Stress Management

Mindful Preparation and Integration for Psychedelic Interventions is an 8-week course that blends mindfulness training with education on the science of psychedelics. Participants learn to use mindfulness as a foundation for approaching professionally led psychedelic experiences with clarity, presence, and intention.

The course provides practical tools for preparation and integration, supporting stress reduction, inner exploration, and personal growth. Sessions combine mindfulness practices with evidence-based education to help participants make meaning from insights and apply them to daily life.

What You’ll Learn

• Build practical skills for self-reflection, emotional regulation, and mindfulness.
• Learn integration strategies to safely and effectively apply insights to personal growth.
• Understand benefits, risks, and harm reduction considerations related to psychedelic use.
• Develop greater self-awareness of emotions, beliefs, and behavior patterns.
• Explore cultural, societal, and ethical factors that shape choices and experiences.

Who Should Participate

• People interested in mindfulness-based interventions and their relationship with classical psychedelic plant medicine.
• People contemplating psychedelic-assisted therapy who want skills to manage perceptions and emotions.
• People seeking ways to sustain the impact of psychedelic-assisted therapies through integration practices.

Legal and Ethical Education

This course strictly adheres to all relevant local, national, and international laws regarding controlled substances. Educational content about substances such as psilocybin is provided for informational and academic purposes only and does not constitute encouragement or promotion of illegal use.

The curriculum emphasizes factual, evidence-based information and ethical decision-making, prioritizing safety, well-being, and legal compliance.

Schedule and Registration

Note: CFM requires a minimum of 10 registrants per program. Classes with fewer than 10 registrants will be cancelled and provided a refund. Please be aware of this when making arrangements to attend this program.

Join us online for a 5-week deep dive into guided meditation with iRest Yoga Nidra. iRest is a meditation practice based on the ancient tradition of Yoga Nidra and adapted to suit the conditions of modern life.

This course is designed to help you meet each moment with greater well-being. Through guided meditation and discussion, participants build a personal resource toolbox that can support better sleep, clarity when experiencing difficult sensations or emotions, navigating stress and anxiety, and reconnecting with a sense of joy and balance.

No previous meditation or yoga experience is required. This inclusive, accessible course welcomes both new and experienced practitioners. Each series is adapted to the class, and each session is unique.

What You’ll Learn

• Nurture resilience, inner peace, and well-being.
• Integrate mindfulness and meditation into daily life.
• Use strategies for navigating stress, anxiety, and challenging emotions.
• Experience deep relaxation and a greater sense of safety and balance.
• Reconnect with your essential wholeness and remember your true nature.
• Apply the 10-step iRest protocol in your own life.
• Support self-regulation and inner calm.
• Use practices that promote restful sleep and relaxation.

Who Should Participate

This course is for everyone. New and experienced practitioners are welcome and will benefit from the class.

Schedule and Registration

Note: CFM requires a minimum of 10 registrants per program. Classes with fewer than 10 registrants will be cancelled and provided a refund. Please be aware of this when making arrangements to attend this program.

The sessions will be recorded and available for a limited time. You must register to receive these recordings each week.

Orientation Recording

Watch the orientation session recording

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an evidence-based, 8-week program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn that helps participants build mindfulness skills to relate differently to stress, health concerns, and everyday challenges.

Through weekly sessions that include guided meditation, mindful movement, and inquiry, participants learn to cultivate greater awareness, compassion, and steadiness. The program supports developing the ability to respond with more choice rather than reacting on autopilot.

Who Should Participate

MBSR is for people experiencing stress or ongoing life challenges who want practical tools to support well-being. Participants often join with concerns such as:

• Stress, anxiety, worry, or low mood
• Chronic pain or chronic medical conditions
• Sleep disturbance
• Headaches, hypertension, or grief and loss
• Relationship challenges

All-Day Session

As part of the program, participants attend a teacher-led all-day silent retreat (typically between weeks 6 and 7). This is an opportunity to practice what you have been learning—such as sitting meditation, mindful movement, and walking meditation—in a supportive, spacious setting.

Free Orientation Session

Please watch the recording of our MBSR Orientation Session to learn about the origins and evidence-based foundations of MBSR, experience a brief practice, and review the class structure and participation guidelines.

Orientation session recording: Orientation Session Recording Here

Passcode: we.g#3D5

Note: All UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness MBSR graduates are invited to join an upcoming all-day session for free by registering here: Register HERE.

Note: CFM requires a minimum of 10 registrants per program. Classes with fewer than 10 registrants will be cancelled and provided a refund. Please be aware of this when making arrangements to attend this program.

There are moments in everyday life that shape what happens next: how we interpret events, react, and move forward. What if you could recognize those turning points earlier, before stress or reactivity takes over, and use them to return to clarity and calm?

Deeper Mindfulness is an innovative 8-week course that blends mindfulness meditation with neuroscience to explore “feeling tone”: the subtle emotional backdrop that colors experience. Feeling tone can be the tipping point into habitual reactions, and learning to notice it sooner can help you regain balance in a chaotic world.

This course is designed for those who want to deepen their mindfulness practice beyond Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), or other mindfulness-based programs.

What You’ll Learn

• Recognize feeling tone and how it influences thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
• Strengthen self-regulation during stress and difficult emotions.
• Reduce reactivity and respond with greater clarity and intention.
• Apply mindfulness skills in everyday personal and professional situations.
• Create a sustainable plan to deepen and continue mindfulness practice.

Who Should Participate

This course is for participants seeking to deepen their mindfulness journey after completing MBCT, MBSR, or another mindfulness-based program.

If you cannot attend the first session or expect to miss two sessions, we recommend waiting for the next offering.

This Course Includes

• Eight weekly, 2-hour classes that include discussion, meditation, and inquiry.
• Home practice: 10–30 minutes of daily guided meditation, plus instructions for everyday mindfulness.

Note: This course is for personal learning and practice and does not provide facilitator training.

The Short Course in Mindful Self-Compassion (SC-MSC) is a six-week adaptation of the empirically supported eight-week Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program, designed to introduce the core skills of self-compassion with a reduced time commitment. Developed by Kristin Neff, PhD, a pioneering researcher in self-compassion, and Christopher Germer, PhD, a leader in mindfulness- and compassion-based psychotherapy, SC-MSC offers a focused and accessible entry point into this work.

Most of us readily offer compassion to close friends when they are struggling. SC-MSC invites participants to explore what it might be like to extend that same care and understanding to themselves. Self-compassion involves learning to comfort and soothe ourselves, and to motivate ourselves with encouragement rather than self-criticism, particularly when we experience suffering, failure, or feelings of inadequacy. By recognizing our shared humanity, we learn to include ourselves in the circle of compassion we naturally offer to others.

The program draws on mindfulness skills and emphasizes cultivating self-compassion as a resource for emotional wellbeing. Research increasingly shows that self-compassion is associated with greater emotional resilience, improved coping with life challenges, lower levels of anxiety and depression, healthier habits, and more satisfying personal relationships. It is an inner strength that allows us to respond to difficulty with greater clarity, balance, and care.

Self-compassion is a learnable skill, even for those who did not develop these capacities earlier in life. Program activities include short talks, experiential exercises, group discussion, and home practices. Participants will explore habitual responses to difficulty and learn practical tools for becoming a warm and supportive companion to themselves. Meditation experience is not required. This program is open to the general public and welcomes participants of all backgrounds. You must be 18 years or older to enroll.

Note: A minimum of 10 registrants is required to run the program. Programs with fewer than 10 registrants will be cancelled and refunded.

The UCSD Center for Mindfulness offers a transformative 6-week online program designed specifically for workplace professionals in both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. The Mindful Performance and Resilience @ Work program equips participants with practical tools to combat burnout and restore balance in their professional and personal lives.

Through highly experiential, interactive sessions, you'll learn to sharpen focus and manage distractions, and break free from autopilot reactions to make goal-aligned decisions.

With self-awareness, you can recognize your limiting judgments and cultivate curiosity to shift from a fixed mindset to one of growth and innovation.

Develop self-compassion and empathy for yourself and colleagues. Learn strategies for having more mindful, compassionate conversations that enhance workplace relationships.

Grounded in neuroscience and designed for immediate application, this program empowers you to build sustainable resilience and perform at your best while maintaining well-being.