Wendy Saunders
I'm passionate about compassion! I've been a certified CBCT teacher since 2014 and have facilitated CBCT (as well as its K-12 companion, SEE Learning®), with organizational leaders and staff, educators, healthcare workers, community members, teens, and youth. For the past couple of years, I've also been honored to co-teach CBCT for breast cancer survivors and their supportive partners in the University of AZ Breast Cancer SUPORT study. I began my professional career with the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles in 1996 and served as an executive director leading multiple branches before transitioning to the national organization, YMCA of the USA, where I served as Senior Manager of Leadership Development. In this role, I ran executive development programs for YMCA leaders across the country and embedded mindfulness and compassion-related content and practices into leadership curriculum. In 2012, I produced a white paper, “Beyond Civility: Growing Compassionate Love in Communities,” which was published in YMCA of the USA’s Journal of Community Strengthening and I have since given hundreds of talks and workshops on cultivating compassion individually and in communities and organizations. I facilitated a culture change project with a large non-profit organization to bring more compassion into their leadership practices. I currently serve as the Director of Training & Organizational Development at the Ventura County Community College District, where I'm integrating compassion and care into systemwide organizational development and embedding mindfulness and compassion into offerings for faculty, staff, and administrators. I live in Southern California and spend much of my free time with my family, including my Australian Shepherd, Max!
This Training Compassion for Business and Leadership course offers the full CBCT® (Cognitively Based Compassion Training) program designed to help professionals and leaders build resilience, regulate emotions, and cultivate compassionate leadership within organizational contexts. Through a structured sequence of modules, the course provides practical techniques to enhance teamwork, trust, and effectiveness while fostering a caring workplace culture. Each module includes reflective exercises, guided practices, and real-world applications tailored to the personal and professional lives of business and leadership professionals.
Introduction
Begin the compassion training journey. In the Overview, we deepen our understanding of what compassion is, why it is valuable, and CBCT's approach to training it. We explore the relationship between compassion and resilience and engage in practices to strengthen self-regulation skills.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Insight Activity 1: Setting Goals
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 2: Connecting to Compassion
Lesson 4: Storytelling | A True Story of Compassion
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 3: What Keeps us in Our Zone of Wellbeing
Lesson 6: Self-assessment & Settling Practice
Lesson 7: Informal Practice
Lesson 8: Wrap-up
Module 1
Build a strong foundation and strengthen motivation. In Module 1, we connect to nurturing moments to elicit feelings of safety and deepen our appreciation for compassion. This module is considered foundational to CBCT, as it supports both the resilience and the motivation to train compassion.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: Connecting to a Moment of Nurturance
Lesson 4: Storytelling | LaTonya’s Story – The Power of Nurturance
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 2: Making Visible the Value of Kindness
Lesson 6: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 7: Informal Practice
Lesson 8: Wrap-up
Module 2
Learn practices to improve focus and resilience. In Module 2, we learn to hold our attention where we choose. We train the emotion regulation strategy of attention deployment, as we strengthen the ability to notice when attention is pulled, to redirect it, and to keep it where we want it to be.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: What's at Stake?
Lesson 4: Storytelling | Bringing Attention Where it’s Needed
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 2: Attention Deployment
Lesson 6: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 7: Informal Practice
Lesson 8: Wrap-up
Module 3
Develop the skill of non-judgmental awareness. In Module 3, we learn to refrain from projecting, cultivate greater insight into our mental and emotional habits and gain greater flexibility in how we respond to them. This emotion regulation strategy is sometimes called self-distancing.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: Catching the Spark
Lesson 4: Storytelling | Becoming Aware of Mental Patterns
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 2: Examining Our Emotional Scripts
Lesson 6: Insight Activity 3: Non-judgmental Awareness
Lesson 7: Insight Activity 4: Starting with Sensations
Lesson 8: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 9: Informal Practice
Lesson 10: Wrap-up
Module 4
Respond to setbacks and vulnerabilities with understanding and kindness. In Module 4, we employ the emotion regulation strategy of cognitive reappraisal to uproot patterns of excessive self-critism and harsh self-blame and foster greater understanding and kindness toward ourselves.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: Talking to a Friend
Lesson 4: Deeper Dive | Unpacking Self-Compassion
Lesson 5: Storytelling | The Tale of Kisa Gotami
Lesson 6: Insight Activity 2: I'm Not The Only One
Lesson 7: Insight Activity 3: Making Strengths Visible
Lesson 8: Insight Activity 4: What We Can (and Cannot) Control
Lesson 9: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 10: Informal Practice
Lesson 11: Wrap-up
Module 5
Strengthen the ability to find meaning in challenges and vulnerabilities. In Module 5, we tap into self-agency by reappraisaing our setbacks, seeing them as opportunities for growth. In doing so, we offset feelings of helplessness and despair and foster a genuine sense of empowerment.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: Opportunities for Growth
Lesson 4: Storytelling | Making Meaning from Adversity
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 2: Connecting to Our Values
Lesson 6: Insight Activity 3: Adversity as a Gateway to Empathy and Compassion
Lesson 7: Insight Activity 4: Making Self-agency Visible
Lesson 8: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 9: Informal Practice
Lesson 10: Wrap-up
Module 6
Extend a sense of connection to a widening group of people. In Module 6, we use cognitive reappraisal to identify with others and soften the hard line between ingroup and outgroup. We turn our attention from self to other to foster healthier relationships and more meaningful connections.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: Step In, Step Out
Lesson 4: Storytelling | Seeing Humanity in Others
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 2: Connecting through Our Shared Human Condition
Lesson 6: Insight Activity 3: Distinguishing the Act from the Actor
Lesson 7: Insight Activity 4: Appreciating Diversity
Lesson 8: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 9: Informal Practice
Lesson 10: Wrap-up
Module 7
Expand warm-heartedness to include a widening circle of people. In Module 7, we deepen awareness of our interdependence with others to dramatically expand feelings of gratitude and tenderness. Reflecting on the benefits of other-oriented attitudes strengthens our capacity for genuine connection.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: Connecting to Feelings of Gratitude and Tenderness
Lesson 4: Storytelling | Making the Shift Towards Gratitude
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 2: Seeing that We Depend on Others
Lesson 6: Insight Activity 3: The Web of Interdependence
Lesson 7: Insight Activity 4: Reducing Narrow Self-focus
Lesson 8: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 9: Informal Practice
Lesson 10: Wrap-up
Module 8
Tap into compassion to make a difference. In Module 8, we combine tenderness with an awareness of what others are up against to strengthen our motivation to act. By deepening our understanding of others' struggles, we strengthen our perseverance and ability to make a real difference.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Insight Activity 1: The Two Keys to Compassion
Lesson 4: Storytelling | Can I Give Him My Eyes?
Lesson 5: Insight Activity 2: What are They Up Against
Lesson 6: Insight Activity 3: The Most Pressing Concern in Your Community, Society or World
Lesson 7: Insight Activity 4: Creating a Ripple Effect
Lesson 8: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 9: Informal Practice
Lesson 10: Wrap-up
Module 9
Continue the journey. In What's Next, we review the progress we have made, reflect on the CBCT skills, perspectives, and practices that we have found helpful, and set the intention to carry them forward. We chart our own path to bring compassion into being and an uncover our best next steps.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Objective
Lesson 3: Review
Lesson 4: Insight Activity: Setting Intentions
Lesson 5: Self-assessment & Formal Practice
Lesson 6: Wrap-up
