FAQ:

$650/person (which breaks down to about $27/hr).
In this economy!? Accessibility is important to me, so don’t hesitate to ask about 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!

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. If you are not sure if your insurance will cover this, your best bet is to call them first to confirm.

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.

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.

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.

Queer MSC groups are reserved for folks who are in the 2SLGBTQ+ community, however I occasionally offer groups for the general population - reach out to get on the waitlist!

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.

1) Book an intake chat to ensure fit and discuss your goals

2) After the intake, e-transfer to finalize registration

3) Complete an intake form via JaneApp and receive handouts, resources and the Zoom link