March 06, 2025

Lifting Depression Through Compassion with Rhoda Schuling

1 hour 9 minutes

Interview by Kevin Young. Produced by J'aime Rothbard.

In this deep dive into Compassion Training and Mindfulness, Rhoda openly shares how these approaches illuminated her own journey with depression. She highlights their transformative potential when applied to personal suffering in depression, and advises that they are not a cure-all. It's possible for people who take one or both forms of training to still experience depressive episodes afterwards. However, their newly developed tolerance for negative experiences often enables them to manage their episodes more effectively.

Throughout this conversation, Rhoda gently and thoughtfully explains how:

- Mindfulness practices can help individuals identify and understand their emotions

- True compassion arises from recognizing and experiencing our own and/or others' suffering

- Tonality and word choice affects peoples' perceptions of their experiences and emotions

- Group inquiries in Compassion Training enable people to learn from each other's experiences

- Compassion training teaches people to accept all of their emotions, including anger and sadness

Rhoda concludes this conversation by inviting us to look within ourselves and ask, "For whom do I reserve my best self?" Imagine what life would be like if we could reserve at least a portion of our best selves, for ourselves.

About Rhoda Schuling Mindfulness & Compassion Teacher (MBCL)

In her first Mindfulness training, Rhoda was immediately taken by the simplicity of being aware in the present moment, but struggled immensely with non-judgment. Despite this, she realized there was much to gain though delving into the truth of her heart and mind, and finding an authentic way to live. Most of all, she loved discussing what it is to be human.

She began attending Buddhist retreats regularly, totaling over 150 silent days. Most were Vipassana-oriented, but some were Insight Dialogue retreats. At this time, she also started training as a teacher for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

Rhoda began working as a PhD researcher under the supervision of professor Anne Speckens (Radboudumc) and professor Willem Kuyken (Oxford University), studying the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (MBCL) as a follow-up to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in adults suffering from recurrent depression. Having experienced depression herself, and finding recurrently depressed adults one of the most inspiring target populations for compassion, she remained captivated by this research for a decade.

As a researcher, she presented at conferences on mindfulness, compassion, meditation and healthy lifestyle, including the Mind, Body Unity Conference, the International Conference on Mindfulness, the Omega Institute and Mind and Life Europe, all the while deepening her understanding of mindfulness, compassion and psychotherapy.

Rhoda teaches full MBCL courses and the MBCL Teacher-Training Program. Very occasionally, she coaches individual clients. Her passions are yoga and running, and she is currently co-authoring a book on the courage of forgiveness.

Promotional Link: If you are curious about Compassionate Inquiry® and want to learn more about training in this approach, for your own self development or for your work with your coaching or therapy clients, please explore the Compassionate Inquiry® Professional Training Program. Registrations close March 30, 2025.

Resources: Website:

Rhoda's LinkedIn Profile