising our shared humanity.

Facilitating Embracing Self-Compassion: A Journey to Inner Kindness has reminded me that compassion is not a destination, it’s a practice, one that deepens through community. Each group brings new insights, new stories, and new ways of being gentle with ourselves.

In a world that often rewards perfectionism and self-criticism, choosing kindness is a quiet act of courage.

It’s been a privilege to witness so many people, myself included, learning to meet themselves with softness, honesty, and care.