About Kristin

Kristin Neff, PhD, received her bachelors from the University of Los Angeles in communication studies and her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in moral development.  She did two years of postdoctoral study at the University of Denver researching self-concept development. She then became an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

During Kristin’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, and has written numerous academic articles and book chapters on the topic. Well over 10,000 studies have been conducted on self-compassion by various scholars since her seminal articles were first published in 2003.

Kristin is also the best-selling author of the books Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, and Fierce Self-Compassion: How to Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Your Power, and Thrive. In conjunction with her colleague Dr. Chris Germer, she developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful Self-Compassion and co-founded the nonprofit Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, which offers self-compassion training in a variety of formats.  They also co-authored The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook , Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals, and Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout: Tools to Help You Heal and Recharge When You’re Wrung Out by Stress.

Following her academic career, Kristin founded the Self-Compassion Institute, an organization dedicated to helping people learn self-compassion skills in an accessible way. She continues to share the transformative power of self-compassion through talks, podcasts, and workshops worldwide.