Kristin Neff, PhD

Kristin Neff, PhD received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, studying moral development. She did two years of postdoctoral study at the University of Denver studying self-concept development. She is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. During Dr. Neff’s last year of graduate school, she became interested in Buddhism and started practicing self-compassion. While doing her post-doctoral work she decided to conduct research on the construct, which had not yet been examined empirically. She developed a theory and created a scale to measure self-compassion more than 20 years ago. Dr. Neff has written numerous academic articles and book chapters on the topic and has been recognized as one of the most influential scholars in the field of psychology. Well over 5000 studies have been conducted on self-compassion since her seminal articles were first published in 2003.

In addition to her academic work, she is author of the books Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, and Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive. In conjunction with her colleague Dr. Chris Germer, she has developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful Self-Compassion, which is taught by thousands of teachers worldwide. She is co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, which offers self-compassion training in a variety of forms. Drs. Neff and Germer co-authored The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook, Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals, and in Sept 2024 their latest book will be published, Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout: How to Heal and Recharge When You’re Wrung Out by Stress.

For more information on self-compassion, including a self-compassion test, guided practices, and the Self-Compassion Community, go to www.self-compassion.org.