Overcome Perfectionism Through Self-Compassion - by Tara Cousineau, PhD

COURSE

Overcome Perfectionism Through Self-Compassion

With Tara Cousineau, PhD

Are you a perfectionist? Welcome to the club! The upside to perfectionism is that it’s how many of us get to where we are in life. The downside is the wealth of personal costs. This 10-day journey helps you reshape your relationship with perfectionism by asking: What’s the difference between perfectionism and striving for excellence? How much fear and anxiety is rooted in believing that you are never doing enough or not worthy enough? Each lesson explores a skill that can support you in understanding perfectionism with “kindsight.” Together, we will set the compass on a course of self-compassion—and what you will discover along the way may just surprise you.

StressStress & AnxietyVisualizationSelf-CompassionNeuroscienceSciencePsychologyAcceptanceHealth & HappinessHappinessLeadershipPerformanceSpiritualFreedom from SufferingLoveRelationshipsManifestation

Meet your Teacher

Tara Cousineau, PhD
Boston, MA, USA

Tara Cousineau, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and meditation teacher. She's the author of "The Kindness Cure: How the Science of Compassion Can Heal Your Heart and Your World" and "The Little Deck of Kindfulness." Tara is a staff psychologist at Harvard University's Counseling and Mental Health Services. She is dedicated to helping others be kinder to themselves and each other.

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10 Days

13.7k students

4.8 stars

16 min / day

Stress

English

Lesson 1

Healthy Vs. Unhealthy Perfectionism

In Lesson 1 we begin to understand our tricky brains and how our emotion motivation systems can cause inner conflicts—and how it’s not our fault. The human design is full of paradoxes! With the help of color coding our emotional responses, we can begin to observe why and when healthy striving might morph into unhealthy patterns, like perfectionism and self-criticism, and start to have more patience and understanding.

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Lesson 2

Befriending The Inner Critic

In Lesson 2, we begin to cultivate emotional courage and turn toward what is difficult with compassion. The term “kindsight” is introduced with an invitation to take a peek at what you beat yourself up about. Through a reflection exercise you will undercover an inner critical voice, which is key in understanding how to have a different relationship with perfectionism.

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Lesson 3

Cultivating A Compassionate Voice

In Lesson 3, we begin to cultivate a kind, wise and strong inner voice as an antidote to the harsher, self-critical voice. With insights from neuroscience, we begin to understand the negativity bias and how attention gets naturally hijacked by stressful experiences and threats, even those we imagine in our own minds.

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Lesson 4

Failing Forward With Love

In Lesson 4, we take a good look at the continuum of perfectionism, from healthy striving to unhealthy achievement. Tips from positive psychology offer a refreshing lense on how we can progress toward life goals (or not) and the mindset shift we need to make to living a rewarding and meaningful life. This activity invites you to create power statements to begin to shift your inner narratives when challenges arise.

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Lesson 5

Your Inner Safety-Net: Self-Compassion

Self-compassion can sound too soft for some. Yet the truth is that self-compassion is a powerful inner resource. In Lesson 5, we uncover the inherent strength in cultivating inner compassion. We also look at our resistance to it through the practice of “kindfulness.”

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Lesson 6

Befriending The Body

If you have perfectionistic tendencies you likely carry tension or pain in your body. You may even have hang-ups about your physical appearance. Plus, your speedy mind is constantly assessing and evaluating your place in the outside world, and it’s easy to ignore the emotions or sensations on the inside—until the body speaks up. Lesson 6 offers a visualization in finding relief and acceptance through kind attention to your body.

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Lesson 7

Creating A Positivity Bias

Lesson 7 addresses the question of “How do you grow inner strengths?” Cultivating self-compassion and other inner resources allows us to take in the goodness in life and recognize the goodness in ourselves. But often there is resistance or we forget the pleasant moments. Today’s positive neuroplasticity practice helps you notice what’s beneficial in your life and thereby neutralize the negativity bias.

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Lesson 8

Kindsight And Creating Upward Spirals

Lesson 8 explores the notion of kindsight, which arises when you experience moments that change how you look at the world, how you see the past, and how you imagine the future from an attitude of resilience. In this way, journaling gives structure and meaning to life’s experiences. Writing can also have positive effects on overall wellbeing. The activity involves writing a special type of letter and it may just surprise you when you read it.

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Lesson 9

Course Correcting With Core Values

Lesson 9 reveals how a compassion-oriented approach allows you to see the difference between compassionate self-improvement and fear-based self-criticism. By seeing your life as a journey and creating a mental map, you have a choice about which roads you can travel to pursue your dreams, desires and goals. Core values are the keys to your map and help you stay the course.

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Lesson 10

Your Heart’s Compass

This final lesson offers a compassionate visualization helping you to integrate the teaching in this course, savor your progress, open your heart, and immerse yourself in loving awareness. Let your inner wise voice offer words of encouragement and care as you continue to practice self-compassion in your daily life, which will serve as an antidote to moments of self-judgment.

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Ask your teacher

This course includes 83 community questions and 17 audio replies from Tara Cousineau, PhD. The community classroom and teacher audio replies are only available via the app.

83

4.8 (640)

Recent Reviews

Meredith

January 23, 2026

I found this to be very helpful in my work toward becoming more compassionate with myself.

Anna

April 12, 2025

Loved this course. Thank you!

Nikolai

October 9, 2024

Blew my expectations out of the water. Truly loved it!

Emma

October 9, 2023

So informative, inspirational and real. I certainly gained new tools to deal with perfectionism and the inner-critic. Thanks for this beautiful offering 🙏🏼❤️

Charlotte

September 11, 2023

This course was unique and so beneficial for developing strategies and tools to manage my anxiety and perfectionist tendencies!

Tracy-Michelle

September 7, 2023

Beautiful course 🙏

Matt

August 30, 2023

Loved this course! Throughout the lessons, I’ve learned so many tools to counteract my feeling of not being enough, and for that I’m extremely grateful. Thank you so much for all your help! Everyone should take this class!

Noora

August 27, 2023

This course was rich with different perspectives of beating perfectionism. Lots to take in, in a good way. Thank you!

Winnie

June 28, 2023

I think this course will be life-changing for me. I plan to revisit. I agree with the others commenting on the pace of the lovely speech, though. It's very fast. I wish I could listen at 85% speed. Thank you so much for this offering. I won't spoil the last couple of minutes, but they are repeating in my head. Very touching.

Geoffrey

May 7, 2023

Tidy little packages of wisdom.

Renee

April 19, 2023

Many thanks 🙏🏼

Robert

March 29, 2023

Wonderful. Thank you!

Aviad

January 30, 2023

A helpful course given in a friendly and warm manner.

Shelagh

October 29, 2022

Great course. Very empowering.

Theresa

June 15, 2022

This course crossed my path at a time when I most needed to learn more self compassion. I learned so much and felt fed by every lesson. I highly recommend it if you are struggling with self doubt and perfectionism!

Sue

June 2, 2022

In gratitude, this is what I needed!

El

February 16, 2022

Great course, references and stories. It was too much information for me so I got lost a bit, but I would still recommend the course to anyone interested in self-compassion.

Anne

January 12, 2022

I’ve struggled with my inner critic since I was a young girl. Maybe I thought this negative talk was a motivator to be successful. However, over the years as my success grew I still felt all of the shame and judgement I did as a young women. That’s when I knew I needed to change my inner dialog. This course helped guide me to focus more on my Inner Compassionate Being rather than my Inner Critic.

Maria

December 5, 2021

First off, your voice is beautiful- so kind and soothing. Secondly, these words are what I needed to hear- I beat myself up so much that I am completely exhausted and beaten down. I know that I have so much to offer. I am reminded of that by so many. I challenge myself to be positive instead of negative and I am strong enough to accept this challenge. Thank you! I am a child of the universe indeed 🙏❤️

Asa

November 5, 2021

Rarely do I take a course that I get as much out of it the first time as I did this one. This course opened up my eyes to look at a way of being that I chose 50 years ago that doesn’t serve me well. By lesson 4, I was seeing things differently and giving myself compassion that enlivened my being. All of this without fully doing the exercises that are encouraged to do. This is a course to correct your course in life. I’m grateful for your contribution to the universe! To be continued!

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