The Journey to Self-Compassion: A Phenomenological Exploration of Women’s Lived Experience and Personal Meaning Making of Learning Self-Compassion

This study explores women’s lived experiences and meaning-making of learning and integrating self-compassion, following an 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) course. The objective of this research was to gain insight into women’s first person, subjective stories of learning self-compassion, and how this has impacted their daily lives. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology, the author interviewed 4 women who completed MSC within the past 4 months, with the author as the course facilitator. Findings indicate that learning self-compassion helped women cultivate greater non-judgmental awareness, self-acceptance, emotion regulation, positive self-talk and body image, compassionate listening, self-empowerment, self-soothing abilities, and a sense of connectedness through common humanity. This thesis discusses women’s processes of learning self-compassion, personal transformation experienced as a result of becoming more self-compassionate, and how women applied self-compassion in their daily lives. Discussion includes important considerations for future research and clinical counselling practice.