Hello all! This is Katie Evans making a post here about a course put on by Mik, whose work we really appreciate in the world. Most of the course details are provided here on our site, and you can also see the full details and Mik’s counselling site here: https://www.treelinecounselling.com/msc
What
Queer Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically supported, 8-week training program designed to cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion skills. Based on groundbreaking research, MSC is a deeply therapeutic learning and skills training group involving practical mindfulness, nervous system regulation, embodied inquiry, and values-based meaning-making skills, enabling participants to respond to difficult moments with kindness, care and understanding. Adapted by-and-for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, this program integrates queer thought and lived experience throughout.
When
- 8 Wednesdays, April 30th to June 18th, 2025 from 4:30-7:00 pm PST
- And one half-day silent retreat on Sunday June 1st 10:00 am – 2:00 pm PST
Where
Virtual over Zoom (including the retreat)
Who
Anyone who identifies as a member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community
How
Email me at mik@treelinecounselling.com to confirm your spot or get more info!
You can expect…
8 weeks of learning, mindfulness and self-compassion practice, opportunities for small and large group discussion, and multiple tools and practices that you can integrate into your life right away. We will work together to build a compassionate and present queer community space and together will explore topics including:
- Integrating mindfulness into daily life to open to the present moment
- Practicing self-kindness (especially when it doesn’t come naturally!)
- Connecting to our essential interrelatedness so we know we aren’t alone
- Working with internalized queerphobia, racism, and misogyny through compassion instead of self-criticism
- Living deeply, aligned with your values
- Meeting difficult emotions like shame, anger, and anxiety
- Navigating challenging relationships, caregiving fatigue, and conflict
- Embracing your life!
This course is highly transformative.
What’s the cost?
$650/person (about $27/hr). Please don’t hesitate to ask about sliding scale options, see below.
Do you offer sliding scale?
Yes! We have plenty of sliding scale spots, so if you think you might need one in order to attend the group, just let me know and we can figure out a price that works for you. I have so far never had to turn anyone away for lack of funds and hope to keep it this way!
Will my insurance cover it?
You’ll receive a receipt for Group Therapy or Group Services provided by a Registered Social Worker. These services can also be claimed as a ‘medical expense’ on income tax returns. Need to bill to a Registered Clinical Counsellor? Let me know and I’ll keep this in mind when selecting a co-teacher.
Is this group therapy?
While MSC is therapeutic, it’s not group therapy. You won’t be expected to share personal details (though welcome to if moved to), and we avoid explicitly traumatic content. Consider it a deeply therapeutic learning and skills training group where you’ll learn mindfulness, nervous system regulation, embodied inquiry, and values-based meaning-making skills, all integrated with queer theory in a 2SLGBTQ+-centred context.
While participants often build a deep feeling of connection to one another in the group, the primary relationship fostered in MSC is a compassionate self-to-self relationship – learning how to treat yourself with the kindness, care, love and understanding that you would a dear friend.
But I suck at meditation!
Don’t worry, I promise it doesn’t work like that! No previous mindfulness/meditation experience is required, and your restless, unfocused, ADHD, bouncing-off-the-walls-brain is fully welcome here.
Is this therapy flimflam?
While there’s plenty of snake oil in wellness spaces these days (hello life coaching pyramid schemes!), MSC is empirically supported and science-based. There are 66 scholarly papers by Kristen Neff and colleagues showing positive impacts of MSC on psychological wellbeing. This research includes randomized control trials on the MSC course, finding consistent increases in mindfulness, self-compassion, social connection, life satisfaction, and happiness, with decreases in anxiety, stress, other-comparison, and avoidance.
There are a further way too many articles for me to count speaking to the positive impacts of self-compassion generally (in fact this is so robustly studied that this list stopped updating in 2022 because there was too much research to keep up with).
Queer-MSC follows the same structure and topics as the empirically tested MSC program, with content, focus, and language better geared towards our community.
Who is the facilitator?
It’s me, Mik! I’m a white queer and trans settler of Hungarian descent living and working on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ territories (Vancouver). I’m a Registered Social Worker practicing as a counsellor offering 1:1 and group counselling. I also work as a Social Worker in community healthcare where I run groups for trans preteens and their parents.
I get really nerdy about the transformative power of MSC for the 2SLGBTQ+ community – there are a lot of things keeping us as a community stuck in chronic shame, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and harsh self-judgment, and often very distant from our bodies and the present moment and MSC is the most powerful thing I’ve found to shift this. I believe in this work because I’ve seen the outcomes professionally and personally.
Registration process:
- Email me (mik@treelinecounselling.com) to reserve your spot
- We’ll schedule a quick intake chat to ensure fit and discuss your goals
- After the intake, e-transfer the fee to finalize registration
- Complete an intake form via JaneApp and receive handouts, resources, and the Zoom link!
What do others say about this?
“Beautifully tailored to the unique challenges of being queer and trans, this course gifted me with valuable tools that I can draw on now and as I continue to grow. Mik is a skilled facilitator who is able to connect the MSC curriculum to the queer and trans lived experiences in an impactful way. The beauty of this queer and trans specific course is that not only do the participants learn the standard MSC tools, but we also experience being seen and held by a loving community as we engage with them. 10/10 would recommend!” – RL
“I truly loved this course. It has taught me so much about the benefits of being kinder to myself. It’s hard for me to even express it in words, but I know it in my heart. My loved ones have also seen the benefits that this course has had on my wellbeing and mental health. I also truly appreciated the fact that this was a group for queers. I felt and benefited from being amongst this safe space and hope that we find a way to stay connected. I am going through a lot of personal struggles at the moment, and practicing Mindfulness Self Compassion has allowed me to explore my needs better and believe in myself more than I have ever in my life. I just have so much gratitude for this experience.” – JF
“MSC for LGBTQ+ folks was a really dreamy course! It offered a uniquely soft and tender container in which to learn (and unlearn) some challenging, but beautiful practices. The group was tended so mindfully and the environment that was cultivated was so nourishing.
Mik is a fantastic facilitator- they are warm, knowledgeable, and a true delight! I felt confident learning from them because I could see so clearly their personal and professional experience with MSC has led them to love and trust the practices- that got me excited about learning what they offered. I am one of those people who have always felt that I should start a MSC practice, but hadn’t found a space where I could feel safe and held.
In MSC for 2SLGBTQ+ folks, I felt that I could bring my full messy, hesitant, overwhelmed, stressed, queer and trans self so that I could really show up to grapple with the difficulties and joys of self compassion.” – DD
