KRISTIN NEFF - SELF- COMPASSION

Kristin was recently featured in the best-selling book and award-winning documentary called The Horse Boy – www.horseboymovie.com - which chronicles her family’s adventure with autism.Kristin studied communications as an undergraduate at the University of California at Los Angeles. She did her graduate work at University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D., 1997), studying moral development.Her dissertation research was conducted in Mysore, India, where she examined children’s moral reasoning. She then spent two years of post-doctoral study with Dr. Susan Harter at Denver University, studying issues of authenticity and self- concept development.During Kristin’s last year of graduate school in 1997 she became interested in Buddhism. Compassion is a central construct in Buddhist psychology.She has developed an 8-week program to teach self-compassion skills. The program, co-created with her colleague Chris Germer at Harvard University, is called Mindful Self-Compassion. Her book titled "Self-Compassion"  in April, 2011.