This six-session online course explores the experience of living with chronic pain through reflection, discussion, and practical skill-building.
Drawing on mind-body awareness and mindfulness practices, participants learn to recognize automatic patterns of response to discomfort and develop more skillful ways of relating to pain. The course emphasizes discernment around control, adaptive responses to uncertainty and change, and effective communication in the context of invisible illness. Attention is also given to the psychosocial dimensions of chronic pain, including loneliness, connection, and shared human vulnerability. The program concludes with practical tools for integrating balanced self-care and relational care to support resilience and overall well-being.
Week by Week
- Week 1: Balancing the doing and being modes of mind. Noticing automatic habitual reactions and developing mindful-mediated responses to pain.
- Week 2: Moving from complaining to discerning by focusing on what is within our control.
- Week 3: Moving from wanting certainty to embracing change by meeting impermanence with openness and steadiness.
- Week 4: Moving from being invisible to communicating clearly by expressing capacities and needs with integrity and respect.
- Week 5: Moving from feeling lonely to recognizing our common humanity by tapping into our shared human vulnerability and cultivating empathy and connection.
- Week 6: Practicing receiving and giving care. Integrating balance and compassion into daily life.
Session Components
The class meets every other week for two hours. Each session includes a guided meditation, a brief introduction to the day’s theme, and small group conversations modeled on Parker Palmer’s circles of trust. These groups offer a supportive, non-judgmental space to explore the theme more deeply, reflect on personal experience, listen deeply, and learn from others. Sessions conclude with a whole-group discussion to foster reflection, connection, and belonging.
Details
- When: Every other Monday from February 9 to April 20, 2026: February 9 and 23, March 9 and 23, and April 6 and 20.
- Time: 3–5 pm PST
- Where: Online, live via Zoom
- Cost: $295.
- Facilitator: Valeria Galetto
- Note: Primarily for those who have completed UCSF’s Mindfulness for Healing Chronic Pain, though people with previous mindfulness training are welcome.
Space is limited. To register or for more information: inf.samma.sati@gmail.com
* The image above features artwork by Federico Uribe from the exhibition Metamorphosis at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
Samma Sati 