Mindfulness Teacher
Christopher Germer
Clinical psychologist and co-founder of mindful self-compassion training
- Mindful self-compassion
- Mindfulness and psychotherapy
- Self-compassion practice
- Working with shame and self-criticism
- Clinical psychology
- Compassion-based training
Christopher Germer is a clinical psychologist and a part-time Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he has long taught and supervised clinical trainees through the Cambridge Health Alliance. He is best known as the co-developer, with researcher Kristin Neff, of the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program, an evidence-based training that brings together mindfulness and self-compassion and is now taught in many languages around the world. Below you'll find Christopher Germer's practices and teachings shared on Mindfulness Exercises.
Germer earned his PhD in clinical psychology from Temple University and has maintained a private psychotherapy practice since 1985. Much of his work centers on integrating mindfulness and compassion into clinical care, helping people meet difficult emotions, shame, and self-criticism with a kinder, more accepting attitude.
In 2010 he and Kristin Neff co-developed the Mindful Self-Compassion program. With Neff he co-authored The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook, Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program, and Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout, and he is the author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion and Self-Compassion for Shame.
Germer has also helped shape how mindfulness and compassion are taught within psychotherapy. He co-edited Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, two widely used volumes that explore how contemplative practice can support clinical work and emotional healing.