Instructions Experience «Today you Begin to Love Yoursef»
Instructions and Document Components
What is this experience?
It is a deep compassion-focused experience delivered through audio capsules designed with artificial intelligence. It is meant to help your clients, in individual sessions or group workshops, develop self-compassion in a way that feels smooth, immediate, and transformative.
The role of AI in this work
AI technology lets us shape the frequencies, rhythms, and vocal nuances that evoke states of deep calm. This helps the mind let go of resistance that, in ordinary speech, can take several sessions to ease.
What’s included?
- This step-by-step workshop guide.
- A ready-to-use PDF of the workshop.
- Direct access to the 5 audio practices through QR codes for therapists.
Theoretical Framework and Clinical Goals
This experience draws on the clinical evidence behind Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), Radical Acceptance (DBT), and the meta-awareness and defusion processes of ACT. Together, these approaches guide the client through the full spectrum of self-compassion.
What is the clinical map of the 5 capsules?
- Capsule 1: Meta-awareness, cognitive defusion, and sensory perception applied to recognizing kindness.
- Capsule 2: Somatic and affective work comparable to the classic “Safe Place” practice in Self-Compassion.
- Capsule 3: Radical Acceptance: full permission to welcome both light and shadow without judgment or avoidance.
- Capsule 4: Fierce Compassion: building inner strength, holding pain, and setting healthy boundaries.
- Capsule 5: An expanded view of common humanity, equivalent to the classic Metta (Loving-Kindness) practice.
Guidelines for Responsible and Ethical Use
What is the role of AI in this resource?
AI serves solely as a sound and voice-modulation tool. The scripts, clinical design, and therapeutic sequence were created entirely by psychology professionals.
Does this material replace clinical intervention?
Absolutely not. It is a supportive, catalytic tool designed to enhance a session or group dynamic led by the professional.
What are the usage terms for subscriptions?
The capsules live on the platform and are for use only during a session or workshop, under the supervision of the subscribing psychologist. They are not files to be distributed freely to clients.
Are there exclusion criteria or precautions?
In cases of severe unprocessed trauma or intense dysregulation, the capsules should be used at a slower pace and always accompanied by space for inquiry and clinical support from the therapist.
The Workshop “Today You Begin to Love Yourself”: Step by Step
This workshop is intended for psychology professionals and other professionals who hold the appropriate training in their country. Below you will find some guidelines and ideas for delivering it, but you are free to follow your own professional judgment.
On the first slide of the workshop, we outline some of what participants will be invited to experience. As compassion-based work teaches, it is best to always proceed through suggestion rather than imposition, and to avoid giving the sense that there is a goal to achieve. In this experience, compassion begins with being kind toward whatever we are about to try, and acceptance begins with the very willingness to allow that we might not feel what we expected to feel. If a client doesn’t feel anything of what is suggested, you should be there to help them meet that possibility with kindness.
It is also very important to establish an unspoken agreement with all participants before you begin: to respect, from that same place of compassion, whatever others may go through in the room. Some people may break down or become emotional during the practices, even to the point of crying. The therapist should invite participants to surrender to the practice without fear of expressing whatever arises, and to respect what is happening for others without judging them.
⚠️ Make sure the audio plays properly. Take the time beforehand to confirm that online participants will be using headphones and that they can hear the audio you will share through your screen or the online platform. If in-person participants are attending individually, they should also wear headphones, which you will need to provide. For group workshops, check that the room’s sound system works well.
Below is guidance on how to introduce each capsule.
Capsule 1. The Kindness That Dwells Within Me
Emphasize that participants shouldn’t be looking for anything in the practice, and that the first act of kindness toward oneself is respecting one’s own process: no judging, and no thinking “I don’t think I’m doing this right.” The experience simply aims to open a door to the kindness we all carry. You can let your clients know it’s perfectly fine if they can’t picture a kind moment. We are used to being unkind to ourselves, so it will probably feel difficult the first time.
However you choose to put it, the central message is that we all have a kindness within us, which we will explore in this practice and can use as a tool for healing.
⚠️ Very important for this and all the other practices. When a practice ends, participants need to remain in silence for about a minute (you can extend this to several minutes), letting the experience settle inside them. Then invite them to continue “whenever they feel ready,” with no rush.
After the practice, you can include an activity for sharing the experience, either in small groups or with the whole group, so that each person can freely express, if they wish, what they felt and what they didn’t.
- If you choose small groups and the format is online or hybrid (online and in person), create breakout rooms for the online participants.
- If you choose to share with the whole group, enable the chat for the online format so that those attending digitally can take part.
Capsule 2. Cultivating a Sanctuary of Love
We chose a compassion classic and created a piece that leads to a situation that easily evokes caring and tenderness: cradling a baby. This practice works in a way similar to the classic compassion “safe place” exercise, while also building kindness throughout. The idea is for participants to experience the kindness they connected with in Practice 1 as a place they can return to whenever they wish in order to care for themselves with compassion.
We should also stress that this state of self-love needs no pretext and doesn’t have to be earned. It is something we can give ourselves with nothing in return, and not as payment for anything, simply because we deserve to treat ourselves well.
Once again, it is important to say beforehand that there is no goal here, and that nothing is wrong if a participant can’t picture the scene with the baby. In that case, they can try to connect with a tender moment they remember. If that doesn’t work either, they can speak to themselves with the tenderness they would offer someone they care about deeply who was struggling.
Capsule 3. Unconditional Welcome
This is the deepest capsule of all, because it invites us to make room for everything we don’t accept about ourselves and our lives. There is a risk that participants will break down, so it helps to prepare for unexpected emotions to surface during this practice and to meet them with compassion and kindness toward the process.
The practice invites a radical acceptance of everything (as Tara Brach puts it, accepting everything down to the root). It also introduces a secondary theme that we will experience and celebrate at the end, in the final capsule: we are not perfect human beings living perfect lives, but simply human beings doing the best we can, whether or not we succeed.
In this practice, you invite participants to be at peace while including everything, even the moments when we know we could have done better and the times when, deep down, we believe we didn’t act as we should have.
Of course, compassion is not an invitation to complacency or to feel good about behaving unethically. Our sense of ethics and values stays with us. It is an invitation to accept that we don’t always live up to our own values and that we can keep trying to, but from a place of peace.
Capsule 4. Quiet Strength and Gentle Resolve
The previous practice marks the midpoint of the experience and also its most complex and profound part: accepting our darkest side. Now the final stage begins, and the sounds of the practices become more dynamic and uplifting, because we want to end on a positive note after a deep journey.
This practice may also call for more explanation from you, since it introduces two conceptually more complex ideas. By now you should have a sense of the group’s level, so you can present them simply. If needed, use examples from everyday life.
Quiet strength and gentle firmness are two psychological and leadership concepts that describe the ability to influence, protect, and stay in control without resorting to aggression, shouting, or ego-driven dominance. Together, they represent the perfect balance between personal power and empathy.
Below are some definitions you can explain in whatever way best suits your participants.
Quiet Strength
The ability to stay whole, calm, and in control of yourself in the face of adversity or provocation, without needing to prove anything to anyone.
- The core: It doesn’t come from ego or a need for applause; it comes from inner security and self-knowledge.
- What it looks like: It’s the person who doesn’t raise their voice in a tense meeting, yet whose words are listened to closely. It is the silent resilience that weathers storms without complaining or playing the victim.
- Metaphor: It is like a centuries-old oak. It makes no noise to show that it’s there, but its roots run so deep that the wind cannot bring it down.
Gentle Firmness (Soft Firmness)
The art of setting boundaries that are clear, unbreakable, and non-negotiable, yet communicated with respect, compassion, and kindness.
- The core: It separates the problem from the person. It is uncompromising about the goal or the rule, but deeply humane toward the individual.
- What it looks like: It’s saying “no” firmly, but without hostility. It’s leading a team while demanding excellence and high standards, but offering support, active listening, and emotional validation.
- Metaphor: It is like an iron fist in a velvet glove, or like the water of a river: it doesn’t strike hard, but its persistence can shape the hardest rock.
Capsule 5. The Largest Community in the World
This capsule is based on a classic practice that, if you have mindfulness training, you will recognize right away: Metta, or loving-kindness. Metta bhavana is a traditional Buddhist meditation technique whose purpose is to deliberately cultivate unconditional love, goodwill, and compassion toward oneself and all living beings.
Although the original is a longer meditation, we have kept its core message and turned it into the motto of this workshop and, more broadly, of Psychia since the very beginning: we are the largest community in the world, human beings who are trying to live as well as they can. This is pure compassion. No one has won in this workshop and no one has lost; we have all simply tried, as we do every day of our lives.
On the final slide, we offer some tips for keeping what you’ve learned and bringing it into everyday life. We hope this experience has been useful in your professional practice and that your clients, in both individual and online sessions, have enjoyed it.
Be compassionate with yourself if things didn’t go as well as you had hoped or if there were technical problems. If you have any questions, or if something came up with a participant that you weren’t sure how to handle, you can write to us at the contact email and we will get back to you as soon as possible.