The Experiential Project
For thirteen weeks you do two things at once: practice self-compassion, and observe yourself practicing it like the psychologist you're training to be. One question drives everything: when the research literature makes predictions about what self-compassion practice does, what actually happened for you?
You are not graded on becoming more self-compassionate. Practices land differently for different people — that variability is one of the most interesting findings in this literature — and an honest journal documenting a practice that felt flat, or even backfired, can earn full marks. Engagement, care, and curiosity are the graded quantities.
The four pieces
| Piece | Weight | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Practice journal | 20% | Daily practice log (10–15 min/day, ≥4 days/week) + one structured weekly reflection (250–400 words). Entries lock weekly; two grace weeks. Handwritten bonus: +2 course points fully handwritten, +1 mostly. |
| Presentation | 20% | The capstone: a 10–12 minute conference-style talk + Q&A, last class or the finals session. |
| Synthesis memo | 5% | 2–3 pages (APA 7) + references, due in hand at your talk: your talk's claims, the evidence for each, full citations. |
| Milestones | 5% | M1 baseline (wk 2) · M2 plan (wk 4) · M3 midpoint + SCS retest (wk 7). |
The weekly reflection — standing prompts
Answer all three, every week: (1) What did you notice this week — body, emotion, thought, behavior? (2) How does it connect — or fail to connect — to something from class or the readings this week? Name the concept or study and use it correctly. (3) What will you try or adjust next week?
Weekly rubric (10 pts): log complete and plausible (3) · reflection addresses all three prompts with specificity (4) · genuine, accurate connection to course material (3).
Privacy: write at whatever depth you choose — "worked with a difficult memory" is plenty. Your instructor is the only reader, and nothing from journals is discussed in class without your explicit invitation.
The presentation (the capstone)
Treat it the way a researcher treats a conference talk. A strong talk contains: your practice story, including flat stretches and detours — those are data; your SCS trajectory (baseline → midpoint → final), honestly caveated; at least four course sources, at least two empirical, used accurately; and the single most interesting point of contact — or friction — between your experience and the literature. Friction often makes the better talk. You choose your depth of disclosure entirely: an excellent talk can stay at the level of concepts and patterns.
Slides: 5–8, uncluttered, supporting rather than replacing you. Q&A counts — know your sources.
Rubric (100 pts): narrative arc (20) · sources — ≥4 course sources, ≥2 empirical, accurate and substantive (25) · experience–literature integration incl. N=1 humility (20) · delivery — speaking, not reading (15) · slide quality (10) · Q&A (10).
The caveat paragraph every strong talk contains
Your study is N = 1, with no control group, self-report outcomes, and a researcher who hopes the intervention works, is the participant, and is graded on engagement. Say this unprompted. Your journal holds real signal — patterns, moments, mechanisms felt from the inside — but it cannot hold proof. Calibration, not despair: it's the most scientist-sounding minute of your talk.
The synthesis memo (5%)
2–3 pages, APA 7, plus a reference list — due in hand at your talk. State your talk's two or three central claims, the evidence behind each (journal excerpts, SCS scores, cited findings), and full references for every source used. Rubric (25 pts): claims match the talk, stated precisely (10) · evidence honestly summarized (8) · APA 7 correct (7).
Milestones
M1 — Baseline (week 2, in class). Take and score the SCS; write a half-page: your subscale profile (the shape matters more than the number), what surprised you, two realistic semester goals.
M2 — Plan (week 4). One page: which practices you'll emphasize, your schedule, what the literature predicts you might notice, and one thing you're skeptical about.
M3 — Midpoint (week 7). Retake the SCS at home first. One to two pages: journal patterns so far, midpoint vs. baseline — with an honest paragraph on why single-subject pre/post is weak evidence (expectancy, reactivity, regression to the mean) — and course corrections.
Final SCS: at home, before your talk — the trajectory slide's third point.
The fine print
Every practice is optional every time; substituting mindful breathing is always acceptable and never penalized. The backdraft protocol is your seatbelt. The journal must reflect real practice — fabricating a contemplative log is both an integrity violation and a spectacularly ironic way to fail a self-compassion course. And in this course, the honest "it didn't work" is an A answer.